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ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard
The one story the government would like to come out of the budget is its 'action' on that supposed environmental menace, plastic bags.
But a superb piece of reporting in Saturday's Times made clear that this is one of the great myths of our time. I urge you to read it all, because it shows how one of the most widespread assumptions of our time is complete nonsense. Here's the gist of it: The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are (sic) false, experts have told The Times. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.
...Campaigners say that plastic bags pollute coastlines and waterways, killing or injuring birds and livestock on land and, in the oceans, destroying vast numbers of seabirds, seals, turtles and whales. However, The Times has established that there is no scientific evidence to show that the bags pose any direct threat to marine mammals.
...The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is 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