Lakeville Swamp, a Michigan Nature Association preserve about 45 minutes from where I live.
It’s late at night, Earth Day 2015 is coming to a close, and I thought I would be remiss if I failed to jot down some thoughts about it. My previous posts on Earth Day’s of past generally have a similar tone.
Sadly it was a day spent at the office for the most part, but it started in the morning with some sad reminders that only contribute to my struggles to combat my pessimism. As I was walking our dog Willow down the street this morning, I was saddened by some signs. Wednesday, is trash day. One household on the next block had 4 moderate sized trash bags filled with shredded paper.
If it wasn’t 6:00 am, I would be half tempted to knock on their door, and in hindsight, I should have at least left a note. Ultimately though, people don’t like to be told what to do. Despite the long wait we had to finally get curbside recycling brought to our city, and that there is a recycling drop off center less than 1/2 mile away, people pile an enormous amount of recyclable material at the curb for regular trash every Wednesday. I have come to at least appreciate the scrappers that stalk the neighborhoods like vultures mid-week.
In the next block, I was approaching the chemical zone. This group of people have pesticide treatment signs on their lawns about every other month from April through September. The drainage from our street flows directly into the Clinton River. I am constantly redirecting Willow to suppress her constant sniffing instincts here.
A big part of the problem with all of these things is that people don’t really feel or see the direct impact of these things. Energy is cheap in America, too cheap. Electricity is taken for granted, and it is a small percentage of the population, or even businesses that could probably quote how many kilowatts they typically use in a day. If 10 dead frogs ended up on the doorstep of every person that poured chemicals on their lawns, I’d bet a lot of people wouldn’t being doing that anymore. But it rains, flows into the storm drain, and into the river. Out of sight, out of mind.
Some Pew research polls find that only 56% of people said “stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.” Fewer think climate change should be the nation’s top priority. Economic costs and growth don’t ever factor in the true environmental cost.
I know there are some that are still optimistic we can turn this stuff around, and I try to seek them out sometimes. Perhaps it is better to just stop listening to the news, or watching politicians throw snowballs. Your own neighborhood however, is difficult to ignore.
Just give me more gadgets. Gadgets can fix everything. There must be a technology gimmick to fix all this cleanup, earth, conservation, environment, ecology, climate, weather stuff. As long as I have my Apple watch, my YouTube hooked up to my bigscreen, my iPad, iPhone, iBrain, my bling bling, my travel time, motorhome, jeep, gas in my hummer, my TV in the master bedroom with channel stuck on Fox or a reality TV program, my satellite car radio, TV in the back for the kids, microwave back there too. Motor boat, jet skis, motor mouth. Plastic, that’s most important of all. Just fill my house with plastic, wrap my food in it, my trash, everything, soooo convenient. Frogs, what frogs? What’s more important, frogs or jobs? Come on. It’s the economy that counts. We don’t need trees or water. Hey, I like animals, I have a dog for golly sakes. Give me a break.
Gee David – you sure have a lot of — stuff — ! 🙂
If you could tell they were filled with paper I’m suprised the council would take them for trash. They wouldn’t in our neighbourhood. We have curbside recycling here too and the council only pick up the trash every two weeks now instead of every week so the smell will encourage recycling if nothing else 😉 They take away garden rubbish in biodegradable bags, food waste (weekly) from a food box and black (trash) and pink (other recycling) alternate weeks. And you can tell who the boozers are with a big yellow box for glass. Maybe your council just need to *encourage* the residents? As for the lawns, I don’t think anyone around here puts out chemicals, there are too many cat lovers, foxes & other wildlife. We barely mow ours, but that’s just laziness 😉 I think of it as a wildlife refuge
That would be great if they would refuse to pick such things up! It would be even better if they left it and placed a big sticker saying please recycle. It is wishful thinking though. The haulers would complain they don’t have time to sort stuff. Sounds like England has a good system!
Sad, but all true…..
Mark, the city of Oak Park has had curb side recycling for as long as I remember, however less than 10 percent actually fill the container every week. Folks who do recycle do it with gusto, often filling 2 containers. I recently learned that the city had a net profit from recycling amounting to over 30,000 a year! Imagine what good could result if even half the city residents participated.
People need to feel responsible for the environment and that can only happen with constant reminders, support from government and grass root postings such as yours. It will be a slow going change. Don’t be discouraged. I bet if there was some incentive like a discount on property tax or water bill, people would pay attention. Wow free stuff? Your city manager or mayor needs to make this issue a priority. Often the schools can discuss caring for the earth, and kids will educate parents! Meanwhile leave a note, friendly reminder for your neighbors. Maybe a huge billboard! Thank you for your keen observations and for caring.
My trash and recycling day is Wednesday. Most weeks all I have out is the recycling hardy as I am very diligent about recycling as much as I can to keep things out of the landfill. I was out plastic containers of hummus along with my dishes and try to by more products packaged in paper packaging since plastic consumes so much energy to produce and there is so much of it floating around the oceans.
Insecticides and fertilizers I use are all non toxic and organic. It might take longer to take out a weed with the stuff I use versus RoundUp but I also don’t worry about harming any wildlife that may come in contact with anything I put on my lawn.
I switched every light possible over to LED and not only enjoy the fact that it’s better for the planet because I’m using less energy but have an electric bill in double digitis instead of the triple digits it used to be means more money to spend on film gear!
There’s so much more I can do to reduce my carbon footprint. I just keep adding little steps at a time to incorporate them into my daily routine. So I’m making changes but they aren’t so drastic as to really disrupt my life.
I even dumped cable last year and spend more time in the yard and out filming nature and wildlife instead of being sucked into some moronic reality show. I find myself less stressed and more rested as well as $90 richer every month.
I don’t understand why people that have curbside recycling don’t take a few minutes to sort their trash and help do their part.
Yes, I feel most people have more interest in the latest hit movie, their favorite stars romance, the new full frame DSLRS and it’s features rather than how their lives impact our ecosystems. New policies would be nice but each of us living a life in relationship with nature is our true task. I wave my flag but I must work each day to live with nature as my friend.
Indeed Monte. I applaud the big NGO’s and their memberships, it just seems it is always a constant uphill battle.