New Jersey has no statewide ban on so-called
“single use” plastic bags. But many municipalities have imposed local bans.
Many are now calling for temporarily suspending these bans for health reasons,
and some have
done so, believing that
reusable grocery bags increase
the likelihood of coronavirus
spread.
This was the subject of a NJ Star-Ledger guest
column by Linda Doherty, CEO of the New Jersey Food Council, We’ve got
to use plastic bags during the pandemic. Environmentalists should understand
this. The Food Council is a trade association
representing the food retail industry. The Council has been supportive of the
bag bans.
What got my attention about Doherty’s column is
not her support for temporarily lifting the bans. What made me sit up and take
notice is her clear identification of Environmentalist groups’ motive in
opposing the suspensions:
This simple request to help our stores function during a global
public health emergency is blasphemy to New Jersey’s environmental lobbyists.
Activist organizations like the Sierra Club, Environment New Jersey and Clean
Water Action could care less about the health and safety of workers;
they were outraged by the idea of pausing a few local ordinances.
These same tone-deaf lobbyists also have no sympathy for those
facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. Many of these local
ordinances that the New Jersey Food Council is asking a temporary reprieve from
place fees on single-use bags, meaning customers without reusable bags pay for
every single-use paper or plastic bag. Asking someone who just lost their job,
is depending on food assistance programs, or might be facing reduced hours to
pay a quarter for a bag is just kicking people while they are down.
That these 3 lobbying groups “could care less about the health and
safety of workers” and “have no sympathy for those facing financial hardship as
a result of the pandemic” is indicative of Environmentalist ideology generally.
Environmentalism is fundamentally anti-human. It prioritizes raw nature over
human improvement of the natural environment through science, technology, and
industry. For further proof of it’s anti-humanism, look no further than it’s
campaign to stop all fossil fuel projects in the state. This, on top of
opposition to nuclear power. Nat-gas and nuclear provide 94% of NJ’s energy.
So-called clean energy is nowhere near capable of replacing fossil and nuclear.
Given that energy is the industry that powers all other industries, it is vital
to continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure to guarantee adequate reliable
economical energy in the future. What will become of our health and safety and
economic security if Environmentalists get their wish? Massive human hardship.
But Environmentalists don’t care. Their concern is preserving nature over human
mastery over nature. Doherty is absolutely right. But it’s beyond plastic bags.
Environmentalists are uncaring and unsympathetic to human well-being, because
Environmentalism is ideologically opposed to human progress.
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