Let me show you how it is easy for us to be manipulated.
A lot of attention has been paid to disposable plastic products recently.
A bunch of activists spend a lot of time on it, people change their habits, refusing to use disposable bags, plastic tubes, water in disposable bottles, etc. Right now, even under this business and grants will lead. Hell, soon there will be a bunch of grants for that.
This is all well and good, and the right thing to do. Stop polluting the earth.
But no one really cares what this is all about. To improve the environmental situation in the world?
Check out this chart
Among the 12 largest countries as polluters of plastic, there is only one developed country – the United States, which produces plastic waste 30 times less than China. At least as much less is their contribution to the pollution of the ocean.
Even if all Americans and other countries of the Western world, refuse to use disposable plastic, this will affect the level of pollution of the planet … almost in no way.
Meaning, if we really want to solve the problem of pollution of the planet with a disposable plastic, and not just get the inner feeling that we are good people, then, first of all, we need to solve the issue in Asian countries. And when you read the news that there is no fish in the world without microplastic content in its body, the main culprit here is China.
This does not cancel the need to increase the percentage of recyclables, introduce a separate garbage collection, minimize the amount of waste, etc. In fact, this is not about plastic per se, but about the ability to determine the real goal and isolate the main factors of its achievement. This is where you can be brought by your critical thinking, which is now considered one of the key competencies of the future.
The ability to assess and analyze incoming information, to separate the most important from the secondary, form consciously your goals, question even the authorities – this is not some kind of secret knowledge. This is what you can learn. And you need to learn.
And above all – to teach children. Adults, in general, are hard to change their habits. If they can even change them at all.
