...based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets. The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.
Fifteen years later in 2002, when the Australian Government commissioned a report into the effects of plastic bags, its authors misquoted the Newfoundland study, mistakenly attributing the deaths to “plastic bags”.
The figure was latched on to by conservationists as proof that the bags were killers. For four years the “typo” remained uncorrected. It was only in 2006 that the authors altered the report, replacing “plastic bags” with “plastic debris”. But they admitted: “The actual numbers of animals killed annually by plastic bag litter is nearly impossible to determine....Attacking plastic bags makes people feel good but it doesn’t achieve anything"
In a postscript to the correction they admitted that the original Canadian study had referred to fishing tackle, not plastic debris, as the threat to the marine environment.
In the words of the great 20th century American philosopher, Emily Litella:
"Never mind"
You can add plastic bags to the dust bin of environmental alarmism - and please make sure that dust bin is lined with a plastic bag since they are virtually harmless.
Let's examine the other contents of the dust bin while we're at it:
1. DDT
2. CFCs
3. Acid rain
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