Can the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, two giant islands of swirling trash trapped within ocean currents, be seen from space? No, it cannot. Although plastic never decomposes, most of the plastic pieces in the patch have broken down into microplastics, smaller than 5 millimeters long. That size makes it easier for turtles, fish and other aquatic life to ingest them.

A major theme of Earth Day this year is the need to reduce plastic. According to California’s Stanford Medicine’s website, scientists estimate that humans consume a credit-card size of plastic a week. Most plastic is derived from fossil fuels. The major oil companies know that in order to sell plastic to consumers, they need to convince people that it can be recycled. Sadly, the National Geographic Society reports that 91% of plastic cannot be recycled.

In 2018, Scientific American reported that Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi ARAMCO, the world’s largest oil company, announced his plan to expand the manufacture of plastic. Other oil companies have since followed suit.

Plastic fabrication must be reduced. This can be achieved by limiting the production of oil, and the best way to accomplish that is with a carbon fee and dividend: placing a fee on fossil fuels at their source, such as a well or a mine, and returning the money collected to American households in monthly dividend checks to spend as they wish.

Kimberlee Hammond
Frankfort