mjoekingz28, you raise a lot of good questions. Unfortunately, many of them do not have easy answers.
Environmentalism, at least in it's current form, is a rich man's (or country's) game. Truly poor people, such as those in many third world countries, are too busy trying just to survive to worry about pollution and/or depletion of resources.
I am absolutely convinced that we have enough resources to feed and clothe the human beings on the planet today. However, a lot of starvation and poverty is caused by politics. Various tinpot dictators around the world would rather enrich themselves at their citizens' expense than allow them to exercise their own creativity and enrich themselves.
For instance, in India and China, methane generators are being built that use animal and human waste to generate energy to provide light and refrigeration. This is a huge step forward for people who don't have light and refrigeration. It also yields a safer fertilizer than untreated waste.
Banning plastic bags, as has been done here in several California communities, may help to keep some marine life alive. However, it would be much more effective for individuals to manage their own trash, and for landfills etc. to institute controls that keep bags and such from blowing away. If we practiced not littering on a large scale, the aforementioned Pacific Garbage Patch would begin to decline, or at least not expand.
I can tell you that the air where I live is much cleaner than it was in 1979 when I moved here, even though there are approximately three billion more people in the world now. Nonetheless, pollution controls on automobiles become ever more restrictive, even though I think we're past the point of diminishing returns.