I care and put as much of my free time into being a responsible environmental steward as just about anyone, but I won’t simply buy into whatever the latest extreme climate theory happens to be. Like the latest doomsday projection that our world will be doomed in 12 years unless the United States does the “Green New Deal” or something similarly absurd. Related, the US only accounts for around 11% of the carbon output in the world and ours is half of China’s. Anyway, aside from the straw bans, the latest movement has been the sunscreen ban.
Hawaii and Key West have already passed these bans and the effort to push them through like the straw bans is playing out across the state and the country. There’s only one potential fly in the sunscreen here. According to actual scientific testing and research, these bans will accomplish absolutely nothing except perhaps cause more people to become burned and get skin cancer. There’s zero impact or connection to our reefs being harmed by beachgoers wearing sunscreen. Scientists testing on behalf of Sun Safe Florida states that “while some recent, misinformed policy actions might indicate otherwise, the science is clear: no validated replicated evidence shows a correlation between oxybenzone, a popular UV filter and valuable public health protector, and coral decline”.
Basically, it’s like this. The one scientist that got this whole thing started used simulated test results with sunscreen concentrates being the basis for his testing. In reality, Florida scientists testing found that there’s nowhere near concentrated levels of sunscreen in the water and the agents are broken up almost immediately in the salt water. This is the latest example of environmental hysteria driving policy rather than pragmatism. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do what we can to continue to improve environmental outcomes, we should simply be reasoned with proven science rather than relying on people who can’t accurately predict today’s forecast telling you the world ends soon if we don’t do things that don’t actually move the needle.