Color Me Green

Excuse me while I get up on my soapbox and spew forth, but I have about had it.  For all the press that the environment has had in the last decades and the fact that if we don’t do something soon to protect the natural resources of our earth that we all take for granted, it could disappear before our eyes.  We seem (as a society) to have taken one step forward and two steps back.  Of the 236 million tons per year of trash produced in our country (with Russia in second with 208 million tons), plus the additional amount of garbage that doesn’t quite make it to a bin and that we casually step over, seems our junk reproduces and proliferates by the minute.

Cups, cans, bottles, plastic bags, newspaper and other sundry items of indeterminate origin litter our byways and highways.  It had to get there someway and I have a sneaky suspicion that I know how.

Just because we don’t want trash littering the interior of our cars doesn’t exactly give us the right to throw it out the window – it’s a concept, but garbage cans are meant to hold garbage and maybe, just maybe, we can wait until we find one to throw our rubbish in.  Besides, if you don’t want to look at it inside your car, what makes you think that we would want to look at it on the side of the road?

Another pet peeve is cigarette butts.  Okay, you smoke, I get it.  But the fact that you need to put out your little cancer stick in a flammable area, such as a dry, wooded or grassy area or throw it out of a moving vehicle is beyond me.  HELLLOOOO, ever see those forest fires that consume thousands of acres of trees and which even have the audacity to burn down homes and kill innocent lives?  Well, all it takes is one butt (as in cigarette) to get it all started.

As I dismount unceremoniously from my “high horse”, I realize that I too have failed in the past and am guilty of gas guzzling, over consumption and creating a disproportionate amount of refuse in my life.  I have been reluctant to recycle due to lack of interest and laziness.  I am into instant gratification and find it much more satisfying to drive my car than to walk, ride a bike or snowshoe anywhere.

If it is any consolation, I am beginning to see the error of my ways.  I see the consequences of the actions of humans that could clearly be averted.

I am not an official “tree-hugger” and I will probably never be as green as some folk.  I realize, though, that I have a stake in this world and if I don’t get myself motivated to do my part, then shame on me.  Since I am part of the problem, then I need to be part of the solution, one piece of litter at a time.

Considering we only have one earth, every little bit helps… I hope you find the time to help, too.

Cynthia A. McClelland, curious observer of the obvious with interpretations of the oddities of daily life.  Mother, wife and lover of the furry, resides in the north Lake Tahoe area.

Cynthia A. McClelland © 2003-