So it's earth week. And everybody is in this honeymoon phase of taking care of the planet. Everyone right now is all about energy efficient utilities, conserving water, recycling, reusable bags, bring a travel mug to Starbucks instead of getting the paper cup. Etc etc etc.
And I think that's wonderful. Finally people are doing what they should have been ages ago.
But what bothers me is that it's not going to last. Cause right now, being green is like shopping at Kitson. It's cool and it's hip and it makes you look like this really awesome person because you're doing what Lindsay and Paris are doing. But eventually people will go back into their old ways and stop caring. Most people are not going to stick it out for the long haul.
They will stop putting the veggies in the compost and they won't remember to put their reusable bags in their car when they go to the store. They will stop putting everything that they can into the recycle bin. And they will drift back into their old ways. Taking care of the environment will become an after thought or an "oh yeah I should do that". It will no longer be the hip cool thing to do it will just become a burden. And most people are too lazy and selfish to take the time to care.
And that makes me sad.
If people can care so much for one week, why not care for just 51 more? Can you imagine what a difference we would see if we were as passionate as we are this week for the rest of the year?
I was driving behind this lady in a big SUV. We were at a stop light and she tossed a banana peal out her window onto the street. Now granted it’s biodegradable but I was still tempted to get out of my car and hand it back to her. She couldn’t have waited until she got to where she was going to throw it in a trash bin? Hooker!
Mel wrote this really great post. She listed things people can do to help keep the planet green. Please give it a read and see what you can do on there. I would like to add one thing to it and that is to please cut up your soda pack rings. They get washed out into to ocean and get caught on fish and other wildlife causing them to die. They get caught in fish gills and around bird’s wings. It’s pretty terrible. So please cut them up before you toss them out. Easy as pie to do it.
I was raised by hippies. My dad worked at the zoo as an environment and animal preservation educator. I have been on the green wagon since I was 11. I guess it’s very naive of me to not understand how people can’t change their ways. Being raised to care, it comes naturally to me to make any kind of adjustment in my life to better the planet.
Because if you think about it, we are here cause earth lets us be here. If we hurt her body or mess up her ozone, we will no longer have a place here. We will get das boot. It’s a simple as that.
5 comments:
People are overloaded with all of it. Hopefully by teaching it at school the up and coming generations will just fall into it naturally.
I think that choices should be removed from the general public. No plastic bags should be handed out. Only ecofriendly toilet paper on hand (boo hoo). People will usually go for the easy option because life is a bit overwhelming sometimes.
When I grew up we just had so little waste in our home. Society in its hideous commercial self just invites waste. Look at the packaging?
Oh, I could go on and on.
Hannah, I have an award for you so come over and collect it.
I totally agree. There was something on the news recently about a store in Sacramento, ca that was going to start charging people for bags in an effort to get them to start bringing reusable bags. I can’t wait until it becomes a law.
I'm going to disagree with you a bit on this one. I DO think people will get lazier after Earth Day grows dim in their minds, but I think there is a lot of eye-opening and education going on in the world and that things WILL continue to get better as we move forward. People do care, and I believe that will grow and expand, especially if we get kids involved. Just as our generation might care more because we learned in junior high that the CFCs in our Aquanet were ruining the ozone, this generation will care more because they know that plastics are killing our animals - and our people too! I think more and more people will band together on this stuff. At least I hope that's the case.
And I'd like to suggest something that might take your soda-ring plea one more step. I say stop buying 6 packs altogether. Buy in bulk! Buy 12 or 24-pack boxes and recycle the cardboard when you're done.
Thanks SO much for linking to my site! I'm so glad to know there are other wonderful, caring green people out there like you!
Mel-
Thank you for your comment. I really really hope that you are right. I want to believe that people will start to change forever. I have that hope that they will but sometimes I lose my faith in humanity; especially when I see the giant ball of trash floating in the ocean and people tossing garbage onto the ground.
I am glad you posted what you did. I made me think about things differently. I still doubt that everyone will do it but, I have a little more faith. And like you said maybe eventually everyone really will band together to fix it forever.
Hope feels good. Thank you.
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