Wait, Wait, We Still Have a Planet to Save!

A Biden Administration will have its Work Cut Out for Protecting the Environment and Combating Plastic Pollution

The 2020 Presidential election is behind us. Over are the days of the election pundits, TV talking heads, and news updates that essentially had no update. Over are the hoopla of the relentless strikes of news cycles and political ads that came with it. The frustration of defeat and the euphoria of winning are still in the air, but we all know it will dissipate in the next few weeks before a fresh churn of news cycle on the next big thing emerges.

But what will not end tomorrow is the incessant damage humans are causing to the environment and the endangerment of this planet.

If environmental degradation can be termed as a slow killer, plastic pollution can be its poster child. While the news camera followed the candidates and their antics every minute of the day, 41,857 plastic bottles were thrown away in each of those minutes in this country. That is 22 billion plastic bottles per year! These bottles will contribute to the plastic waste and most of them will not be recycled. They will stay around for 5000 years or so, as they cannot be decomposed. At some point of time, these bottles will break down into small particles and will find their way to oceans, entering the marine food chain and then to our own.

How Big is the Plastic Pollution Problem?

Since its discovery in 1907, humankind has produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic in the world. This is enough to fill up the Statue of Liberty, from pedestal to torch, 37 million times. Unlike decomposable materials such as paper, the entire amount of plastic produced in the world so far is still with us. But that is not all. Plastic, due to its material endurance, often finds its way to local streams and waterways and eventually to the oceans. This is where it stays for thousands of years and breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces by the forces of nature, until they reach very small dimensions and become what is known as microplastic. It is estimated that by the year 2050 there will be more microplastic particles in the ocean than the number of fish.

Being in the ocean also means these microplastics float around and flow wherever the prevailing ocean current takes them. This makes the plastic pollution problem a global one. Just like other global environmental issues such as global warming or ozone layer depletion, plastic produced by one country does not stay as a problem for that country — it becomes a problem for all countries.

Role of Foreign Policy

Precisely because of this global nature of the plastic pollution problem, it is impossible for any one country to solve it unilaterally. A global problem like plastic pollution will need a global solution involving as many countries as possible around the world. We must partner with other countries in a consistent manner to solve this problem. This would mean our country must formulate a precise foreign policy focusing on the eradication of plastic pollution. The goal of such a foreign policy will be to drive a broad base, flexible international agreement acceptable to the majority of nations.

Opportunities Lost

No such agreement exists today, of course.

But if we look into the nearest example of such a similar broad base agreement, the Paris Agreement, the US’ role there does not look pretty.

It took many decades of painstaking negotiation among more than 150 countries to come up with this international agreement on climate change. US first adopted the agreement, only to exit it later. Needless to say, after all those years of effort, the departure of US from the agreement signaled a wrong kind of message to the world.

When it comes to any agreement to stop plastic pollution, the US’ role has been equally lack-luster. For example, we did not even participate in the Basel Convention, a narrow agreement that focuses on stopping rich nations from dumping used plastic in poorer countries.

What can a New Administration Do?

Any foreign policy is always a give and take. U.S. needs to provide incentives to other countries to curb their plastic production, and come up with an amicable solution that works for the majority of the countries. In a previous article, I proposed 3 foreign policy fundamentals that can be adopted towards that goal. These policies are:

Policy 1: Reduce global plastic waste going into the oceans to 4 million metric tons by year 2030.

Policy 2: Set up a global economic fund to aid in the phasing out of plastic.

Policy 3: Implement the above using financial incentives or embargoes, as necessary.

The above policies create a framework to start with, and painstaking work will be needed to transform these into an international agreement. It will perhaps take many years to complete but we need to start now.

Conclusion

After the last four years of missed opportunities, US must get back at the helm and take the lead on curbing plastic pollution. Now is the time to reset and restart the groundwork, beginning with a clear foreign policy and leading to a global discussion on stopping plastic pollution. Any inaction on our part in curbing plastic pollution will be remembered by our future generations long after the hoopla of this election is gone.