Comments

I truly don't understand how one can label anyone interested in improving and preserving our environment as a 'crazy liberal' or 'hippie.' The point of the article is that we don't have to use petroleum based products in order to enjoy the conveniences that plastics provide. Any sort of starch will do to construct biodegradable bags. Corn is just an example. Personally, I'm not a big fan of using food grade materials to make things for other uses..ethanol or bags. Grasses or even potato peels(as another user pointed out) would work as well. Also, anything decomposing emits some heat, that's unavoidable. And yes, they do put out greenhouse gases while decomposing. However, the alternative of countless tons of plastics degrading into microscopic toxins affecting all life on earth(including humans as it goes up the food chain) seems to be a bad alternative. And manufacturing plastics from fossil fuels isn't exactly an emissions free process...to say the least. As for the land issue, there is only so much arable land and we need to preserve some of it in it's natural state for our own health, if nothing else. Forested land regulates our weather, cleans our air and purifies our water. So, no, we can't just convert it all into farmland, we have to use our resources wisely and conserve. Human population is a huge problem. No, people won't stop having children, but they are having less in most developed nations. Europe's population is actually declining. If the world population doesn't slow and descend at some point we *will* run out of resources and that would be very ugly. If everyone currently on the planet lived and consumed like an American...we'd need a few more planets. Not saying I don't enjoy and appreciate my standard of living, but we might want to think about the numbers a little more.