POST ONE: BATTLE OF THE BAG
There are plenty of scenes I could mention, but I think the most impactful one is the scene exposing the plight of Kenya. The scene best exemplifies why we perhaps feel uncomfortable when we see the catastrophic environmental effects of our collective actions - because we are actually seeing them. A numerical factoid is easy to forget or not fully understand. But when we see with our eyes the human and animal lives that are suffering because of our society's wastes, such as the Kenyans having to live in their own waste due to the "unbeatable convenience" and ultimate necessity of the plastic bag, suddenly the move to ban plastic bags outright becomes rather sensible.
2) Choose one specific way--one that you found compelling or promising--in which people in the video were attempting to manage or solve this local effect or impact, and describe it briefly.
An effort against plastic bag use which stuck with me especially was the effort of the people in Modbury, England. The shopkeepers unanimously agreed - without pressure of any activist or government body - to discontinue offering plastic bags, and encouraged their fellow locals to do the same. Their work is a very uplifting example of community action, and it goes to show how the influence of just a few people can create a chain of direct action that results in something getting done for the community. They chose not to wait around for official approval, they just saw how plastic waste was trashing their community and communicated with each other, and then got to work. Very inspiring.
3) How do you think we should deal with plastic bag waste? Is it a problem we should solve at the local scale, at the national scale, at the global scale, at another scale, or at some combination of scales? Why? Alternatively, as the manufacturer suggested, are plastic bags “misunderstood”—and thus not a problem to be solved?
Let's talk a little bit about degrowth...
Above are the basic principles of degrowth theory. Plenty of these fit quite seamlessly into the solution for life without plastic bags. But what is degrowth in words?
"The degrowth movement of activists and researchers advocates for societies that prioritize social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption," Says the header on Degrowth Info, the website for the center of the movement who are comprised of both scientists and environmentalists who support the theory.
Plastic bags are a product that is blatantly overproduced. Like the Canadian family in the documentary, we all truly do have too many plastic bags. We quietly resent the plastic bag-of-bags in the closet that we've been meaning to throw out for weeks.
Degrowth is a small-scale way of thinking that can grow larger as more people take on its values and shed the need for consumption. Like Modbury, degrowth can begin with you and your friends - perhaps you purchase a few reusable bags for you and you roommates to share. Or you can begin shopping local (many establishments of which have reusable bags already there for you).
On a larger scale, degrowth would revive a community-centered way of living where we produce what we need in order for us and our planet to thrive, not where we advertise product for the sake of profits instead of livelihoods.
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