Continue to be amazed at Humans poor skills in thinking long-term (I include myself here) or perhaps simply valuing short term convenience (packaging!) over unseen consequences. This applies to investing, as to much of life.
Along side many other problems, we seem to have been sleep walking into a plastic ecological disaster. Let’s hope human ingenuity can bend this problem away.
Marine life is facing "irreparable damage" from the millions of tonnes of plastic waste which ends up in the oceans each year, the United Nations has warned. 7 Charts from the BBC.
Beaches that were covered with pristine sand in the 1990s are today littered with plastic debris, washed up from countries around the Pacific Rim and beyond — an estimated 37 million pieces, weighing 18 tonnes. (Independent article)
“This is just the tiniest snapshot of our problem with plastics. Every year an estimated eight million tonnes of the material flow into the oceans. And, over the past few months, there has been a huge increase in public and political concern about this marine pollution, to a level where it is approaching climate change as an environmental issue.” A detailed look in the FT (behind pay wall) in a very good long read.
Another summary of the problem from the UK Natural History Museum.