Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.
Faced with plunging profits and a climate crisis that threatens fossil fuels, the industry is demanding a trade deal that weakens Kenya’s rules on plastics and on imports of American trash.
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As someone who loves Kenya (8 trips...African friends there have ''adopted me"...I'll never stop visiting because I love them and I love their country)....this ''big oil idea'' makes me LIVID! The last time I went to visit my Kenyan family, I asked what I could bring...of course! Dear Janet told me that, if I could smuggle them in.....boxes of zip-lock bags would be very welcome, since Kenya has made plastic bags illegal! That was funny...going through customs and lying my head off. "NO...I haven't brought anything. I promise." (HAH!) Of course, she'll use them wisely.
Once I arrived and we drove outside Nairobi, I saw immediately that the litter problem had improved a LOT. (It's not easy to dispose of trash when you have no infrastructure to pick up/handle refuse.) They'd managed to clean up many roads and even junk in small communities! Children are learning about caring for the earth...starting with their streets! It was exciting to see!
Now---
The idea that our ''big oil'' OLIGARCHS want to keep on with their ''business'' by strewing Africa with plastic GARBAGE makes me crazy! Appealing to poor nations with a SUPERFICIAL profit is hardly honorable....but then. what do we expect from greedy big business?