Oh Gawd, microbeads..

If you haven't noticed, there's a plethora of products containing this unnecessary ingredient (usually listed as polyethylene or polypropylene). Shampoo, toothpaste, melon infused exfoliating gunk.

Microbeads themselves are not just unnecessary, they're stupidly harmful to waterways and the entire marine food chain. There are millions of them in every jar/tub/tube and they're impossible to clean up or remove once released into the environment. They don't degrade, and bio-accumulate in the food chain, poisoning marine wildlife along the way.

Finally, bans are starting to happen worldwide, but this whole saga really does epitomize human stupidity, selfishness and callous disregard for the natural world.

I almost struggle to understand how this could happen or became a thing in the first place. Surely when you're designing these products, you'd consider that:

• it could potentially be used by millions of people, and
• it will eventually end up going down the drain, one way or another.

On the other hand, if "skincare" product adverts are anything to go by, these guys obviously have a pretty tenuous grip on reality - I'm not sure you can expect them to have much in the way of common sense, let along any kind of understanding about the environmental impacts of their products.

From the 7:30 program:
GREG HUNT, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: I have to confess, it's one of those issues which emerged later than it should've.

Uh, the environmental concern was loud and clear back in 2008. NGOs were well and truly raising the alarm in 2011 and it's now 2016. Anyone who follows and/or has an interest in y'know, environmental issues has known about this clusterfuck for a long time. Hell, I remember trying to convince a hair salon back in 2012 that they should stop stocking some bullshit microbead-exfolidating-nonsense shampoo.

CRAIG BROCK, INDUSTRY SPOKESMAN: Once you go into a process of trying to establish new laws or new regulations, you get into an adversarial type of process sometimes. That's not what we want to be about here. We're a responsive and responsible industry and we want to actually work with the Government to solve this problem.

Are you fucking kidding me??! A "responsive" industry would no longer have microbead containing products on the shelf. A "responsible" industry would not had introduced them in the first place. There is only one sensible way to address this problem (that you created by the way) - ban the goddamn things. And impose fines/levies on the companies that created the problem to help with the cleanup. Oh wait, this is no way to clean this shit up... then have them pay for R&D into how to better protect and improve the health of waterways and oceans. Sound reasonable?

Insect bourne solastagia

My family spent Christmas out at the farm house that we grew up in. It was a typical hot summers night like many we've experienced there over the years. But I noticed something different this time - there were no insects. No flies. No beetles. No mosquitoes. No midges. None of the other weird and wonderful bugs that I don't even know how to classify.

We had the lights on. On a warm night in the middle of summer this would usually attract an enormous variety of flying critters from miles around. They'd crash against the window and swirl around the light globes once they found a way inside. Christmas beetles so thick they almost blacked out the the screen door. This year... nothing.

And I think about the insectivorous birds that are (were?) always around and my heart sinks. The beautiful blue wrens who boldly hop and flittter around the garden. The welcome swallows darting and weaving around the varandah posts. What will they be eating? Can they survive?

Hopefully this lack of insects is just a temporary result of the drought - El Nino is biting hard. But it's been dry before and I don't ever remember there being no insects. I don't have data on that though.. just an impression that things are not right with the world.

There's actually a great word for this: Solastagia. It describes the melancholia or psychological distress caused by observed environmental changes. And it's obviously exacerbated by a sense of powerlessness or lack of control over the unfolding events.

My wifes grandfather is 93. He's never been what you'd call an environmentalist,  but he has recently been asking questions. Maybe he's looking back on his life and memories. Why don't you see that type of bird around here anymore? Why don't they catch that type of fish anymore? Why haven't I seen that animal since I was a kid?

My wife explains the basics of biodiversity loss as best she can. But we don't mention that we're inside the Holocene extinction event. He's already depressed enough.