What about our environment?

Cassie, I  know what you are saying. Not a day goes by that i don't see mask thrown on the ground. It is disgusting.

The Tesco supermarket here used, and maybe still do, biodegradable bags. They seem to work well but I found to use them very short term only then dispose of them so couldn't  keep them for reuse. When they degraded they left thousands of flakes of fluttery white plastic which seemed almost impossible to cleanup, especially out of carpet ot a nook or cranny. It was so easy to forget and leave one somewhere, perhaps with things in, for a while then come across a real mess. When they started charging for bags I decided I would never buy them at any price as they were so much trouble. It would take a reversal of policy to make them justifiable and in my opinion would also encourage wastefulness. I have planned to use the cardboard boxes we get regularly, and usually recycle, but my old plasic bags keep soldiering on.

Yes, we need truly biodegradebale materials, but not ones that will instantly fall apart when a little wet. There's a lot of neat ideas coming out recently... even some for the food packaging that is edible lol not that I'd probably eat any packaging if it's on the outside that others can touch... but that would degrade much better for sure. We're not quite there yet, but I think we'll have more options eventually, especially as more people become interested in that.

I remember saving my bags when the poo hit the fan over this, and yes, those dissolving bags do make a terrible mess. They are so little, they just fly everywhere.

www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2020/03/lithium-mining-what-you-should-know-about-the-contentious-issue.html

I think that in practice nobody can build any cars without dirty mining. Like any other issue people take sides and adjust the stats to prove their points. With all this talk of masses of cows in fields causing problems with greenhouse gasses I shouldn't wonder that if eveyone went back to horses and carts there would be a mass of statistics to say they were a major issue for the environment. It's hard reality but the only real answer is probably birth control.

Pre-industrial life style? No thanks.

We could take it one step further. Sciu-Fi fans.

I agree it wouldn't have gone nearly far enough we need to reduce our population by about 2/3 if it's going to have any real effect on saving the planet.
But asking people nicely isn't working , China has just announced its limit of children has been raised to 3 per family.

I saw that about China. They are wanting extra children as the population is now ageing and they will soon run into problems. With an ageing population we will all go that way. It's perhaps just that China's population limiting and their industrial expansion in recent years  has raised the problem for them sooner than for the rest of us but it is slowly happening here. I think we in the UK (and perhaps much of Europe too) are putting things off by using immigrant workers to suppliment shortages, which actually creates further problems and puts off even bigger issues for the future.

I have noticed over the past week or so that the nettles and thistles are growing strongly around the field footpaths locally. It won't put off the true dog walkers but will likely limit the 'day tripper' types. I can put up with a few stings to see fairly unblemished natural surroundings. There is nothing like true nature to put off the crowds.