I am not an expert but I catch myself thinking this all the time.
Fossil fuels and plastics are bad staples, but would be good seasonings in our material culture if they could be limited to that. Medical implants! Certain industrial coatings! Helmets and seat belts!
The problems arise when you burn millions of tons of it a day and send microscopic shards of it into every nook and cranny of the planet.
This is kind of what I’m trying to get at when I talk about aviation. It’s a huge problem. But if we had a zero-based carbon budget, letting people see other parts of the world is far more valuable than letting people, you know, rent out an improperly insulated building, or commute in a five-seat car for hours a day, or whatever.
It’s painfully easy – which is different from realistic – to imagine a society with the self-control to say life-changing experiences yes, car commutes no.
Maybe 90% of the plastic stuff I own would be at least as good if it were wood – maybe in a processed form like paper or cardboard – or even the cheapest possible metal. Tinplate and cast iron.
The last 10% (or whatever) is trickier to replace, but that’s a much smaller problem.
We’re getting the benefits of a society that uses plastic in a few key places, but the problems of a society that uses way too much plastic. Surely we can figure this out.
@vruba Right!? So much could be glass. Could be waxed paper. heck, much of the rest could be PLA.
@aredridel Totally – this isn’t even getting to the ways different plastics have wildly different impacts.
