I'm in DC again (frequent flyer miles piling up this year), planning the future of ocean conservation.
A friendly group rapidly found passionate concern over plastics in the ocean, in particular the effects on ocean wildlife like sea turtles. What shall we do?
Two major ideas surfaced.
1. Changing the production and use of plastics to favor less harmful materials, including so-called degradable plastics that break down fairly quickly.
2. Changing people's behavior so that plastics are not discarded carelessly and they don't find their way into the ocean.
The problem with so-called degradable plastics is that they don't actually degrade quickly in important places like the stomach of a sea turtle (yikes).
The problem with eliminating plastic litter is that it's hard to get people to stop littering no matter how much money you have to spend on outreach campaigns.
Sounds nearly insoluble, just like plastics. Which seems more likely to work? Changing the production process so that plastic bags are harmless? Changing people's behavior so that bags never get eaten by ocean animals?
That's today's blogfish question, more to come when the meetings end and blogfish catches a break.