Letter From P. JAY FLEISHER

No Future For Plastics

To the Editor:

Every few weeks I wait with wonder, “what flavor cool-aid is he drinking now?” And, sure enough, Mike Zagata brought me up to date. Last week’s column told me just how far out of touch he is on virtually all matters related to science.

His latest entry (“Better Living Through Plastics”) touts the virtues of plastic and the petroleum industry that provides it, and wouldn’t you know this month’s edition of Consumer’s Report contains detailed coverage of the problems/hazards plastics pose for the global society. All of which is founded in solid science.

Get with the program, Mike. Plastics are a thing of the past – like telephone booths and black & white television. We are heading into a new age, one free of plastics and free of the oil and gas industry they depend on.

Plastic bottles hold everything from water to mustard, all frozen food packaging, the micro chips in your computer, the fenders on your car – they sure are convenient but they also endanger our health, our environment and are deadly to marine organisms.

Right now there are three permanently floating islands in the Pacific so big they can be seen from outer space – all made entirely of plastic trash, the same trash that endangers marine life. In fact, micro particles of plastic has been found in sediment at the bottom of the ocean, as well in some foods we eat.

It’s pretty simple – plastic is bad for the living environment – like the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.

John Muir’s birthday was two weeks ago. He was the guy who, 100 years ago, taught us that it is impossible to touch anything without touching everything – within Earth’s environment everything is connected.

Having attended hundreds of science conferences at which new, creative and imaginative concepts are introduced and ultimately peer reviewed for publication, I am confident that science, if unimpeded by political bias, will lead to a brighter, healthier and innovative future.

I trust science and imaginative engineering to replace jet fuel with something equally volatile – a fuel that will allow us to end our dependency on the oil industry, yet support airline travel in the future. It’s coming Mike, along with electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels.

Our grandchildren’s grandchildren will look back on the current society as primitive and wonder how we could possibly have claimed intelligence, yet ignore the ongoing biggest global hazard – the biggest hazard of all – man’s contribution to climate change.

P. JAY FLEISHER
Geologist
Oneonta