This is truly inspirational: Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags.

Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.

It should be like this more! I use hemp shopping bags from reusablebags.com when I go to Ralph's, but this isn't enough - most of my plastic bag usage comes from picking up lunch in the office. I should leave a few bags in the office for those short hauls :)

One good thing that's come up from the politicization of global warming (which I find unnerving) is the slow transition to more environmentally-friendly alternatives with prodding from the government, like San Diego does. Ireland is already on its way:

Ireland has moved on with the tax concept, proposing similar taxes on customers for A.T.M. receipts and chewing gum. (The sidewalks of Dublin are dotted with old wads.) The gum tax has been avoided for the time being because the chewing gum giant Wrigley agreed to create a public cleanup fund as an alternative. This year, the government plans to ban conventional light bulbs, making only low-energy, long-life fluorescent bulbs available.

Yay!