I find this whole conversation funny as frankly many of the ideas “environmentalists” want to enact are beneficial regardless of whether climate change is or is not an issue.
What type of lunatic do you have to be to not want us to move off fossil fuels? The streets of our cities will be quieter and the air cleaner. The amount of respiratory related issues will decline. Many in the frum community have lost their marbles and are terrified over a vaccine, but breathing in partially combusted hydrocarbons that were buried at least since the ‘mabul’ is fine with them.
As to garbage… Where does all that garbage we produce go? It is not an easy job transporting it. If we can figure out a better way to handle garbage, such as better recycling and the like, it would save places like NYC lots of money. And for those who think you can just throw garbage in massive heaps with no consequence, clearly you have no idea what type of gasses this dumps exhaust and how they can impact groundwater. So as much as you think “environmentalists” are what is driving these things, you are clearly ignorant of the practical needs here as well.
As to plastics, etc… Have you considered the impact on water and fish populations? Perhaps environmentalists raised these issues first, but it is the practical reality that these resources need to be better managed to avoid shortages in the long-run that drives lots of the actual legislation.
FYI, you should all research some history about access to clean water in NYC. There were bodies of water used for drinking that were also used for various waste products with the end result is you had people getting sick. Issues like this led to development of water resources and served as a warning that you can’t simply ignore problems and hope they will go away themselves.