Because even more than climate change, not much can be done to solve it. Microplastics have been found in every single environment we’ve looked for them, even extreme remote places without any human settlement. To potentially stop or slow the amount being shed into the environment would require a complete end to the global economy, as every good uses plastics or plastic derived products in some way. That’s not mentioning cleanup. While a few bacteria species have been found so far that can digest plastic, they’re not spreading fast enough to clean up the current pollution in a human timeframe, and there’s no other solution theoretically possible.

Climate change is like being scared of a single suspicious mole that’s started to rapidly change size and color; deadly if left alone and you should have done something decades ago but there’s enough time for treatment that’ll leave you mostly healthy if you get started immediately.

The microplastics and pfas problems are like finally seeing a doctor for that persistent cough and ignoring the stage 4 diagnosis in order to sell meth.