McLaughry’s reasoning doesn’t hold water

Bill Christian
North Bennington, Vt.
To the editor,

In John McClaughry’s recent column he is terribly upset that we want to ban single use plastic bags. But unlike a plastic bag, his reasoning doesn’t hold water. He tells us that natural gas is used to make plastic. This is true, and many of us don’t know it. So far, so good. Then he claims we need natural gas to provide backup for wind and solar. This is absolutely and without a doubt untrue but the explanation is too lengthy for today. He then conjectures that environmentalists should prefer making plastic bags with natural gas, so we won’t burn it for electricity, putting more carbon dioxide into our air. Apparently, he hasn’t followed recent discoveries that this plastic breaks down into microscopic beads that are carried everywhere on earth by the wind, particles that now appear in virtually everything we eat and drink and breathe. So, no, we don’t want to make plastic bags either. We want to leave the natural gas in the ground where it won’t alter our climate. We want to take care of our planet, for our children and their children. Doing away with plastic bags is a very small part of our work to save the planet, but it is just laughably easy to do. So, let’s make like a sneaker and “just do it.”