The emphasis many countries take is to focus on car owners and drivers by taxing private commuters to death, with dubious environmental gains outside of increasing state income. Meanwhile one cargo ship or cruise liner arguably pollutes way more than millions(!) of cars. I'm not sure that's a great route to take politically, no pun intended. They seem to go for the lowest hanging cash grab before going after those where it's actually the easiest to get the biggest gains in terms of environment and actually lowering of negative emissions.
> The emphasis many countries take is to focus on car owners and drivers by taxing private commuters to death, with dubious environmental gains outside of increasing state income.
There was a study that came out a while ago that showed the majority of pollution in Los Angeles came from commercial trucks, likely involved in shipping and delivery. I think I also read that those trucks and the type involved in construction have extremely loose pollution controls and requirements. Many of them might be exempt or grandfathered in to current regulations.
Is that true? I’m seeing that cruise ships emit a lot of particulates (namely sulphur dioxide), but the actual co2-equivalent numbers I’m seeing are 0.8t/passenger for cruise ships - which is bad, but not quite as bad as described in your post.
Same with garbage bags and plastic straws. Stuff comes in stores absolutely wrapped in tons of plastic and they go and ban plastic straws. Not to mention stuff that's triple wrapped (sweets for example).
Plastic straws are social media outrage about a tortoise and has no significant impact on global warming. People upset about plastic in the ocean should be focused on ghost fishing nets.
Plastic straws were never a trash problem in Norway, where I live. Yet restrictions and incentives were still implemented. It's viewed by most people as a rather hypocritical and annoying token move, leading to lower enjoyment of life for most people, with little if any gain, to the point of pushing people away from the green movement. Or perhaps that was the point all along? Sure paper straws deteriorate far better in nature. Except most plastic straws aren't thrown into nature. They're thrown in the bin, since it's mostly used in an urban setting and in cafés. Besides Norway already has a pretty well-functioning recycling strategy for plastic. Moreover, if someone were to drive off with a plastic cup and throw it at the side of the road – which most Norwegians would never do – it's still far more plastic in that cup than in the straw. So what's the point of banning just the straw? It boggles the mind, unless it's just silly posturing!
