After the premiere of An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, along with many other films, novels, and shows concerned with the environment, pollution and the prevention of global warming has become an ever-rising concern of many people around the world. However, how many of them are taking action in order to reduce the amount of harm induced on the environment in order to prevent these costly effects?

In California alone, around 600 plastic bags are distributed to consumers every second, and most of those plastic bags are immediately discarded after they've served their purpose. Unfortunately, plastic bags aren't easily biodegradable and cannot easily be recycled. As a result, these discarded plastic bags are taking up space in landfills. Not only that, but the plastic pollution is also a leading cause of death for many marine animals and seabirds as these creatures often mistake plastic bags to be food or prey. Furthermore, the production of plastic requires petroleum and natural gas, both non-renewable resources, and both environmentally destructive, which results in more greenhouse gases and further detruction upon the ozone layer. This also results in our further dependency from foreign countries to import their oil, putting our country further into debt. Just to add onto that debt, the littering caused by plastic bags costs cities money in order to clean them up.

We propose that there be a ban enforced on the distribution of plastic bags. This has already occurred in other cities, such as San Francisco, and while it comes as troublesome to some it's largely benefiting the environment. In turn of the ban, we propose a promotion for the use of eco-friendly bags. A single eco-friendly bag can be tantamount to hundreds of plastic bags used over many years. These eco-friendly bags are already often given out to shoppers for free after spending a certain amount of money, or offered at a very low price.

Since plastic bags are harmful to the environment, a ban on plastic bags should be enforced, and a promotion be placed for the use of eco-friendly bags.