2006.02.25
There was toilet paper on the floor of the bathroom stall again today. What is wrong with people? That's a rhetorical question. I know exactly what is wrong with people. Most people don't care about the messes they make. But why don't they care?
Maybe it's because our psychology evolved in the wild where garbage never really existed. How could you make garbage when the leaves you wiped your ass with and the wooden cup you drank from soon decomposed through the recycling system of nature? Now our garbage is mostly plastic which lasts for a very long time.
Besides the environmental impact, there is the aesthetic impact as well. The trees and bushes along the highways are covered with plastic shopping bags, and the river banks and waterways are tangles of plastic trash. Isn't it disgusting? Maybe you don't care. Why not? When someone drops some trash on the ground, what is going through their mind? I could try to guess. Maybe they are thinking someone will clean it up. Or maybe they are thinking nothing at all. If so, they need to be re-educated or shot.
One of the greatest flaws in our human psychology is the lack of awareness of the collective effect of our actions. This idea commonly comes up during discussions of voter turnout rates at election time. It would be wonderful if everyone did something extra to improve the world. Imagine what could be accomplished if everyone joined together to accomplish something good. But I don't think that utopian dream will come true unless human nature evolves or is engineered to something better.
Of course I am a hypocrite because I am not going out of my way to help the world in any kind of active fashion. However the least we can do is try not to make things worse. I will forgive you if you don't want to spend an afternoon cleaning up some river with an environmental group if you at least don't toss trash out of your car window.
I may not be active but I'm a tree hugger at heart. (That was today's interesting link.)
--Old blog comments:
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:36 am
jer Says:
I've been meaning to come post an insightful
reply to this for days now, but have lacked
the time and brainpower. I'm gonna have to
concede with a simple reply: "people suck."
I don't think you're a hypocrite at all. Wishing people would stop being assholes doesn't require you to go about fixing all the stuff they do to hurt the planet. Now if you yourself were doing things with a negative impact, then your be a hipocrite.
-March 3rd, 2006 at 9:32 am
GNBenson Says:
I think it is hard to live in modern society
without having a negative impact. I consume a
lot of crap that creates waste. Do I really
need to do that? If we all could really collectively
understand our impact we could all start using less
resources and having fewer children. Maybe that would
require a borgish hive-mind society. Well, at least I
don't litter. I also use public transport and don't
drive a Hummer. I even gave some money to the Nature
Conservancy. Yay me! You better upload me to your heaven Mr.
to-be-born Omega Point god!
March 3rd, 2006 at 11:40 am
jer Says:
Oh, I gotcha.
I too struggle with my consumer nature, and if you consume more than I do, I'd be shocked. That said, I also don't drive a hummer, I'm saving my pennies for a golf TDI so I can run biodiesel / fry grease in it, I'm currently on the market for an awesome olde tyme push mower, and when faced with choices between products, I make an honest effort to pick the one with the least packaging.
I listen to ABC Australia's wonderful program The Science show, and a while back they were talking about ecological impact footprints, and I was really blown away by some of their results. The host rides his bike to work everyday and is generally a peace loving commune style hippie, my exaggeration) yet was shocked to find out that due to his love of fine wines and his frequent air travel around the world, he has a much higher impact foot print than his neighbor who goes barreling around in his SUV all the time. When you weigh in air fuel, whether it's used to send my crap from amazon to ne, or to send my crap laden body somewhere else, a really big difference is made.
It hasn't stopped me from buying pert near everything online, but it has made me feel guilty about it.