Before Devastating Consequences, You Can Make One Small Change

Before the clock finally strikes midnight, perhaps it's time to change. Isn't that the crux of the issues plaguing our world?

We don't get along with each other; we don't like different religions or belief systems, and everybody thinks that they're right. Who's to really know? However, there is one common thought that people should be able to get behind.

We all have to share this little blue ball in space, and when it's no longer friendly to us, we're deeply and royally screwed. You might like a good screwing as much as the next guy, but this screwing is going to be akin to prison sex. It's not the sex you were looking for. The screwing that's coming, that's been warned about for ages, is going to be the same.

So why is it that after years of watching, we can't seem to agree on the necessary changes that will assure our own continuity of existence? It boggles the mind when you consider how easily some of those changes can be instituted. For instance, if you want a better life, to make more money, or improve yourself, there's an easy answer.

However, due to long-held beliefs, it goes virtually untapped. And sometimes, the simplest of answers are the ones that elude us the longest. Isn't that a sad commentary on people?

Simple Answers

Simple answers are great. But it isn't for our leaders in Congress, any of the idiots to sit in the Oval Office, or some dipshits in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to tell us what to do. We have to make conscientious decisions to learn the facts, and when available, take action to mitigate the problems. It's called learning.

Lifetime learners are the most versatile people in the world. They're adaptable to the changes that come as new and important information is shared with the masses. And as such, becoming one is important. But today, or tonight, there will be more than substantial amounts of idiocy by young people around the country, and the easily manipulated, because they aren't learning.

Take, for example, the common problems we are all experiencing.

-Grocery prices

-Prices of household items

-Home prices

-Repair prices

-Etc...

Don't you love feeling that pinch in your pocketbook as your savings are drained over simple things? I know it puts a particular look on my face.

So why aren't you doing anything differently? Chances are, you're taking things for granted. Things will be "Okay" or "it'll all turn out fine." The question is, will it?

So, what exactly lit the fire underneath my backside that got me to revisit this particular issue? I went out in public and had to run some errands. And there's still an intriguing problem plaguing us on not one, but on two fronts.

The problem is we are still committing a genocide that has yet to happen. We're still committing the mass genocide of our own species. And how are we doing that, you might ask? By being the typical, self-absorbed, can't be bothered with the details people that the human race has become.

Yes, I will now make my point.

We're still using the abhorrent single-use plastic bags. Why's that an issue?

5 trillion bags per year. The human race uses five trillion of these single-use plastic bags each year. That's roughly an average of 60 plastic bags per family over just four visits to the local Walmart, or other stores.

Still don't know why it's such an issue? Well, to explain it, let's ask what the bags are made of. They're made of the same substance that we've complained off and on about the prices since we got old enough to be those people saying, "When I was young, we paid less than $1.00 a gallon to fill up the tanks."

Yes, single-use plastic bags are made from petroleum, which comes from fossil fuels, or to the majority of the world, all that black gold.

What happens to these bags is the problem. They end up in the ecosystem. They make it into our water supplies, our oceans, and into our livestock.

While communities on the West Coast spend hundreds of millions a year to clean up trash in the environment, single-use plastics are a big part of that; let's do the common sense analysis.

They're made of petroleum (Fossil Fuels), which means an obvious increase in the demand for fossil fuels, which increases the price for delivery of goods, which in turn creates more usage, which pollutes the environment, and pushes climate change ever so slightly. It puts microplastics into our water and food supplies.

If that sounds yummy to you, ask yourself what those microplastics do to the inside of your body? Would you like a healthy plate of Teflon to eat? Microplastics can be linked to such wonderful gifts in this life as:

-Cancer

-Heart Problems

-Reproductive Problems

But hey, let's use more fossil fuels. Not only can they make us sick, but their burning has widely been accepted as a source of dangerous CO2 emissions in the air. Those CO2 emissions in the air are pushing global climate change, and an average higher temperature in our oceans and in our environment.

It's not that hard to take reusable bags to the stores with you. They all have them for sale if you don't know where to get them. And, if you can't find ones you like, there are markets, and you can go to Amazon and find a variety of them. You can get ones that speak to your personality. You can get plain ones to be more subtle. I'm sure you can probably find a Donald Trump or an anti-Donald Trump reusable bag. Depending on your political leanings.

Sure, that last part is problematic, but the guy puts his name on everything.

It's the simplest of answers. Use less of the single-use plastics, use less of the fossil fuels required for single-use plastics, like the plastic shopping bags, and you create a lower demand on fossil fuels. When the demand drops, the price drops. It might only be at the pumps, but consider this: every bit of fossil fuel not burned into our atmosphere is a start in the right direction.

There you have it. Two birds, one stone! Or rather, one small change.