Earth Today | JET founder flags climate change, plastic connection
Published:Thursday | July 1, 2021 | 12:06 AM
AS THOUGH its established threat to public health and marine life were not enough, there is yet another reason for the required assault on plastics locally and globally: climate change.
“Plastic is made from fossil fuels, the use of which has caused the climate crisis that threatens our civilisation itself. As the oil companies see greater resistance to fossil fuel energy and the rise of renewable sources of energy, they are turning their attention to expanding the manufacturing of plastic,” Diana McCaulay, founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust, told The Gleaner.
“So, in a very real sense, plastic is affecting not just land and sea and public health, via uncontrolled burning, but our atmosphere and the climate system. We don’t want to face that plastic packaging has to be drastically reduced and used only in a few critical arenas, such as perhaps a hospital or aircraft. But that is what we must face and act on,” she added.
Caribbean small island developing states, including Jamaica, are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts that include sea level rise and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, and the associated threat to lives and livelihoods. The changing climate, meanwhile, is fuelled by the warming of the planet due to the use of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil that produce greenhouse gas emissions.
McCaulay’s concern over the link between plastics and climate change is reflected in a June 29 article from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headlined ‘Tourism in a pandemic world: tackling plastic pollution’.
“Plastic continues to grow in popularity, with production increasing by more than 22 times in the last 50 years. By 2050, the plastic industry could account for 20 per cent of the world’s total oil consumption. Plastic pollution could also make up 13 per cent of the total global carbon budget, and there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean,” the article revealed.
Currently, humans generate some 300 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, “including 11 million tonnes that eventually wind up in the ocean”, according to the UNEP; and the situation is not helpedby the fact that “90 per cent of plastic is the product of chemicals derived from dirty, non-renewable sources”.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen an uptick in single-use plastic items, is itself contributing to the brewing plastics storm. The UNEP has said it is necessary, therefore, to push toward a circular economy, which has among its goals the extension of the life cycle of products and materials through re-purposing and reuse.
“Studies show that the world is only 8.6 per cent circular. While this is disappointing, it also means there is huge space for circularity and sustainable consumption and production to bring rapid and extensive gains,” the article noted.