Yes, we have many things to be scared about. My worry I guess isn't so much for myself but for the planet and the truly helpless and powerless.
Should never have got to this stage - I watched a programme on this massive problem and was shocked to the core. I will never come to terms with ignorance on this massive scale
If anyone is interested another monster is Palm Oil. I stopped using it last summer. While I've been eating plant based over 10 years and used to reading labels, this really threw me. It's in everything, even in health food stores. Most bar soap. But I'm done with it and won't go back to it's use.
Quote Kitty - We have had the technology to destroy we can have to technology to start repairing Yes of course we do, I'm not very optimistic though as this has gone on so long now and so much damage done
Palm oil is in many things and not always clearly labeled as "Palm Oil". Sometimes labeled as vegetable oil. Etc.
@Kitty Carmel Kitty, there actually has been some progress made regarding the proliferation of plastics. First, there are now a great many more types of them, graded as to suitability for containment of a wide range of products. One of the earliest, Nylon, is still around, but used less and less nowadays. Polyethylene, "PE", is the material your gallon milk containers are made of. More chemical resistant, High Density PE, HDPE, can withstand concentrated Hydrochloric Acid, so is used for "Pool Acid" containers; previously, only glass sufficed. Polyvinyl Chloride, PVC, is another early one. Polypropylene, PP, was extremely expensive initially, yet is now widely used for food storage containers, with those nice snap-on lids. Polyacrylic, PA, is used to make motor and gear-oil resistant seals for rotating parts. Then, there's Teflon, widely appreciated and deeply hated, useful nonetheless. Recently, it has become widely-known that a dangerous substance, Bis-Phenol A, BPA, is used to manufacture those milk jugs, among zillions of other things. BPA is a Human Endocrine-Disrupting chemical, IOW, BAD, like PCB and DDT. While we're discussing deleterious effects on animal life, we humans are poisoning ourselves, too! But I did say progress. Many plastics last forever, so tossed into the environment as garbage after their use, they tend to remain intrusive very long. Today, plastics commonly used in everyday products are being compounded in ways that allow them to deteriorate in the environment. Further, bacteria are being discovered which actually eat plastics, akin to @Ken Anderson 's post. By now, you think I love plastics? No, I hate them, particularly those gossamer-thin bags produce is brought home in. My arthritic fingers have much difficulty with those bags; that's only one contributing factor. Frank
This is true. I'm avoiding the vague vegetable oil. Most food items will label the actual oil. I'm buying soap on Etsy, from palm oil free dedicated shops only. It's an expense but not that bad and I can swing it. I bought two bars yesterday from a repeat shop and one bar trying a new shop.
@Frank Sanoica You are certainly smarter and more knowledgeable than me. And plastic is so unavoidable it seems. I do think there should be ways to get it out of and keep it out of the ocean. Even if a natural disaster like a Tsunami occurs which will pull things of all sorts into the ocean. As far as plastic containers go for home food storage, I'd like to switch over to glass. Right now I don't have a lot of room and I'm still using the BPA free containers. But I never heat them in the microwave. I'm trying to buy foods in glass vs. plastic such as nut butters. "Once Again" brand is really good, a little more expensive but glass containers and I like supporting smaller companies. But this damn plastic is about unavoidable when shopping. It goes in the trash landfills but we have to keep in out of the ocean. The destruction and suffering is severe.
I think there is a lower instance in liquid soap of palm oil. I've read some liquid soap labels. I'm thinking it might be the harder dense bar soap it's preferred for and in just about every commercial soap I've read.
I much prefer glass or ceramic to plastic, but I like the plastic grocery bags, largely because I use them to bag empty cat food cans and other things that would smell up the trash can otherwise, but also because I can carry a week's worth of groceries in in one trip, and I can't do that with paper and I refuse to shop at a grocery store where I have to bring my own bags.