[conservativeharleyguy]

"...Every product, from televisions to teapots, takes energy to get to the shopping bag — energy to mine raw materials, make the product and ship it..."

Well... that is true, but solipsistic. They can't just use this model for the things they disagree with. They have to look at the trendy things they love as well.

Things like.... hmm,, let's see.... hybrid cars!! They're loaded with exotic heavy metals, orders of magnitude more copper wire (than a conventional car), much higher percentages of "lightweight" plastic parts (another petroleum product after all), "new" vs. recycled materials, etc. The Chevy H3 is about 30% recycled material (crushed minivans, and soda bottles, how can that be bad?), uses conventional (i.e. proven/reliable/available vs. experimental/unstable/low economy-of-scale) technologies, and it is nowhere near as hazardous as a Prius in the event of a collision, even without considering the additional high-amperage and chemical hazards hybrids present.

And photovoltaic solar panels? Last time I checked, a silicone wafer "Fab" uses several 100,000 gallons of water a day, requires a lot of nasty solvents, and heavy metals as well.

I'm all for alternative energy, but let's be honest about, and factor in the "upstream" source-material impact of everything, not just the things the left loves to hate.

[Reeses]

Banning plastic shopping bags is trendy but the reason they are so inexpensive is because they use so little resources in their manufacture and distribution. Price is an excellent indicator of total greenness, a fact the envi-mentalists can’t accept.