Jun 05 2008
Global Warming is Killing Me!
Why does caring for the environment have to be so painful?
My last post talked about filthy, disease-spreading rats.
But I know another filthy, disease-spreading species.
A species far more dangerous than the humble rat because it knows it’s doing wrong, but just doesn’t care.
Last Saturday, Ania and I took a train to the historic city of York. Under a glorious blue sky, we ambled through Museum Gardens where squirrels scampered amongst picnickers, then by the gothic, 800-year-old Minster. Sipping freshly-made lemonade, we meandered around The Shambles, awed by the 16th century buildings nestling in the maze of narrow, cobbled streets.
Later, we strolled along the city’s fortified wall. Its lush green ramparts were speckled white and gold with daisies and buttercups. We took a break halfway around to admire the view. Dangling our legs over the side of the wall, we tucked into a picnic while basking in the serenity of a sleepy suburb shaded by towering oaks and vibrant with birdsong…
Ahhhh, heaven!
Or was it? What’s wrong with this picture?
On the surface, absolutely nothing!
But dig deeper and you find the picture the guidebooks don’t show you:
Global Warming
Despite York being only about 40 miles away, two return train tickets cost £27.80 (approx. $56.) Now, as neither of us needs one for work - so we can’t justify the financial or environmental cost - we don’t own a car, but have hired one on occasion. Hire and fuel costs for the day would have been around £24, £4 ($8) cheaper than the crowded, cramped, grubby train.
So where’s the incentive to use public transport?
Is it any wonder millions of people refuse to go green?
Consumerism
I loathe fashion. As anyone who’s ever seen my wardrobe will testify! Suffice it to say I hate the waste it produces in continually manufacturing things we invariably don’t need but simply buy on a whim. So, how did fashion spoil my day?
This woman is to blame.
Now, I know what you’re thinking - this is a scene from ‘Dr. Who’ in which a giant space spider is creeping from behind that seat to eat this poor woman’s brain.
Well, you’re close.
It wasn’t a giant space spider, but something’s obviously eaten her brain.
Actually, that tiny conglomeration on her head is of silk bows and feathers - it’s a hat!
Do you think it was designed for warmth or to keep the sun off?
And York was full of them (you can just see the purple brim of her friend’s).
Why?
Because it was Race Day at the horse track and everyone knows you can’t be seen dead at York Races without a posh hat.
But despite the look of it, you can bet that ‘hat’ wasn’t a two-for-one bargain at a £1 shop! Oh, no. Garbage like that probably cost upwards of £30, £40, £50 ($100).
Fashion is bad enough when it’s expensive yet functional. But when its only function is to serve the wearer’s vanity…
If this woman wanted to feel good about herself and make a statement, wasn’t there anything else she could’ve done?
Imagine her, hat-less, meeting her hat-wearing friend. Friend says, “What, no hat? Oh dear, sweetie. Never mind, look at mine! £65 on the King’s Road.”
She replies, “Oh, I was going to buy one just like that actually, but instead I gave the money to Oxfam to feed a starving family in Africa for a month.”
So, who makes the statement now!?
Pollution
It wasn’t a scorching day, maybe 20C (68F), but it was hot marching around the wall. As was evident by the number of discarded water bottles and beer cans littering the way!
It always amazes me how people can visit a place to bask in its beauty yet dump their garbage everywhere, so destroying the very thing they’ve come to appreciate.
And it isn’t only England; it’s everywhere.
Last year, I carried someone’s discarded water bottle about half a mile along the Grand Canyon till I found a refuse bin.
Paranoia
Deciding we wanted a picnic, too, we popped into Morrisons supermarket and bought four bread buns, some sliced Polish meat (its presence testimony to how many Eastern Europeans have migrated to England recently), and a litre of fresh orange.
Our impromptu picnic was lovely, but then hit upon a dilemma - what do to with all the food packaging waste?
The easy option would’ve been to toss it into the bushes, like many other people had, but we chose to seek out a recycling bin on the way back to the train station.
Not finding one, I asked inside the station only to be told they didn’t have a single litter bin, let alone any recycling bins because they posed a security risk.
Typically Victorian, the 131-year-old station is filled with all manner of nooks and crannies, not to mention kiosk roofs, shadowy corners, toilets, so I doubt the lack of a recycling bin would deter any but the most apathetic of terrorist cells!
We carted our rubbish home with us.
Media manipulation
Finally, on the train, a young woman had a gossip magazine, its cover featuring a svelte, bikini-clad Britney and the headline: ‘New Summer Bodies’.
Nothing unusual there, except, while buying a cold drink earlier, I’d seen a rival magazine with a headline something like ‘Celebs Dump Diets’ and guess who was on the cover with a flabby belly hanging over her bikini bottoms? Yep, Britney!
We are cutting down trees, burning fuel, and creating pollution to produce magazines that are so riddled with inaccuracies on the most inane of stories that they are completely worthless. Yet people buy them.
How does that work?
When current issues of two magazines feature totally contradicting stories - proof that these magazines are utter nonsense - how dumb do you have to be to waste your money on this crap?
But waste their money people do. In their millions. Then wonder why the world’s going to hell!
Why
So, that’s why caring for the environment is so painful. There’s always some litterer, some profiteer, some absolute a-hole whose sole pleasure in life is to ruin it for everyone else. And there’s millions of them. Everywhere!
Or am I just expecting too much? Tell me, PLEASE…
Is it just me, or is there something inherently wrong with the society we’ve created?
So go. See. Feel. Live.
Steve
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