Supposedly, our plastic straws are destroying the environment. We are told that we use 500 million straws a day, and many of them somehow end up in the ocean. Both of these claims are false. Let's now debunk this hysteria, and discuss why people engage in environmental hysterics, and how they hurt their own movement in the process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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| So you've heard presumably about the latest doomsday prophecy of environmentalists. | |
| They have found a new villain to fight a new cancer to treat, and that is straws. | |
| Plastic straws. | |
| Plastic straws are destroying mankind. | |
| And we have to get rid of them. San Francisco is the most recent city, I believe, to ban straws. | |
| They will now be straw-free. | |
| They are a safe haven from the tyranny of straws. | |
| So you don't have to worry. | |
| If you're in San Francisco, you don't have to worry about walking down the street and tripping over a straw and becoming paralyzed. | |
| That's happened to at least three or four people that I know. | |
| It's very common. Now, if you're in San Francisco, you still have to worry about walking down the street and stepping on a used heroin needle or slipping in a puddle of human feces, but at least you don't have to worry about straws. | |
| Other cities are also banning straws. | |
| Seattle's banned straws. | |
| Santa Barbara Is coming down very hard. | |
| And what they're saying is that if you are caught being a straw dealer, you could get six months in jail per straw that you hand out. | |
| So if you are a waitress at Denny's and you make the mistake of handing out a straw to one person, you get six months. | |
| Now, if there's a birthday party at Denny's, which is a great location for a birthday party, then and you hand out straws to everybody, you go rogue and you just start handing out straws left and right, you could be looking at 20 or 30 years in prison when all is said and done. | |
| I mean, you could, if rather than handing out straws, if it was like a toddler birthday party and you had just poured shots of absinthe for all the toddlers, you would get less prison time than if you were to hand out straws to them. | |
| Now, if you gave them straws to drink the absinthe, then I think you've really got a problem. | |
| That would actually be execution, I believe. | |
| That's the rule. | |
| Celebrities have gotten in on the act as well. | |
| They're recording PSAs. | |
| They're starting campaigns. | |
| They're raising awareness about straws. | |
| So now everybody is aware of straws. | |
| And it is turned into hysteria, as per usual. | |
| We have a crisis, because everything has to be a crisis. | |
| So, we can't just have a problem, or we can't just discuss an issue. | |
| It has to be a crisis. | |
| It has to be, oh my gosh, we're all going to die! | |
| That's what it has to be, so that's what it's become with straws. | |
| Now, you may have heard that these anti-straw measures are necessary because our straw consumption habits are so out of control, we become straw addicts, and the only way to stop our straw obsession is to just go cold turkey. | |
| According to the figures that you hear in the media, Americans use 500 million straws a day per person. | |
| I don't think it's perfect. I think it's collectively. | |
| Okay, so collectively, Americans use 500 million straws a day. | |
| That's more than 3 billion a week. | |
| That means if you connected all the straws that we use in a year, and you connected them, and you line them all up, They would stretch four light years into space and actually touch our neighboring star and then be burned up. | |
| And then you would have this towering inferno of straws that would fall down to the earth and engulf the earth in flames. | |
| Okay, that's how many straws we use. | |
| If The statistics that I just cited sound made up. | |
| It's because they are. | |
| The bit about connecting them into space, I made that up. | |
| Although, who knows? Maybe that would be true. | |
| The 500 million bit was made up by a nine-year-old child. | |
| And his made-up statistic is actually being used by the media and by journalists and by politicians who are passing laws. | |
| Politicians passing laws are citing this statistic that was invented by a fourth grader. | |
| A nine-year-old, this is how he did it, okay? | |
| A nine-year-old child, I think back in 2011. | |
| Was concerned about straws, which, I mean, it's great. | |
| He's environmentally conscious. | |
| And this is not a criticism of the nine-year-old child. | |
| But he is nine years old. | |
| So what he did was he got on the phone and he conducted an informal phone survey with a few straw manufacturers. | |
| And based on his conversation with them, he guessed that we probably use 500 million straws a day. | |
| And now that guess... | |
| By a nine-year-old, six years ago, is being cited as fact. | |
| Not even like, reportedly we use 500 million straws a day, or allegedly we use straws, or it's estimated that maybe, perhaps we use 500 million a day. | |
| No, if you read media reports, it's, we use 500 million straws a day. | |
| Is it true? | |
| I mean, do we actually use 500 million straws a day? | |
| I have no idea. | |
| Probably not. Seems a little high, but nobody's bothered to check it. | |
| Everybody's just running with it. | |
| I don't know how to check that statistic. | |
| But just because you don't know how to check it doesn't mean you could just use it. | |
| If you can't confirm it at all, if it can't be confirmed, then that means you just can't use it. | |
| But this is how it goes. | |
| You see, once a stat, even a made-up statistic with no evidence to support it, once it becomes attached to a movement, it is now carved in stone and you're not allowed to question it. | |
| Once the movement adopts it, you're not allowed to question it anymore. | |
| So for another example, think of the statistic that claims that 20% of all women in college are raped. | |
| You've heard that statistic before. | |
| 20% are raped. 20%. | |
| I mean, that is an incredible statistic. | |
| If it were actually true, you think about 20... | |
| So you're telling me, if I send my daughter to college, there's a 20% chance of this happening? | |
| Why would anyone ever send their daughter to college again in that case? | |
| I mean, why would any woman ever go to college again if there's a 20% chance of being raped? | |
| I mean, it's horrific. | |
| It's also invented. That's an invented statistic. | |
| It is not grounded in reality. | |
| There is no factual basis for it at all. | |
| It is just invented. | |
| But feminists use it knowing that it's false, most of them, at least the ones that are leading the movement. | |
| They know that this statistic is total BS. They use it anyway because they figure that their aims are noble and so it doesn't really matter if they lie along the way. | |
| So same for environmentalists. | |
| Environmentalists are notorious for doing this. | |
| Environmentalists and feminists, I would say, together. | |
| Those two movements are the most inclined to just use fabricated lies to advance their cause because they think that their aim is just so noble and so good that it gives them a pass, an ethical kind of hallway pass, to use whatever measures they think are necessary. | |
| Here's the problem, though, with using made-up statistics. | |
| First of all, they're not true, so you're lying. | |
| If that doesn't bother you, then how about this? | |
| You're hurting your own case when you use made-up statistics. | |
| Because here's what happens. | |
| You come in with this crazy statistic, and first of all, you've given people a reason to discount not just this statistic, but your entire case. | |
| And then if somebody corrects the stat, and the real number is lower than what you said, but still pretty bad, the only thing people will focus on is the fact that you were wrong. | |
| So for instance, if you go, if you're very concerned about drunk driving, let's say, and it is something we should be concerned about. | |
| So you go and you say, a thousand people die every day from drunk driving in America. | |
| At first, you're going to think that your ridiculously inflated and dishonest statistic is working because a lot of people will hear that and say, oh my gosh, a thousand people? | |
| Really? That's so high. | |
| We have to do something. | |
| A thousand people. Most people, when they hear a statistic, if it is cited authoritatively, especially in a news article, they'll just take it At face value. | |
| They won't question. That's how most people react. | |
| So it is, at first, you're going to find that using made-up statistics is a very effective measure because most people just don't think about that. | |
| They don't think about much at all, really. | |
| And so if you tell them something, they'll go, oh, okay, well, all right then. | |
| That must be true because somebody said it to me. | |
| But invariably, some jerk Who cares about pesky little things like truth will come along and say, well, no. | |
| Actually, it's not 1,000 people die a day. | |
| It's about 30 a day who die. | |
| And then people, everybody else, the unthinking masses, who had 1,000 a day in mind, they're going to hear that and they're going to go, oh, well, that's not so bad at all in comparison. | |
| I guess drunk driving isn't the problem. | |
| Not a problem at all. I mean, I thought we just went from 1,000 down to 30. | |
| Well, that's like nothing. | |
| So you had this thing that is certainly a problem, and now people won't see it as a problem anymore because of the way that you chose to approach it. | |
| If you had just been reasonable and honest and told the truth, maybe you could have made a difference, but instead you ruined your whole campaign by basing it on nonsense. | |
| So environmentalists really need to get this through their heads. | |
| Yes, it is a worthy goal to try to reduce our use of plastic. | |
| And yeah, straws are kind of wasteful, and I don't think that we use 500 million a day, but we probably use a lot. | |
| I mean, maybe we use 100 million, maybe we use 200 million. | |
| I really don't think it's 500 million because that would require every man, woman, child, and infant, on average, To use almost two straws a day, every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. | |
| Now, me, I rarely ever use straws. | |
| I think I use a straw maybe once a month. | |
| I'm on like a once a month straw habit. | |
| And that's the case for pretty much everyone in my family. | |
| We don't have, we don't use, there's not a lot of straw usage going on in my family. | |
| And I think there are a lot of people like me who just don't use straws at all. | |
| So it actually would require, considering there are people who don't use straws at all, that means that there must be people out there using like 10 or 15 straws a day. | |
| And considering the fact that hardly anyone uses a straw unless they're eating out, like you're going to a fast food restaurant, You're going to a sit-down restaurant. | |
| For most people, that's the only time straws ever come up. | |
| So that would require there to be a lot of people who are eating out like four or five times a day and getting straws. | |
| Maybe there are some people who do that. | |
| I don't think it's enough to get you up to 500 million. | |
| So whatever the statistic is, let's say it's 100 million, 200 million, I don't know what it is. | |
| Even if it's 50 million, it's still a lot. | |
| It's still a lot. So just drop the hysterics. | |
| Drop the theatrics. | |
| Drop the propaganda. Drop the lies. | |
| Stop trying to force the issue through laws and regulations. | |
| And just instead, make your point and encourage people to moderate themselves a little bit. | |
| That's all. You could just say, look, there's 300 plus million people in America. | |
| We tend to eat out a lot, get a lot of fast food. | |
| So that means that there's a lot of straws being used. | |
| It's maybe not 500 million a day, but it's still a lot. | |
| It's kind of a wasteful thing, so maybe we should... | |
| Let's just moderate that. And maybe if you go to... | |
| If you go to McDonald's and you get a soda, unless you really need the straw, maybe tell them, you know, I don't need the straw. | |
| You could just encourage people to take measures like that, and it's fine. | |
| And so people are moderating a little bit. | |
| It's not hysteria. | |
| It's just kind of a reasonable thing. | |
| But when everything has to be a crisis, when everything is leading to the annihilation of life on Earth, and when you start using these overly emotional appeals and saying, somebody said to me on Twitter yesterday, they said, They said, well, aren't you concerned about your straw ending up lodged in the nose of a sea turtle? | |
| Aren't you concerned about that? | |
| And I had to say, no, not really. | |
| I mean, I have to be honest. That does not make... | |
| If I'm going to list the top 100 things in life that I'm worried about, I don't think the nasal passages of sea turtles really makes the list at all. | |
| And also, I think the chances of the straw that I'm using to drink my soda with, the chances of that ending up in the nose of a sea turtle, the chances are vanishingly small. | |
| Even if I were to take the straw and go to the ocean myself and chuck it into the ocean and say, take that, sea turtles! | |
| Even if I did that, there's almost no chance that that particular straw ends up lodged in the nose of a sea turtle. | |
| So, drop all that stuff and just be honest. | |
| Of course, if you were honest, you'd have to admit that plastic straws While maybe it's a worthy thing to try to, you know, just through our own efforts to moderate a little bit, still, when it comes down to it, plastic straws really aren't that big of a deal in the grand scheme. | |
| Here are some facts for you, okay? | |
| Here's some actual statistics. | |
| If we're going to talk about Plastic waste ending up in the ocean, which this straw conversation all seems to be centered around that. | |
| This idea that all the supposed 500 million straws a day that we use, it's all ending up in the ocean, and it's creating this huge raft of straws that is just floating through the Pacific and will eventually crash into Asia And then maybe move the continent of Asia, shift it over. And then all the continents will come together again. | |
| Which actually maybe wouldn't be such a bad thing. | |
| Maybe we could have... It will finally be all one world. | |
| Isn't that what the liberals want? So rather than painting scenarios like that, if you were to actually face the facts and be honest about it, You would have to admit that 95% of the plastic in the ocean comes from 10 rivers in Asia and Africa. | |
| So we could stop using plastic altogether. | |
| It would make little difference. | |
| 60% of all the plastic waste in the ocean comes from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. | |
| So again, Plastic from the United States is hardly a problem at all. | |
| Comparatively, in terms of percentages, it's hardly a problem. | |
| Think about it. 95% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Asia and Africa. | |
| That leaves 5% of plastic to be split between the entire continent of Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. | |
| That means we all have 5% of plastic to split. | |
| And so if you're to divvy it down, how much of that belongs to the United States? | |
| I don't know, but it's significantly less than 5%. | |
| And then of our small percent, let's say it's even, I don't know, 1%, although it's probably less than that. | |
| Let's say it's 1%. How much of that small percentage is due to straws? | |
| So it's just such a tiny, tiny percent that the United States, in fact, the entire Western world, could stop using plastic altogether, and it would make almost no difference to the ocean. | |
| Because at least 95% of the plastic would still be there. | |
| That's the reality. | |
| Does that mean that we should make no effort at all to curb our plastic consumption? | |
| No, I'm not saying that. Sure, we should make, you know, yeah. | |
| Like I said, it's a worthy goal, I guess. | |
| Even if we're not worried about it ending up in the ocean, it's just a matter of general wastefulness. | |
| You know, there's no reason to use things you don't need and... | |
| There's no reason. A lot of times if you're at a fast food restaurant, maybe they'll give you a straw. | |
| You don't even use it, so it just sounds like it's wasteful. | |
| So yeah, we could moderate a bit, and that's it. | |
| And that's all you have to say. Forget the laws. | |
| Forget the campaigns, the PSAs. | |
| Forget the lies and the made-up statistics and hysteria. | |
| Just be honest a little bit. | |
| Tell people the truth. And then we can respond reasonably, and everything we find in will just live our lives. | |
| That's all. That's my proposal. | |
| Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. |