The New York Times printed a story that captures the environmental movement to a T.

For years we have been exposed to unrelenting propaganda about the ocean being inundated with plastic pollution. Headlines screamed, campaigns were launched, and the government pumped out regulations and propaganda in remarkable quantities rivaling the mountains of plastic supposedly invading our ocean.

According to “experts” (there are always “experts” involved, aren’t there?) over 8 million tons of plastic were finding their way to the ocean every year, and something had to be done RIGHT NOW or all turtles will be doomed or something.

Whoops. A “widely publicized” 2015 study that estimated how much plastic enters the ocean every year was off . . . by a lot. pic.twitter.com/NqpdjcB7Qc

— Matthew Hennessey (@MattHennessey) August 8, 2023

I think we can all agree that plastic trash (or other trash) finding its way into the ecosystem is not something to be desired and despite my inclination to distrust anything an environmentalist says I am more than sympathetic to concerns about plastic getting into our food chain.

One can simultaneously think a problem is exaggerated and that there is a problem.

Yet the plastic in the ocean story captures the essential dishonesty of Leftist propaganda. Rather than having a rational, honest discussion of the costs and benefits of various policies (plastic is essential to the functioning of the modern world, and plastic has some environmental impacts we should mitigate), the enviros catastrophize everything in order to shut down all brain function in people.

As the Times reports, a previous claim which has been repeated ad nauseam that 8 million tons of plastic has been revised down a little bit.

To 500,000 tons, or 1/16th as much as has been claimed.

There’s less plastic pollution flowing into the ocean from land than scientists previously thought, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The researchers estimated that about 500,000 metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year, with about half from land. The other half comes from the fishing industry in the form of nets, ropes, buoys and other equipment.

An earlier, widely publicized study in 2015 estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic were entering the ocean each year from rivers alone. The new research might seem like good news, but the full picture is complicated: The amount of plastic in the ocean is still increasing by about 4 percent every year, according to the study.

Like you, that seems like too much to be happy about and I would love to see that number reduced, but also like you, it infuriates me that environmentalists and the propagandists in our government and MSM have been shoving unsubstantiated claims at us for years in order to get us to give up plastic straws and other useful tools that make life easier and better.

The truth matters, and just because you want something really badly doesn’t mean you get to lie without consequence.

Except, likely, it does. There will be no consequences.

Notice how, even in the midst of this revelation the Times reassures us that this revision downward doesn’t mean we should quit panicking. Things are still bad.

“Read on.” Stay panicked.

Leftists seem allergic to telling the truth because they only care about getting their way and not convincing people through democratic means and rational discussion that they have a point.

This results in lots of people like me automatically assuming that they are lying, like the boy who cried wolf.

I am much more inclined to listen to somebody like Bjorn Lomberg regarding climate change than Just Stop Oil because he is telling the truth as he sees it. What a concept!

With something like plastic getting into the ocean, there is an optimal amount that is non-zero, and we should strive to get there. It is non-zero because you will never stop plastic pollution entirely without giving up plastic, and giving up plastic would mean giving up a vital component of modern life. It’s not just straws. Everything these days is made of plastic, and getting it out of the economy would make life much worse and even cost lives.

How can you find the optimal level of protection on a cost/benefit basis if everybody is lying? And if everybody is lying, you wind up making horrible decisions and distrusting everybody.

This happened with COVID–lies were everywhere, meaning people made horrible decisions with horrible real-world consequences. It happens everywhere all the time.

Too many people forgive these lies, based on the faulty assumption that lying for a good cause is a good thing. It can work in the short run to achieve a goal (often a bad one) but tears society apart in the long run as more and more people rebel.

Look at the collapse in trust that is evident everywhere. Nobody trusts the media, the government, or the public health establishment. People have simply chosen sides. Pro-falsehood for a good cause or anti-falsehood. That is the climate change debate in a nutshell.

The willingness, even eagerness to lie to people is an expression of contempt and is itself contemptible.

Just tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.