Rookie Reflections

The following is a summary of a recent conversation with a good listener:

PART ONE - ENVIRONMENTAL GUILT

Lately, I have been feeling majorly guilty about things that I do that will hurt the environment. I guess it is healthy to have an environmentally conscious mind to some extent, but, like most other things in my life, I cannot do this in moderation. I get overwhelmed when I start my car and consider what is coming out of the exhaust pipe. I get upset when I order a drink and it is given to me in a styrofoam cup. I have anxiety when I see how much garbage just my husband and I produce in a few days.

Environmental issues are all over the news and interwebz right now, and some of the projections being made about the planet (polar ice caps!) SCARE ME. The years they are projecting all this shit to go down are not that far away. They are in our near futures and definitely within the lifetimes of our children.

PART TWO - HYPOCRISY

As long as I've been an adult, I have been in favor of low (or no) government regulation of social issues, such as gay marriage or abortion or playing dominoes on Sunday (still against the law in Alabama). I guess I just don't see the point of regulating another person's actions when it does not harm you or anyone else.

However, it seems to me that the government is going to have to mandate that people do environmentally friendly things. People by nature are just not going to do anything proactively unless they see a need for it NOW or unless they will benefit from it NOW.

Why do I feel like we all know we're contributing to the breakdown of the planet that keeps us alive, yet we turn a blind eye? Asking for governmental control may not be the best idea, because you can't ever guarantee that the decisions they make for us will be made with good intentions and not made with selfish motives. But, what are we going to do? Are we just going to sit by and pretend this is not happening? Are we really going to wait until it's too late to do something about this?

PART THREE - IDEAS

1. Couldn't we completely do away with plastic bags in grocery stores? It has been within my lifetime that these were even available for the public to use. When I was young, you could ONLY use paper.

2. Maybe we could pick a common location (like a gas station) to be the designated spot for a recycling center. I know we already have recycling centers, but if they were stationed in a place where people normally go daily, it might be easier to work into our daily routines. If business owners were willing, we could even offer an incentive, such as a discount on canned items if you bring in so many aluminum cans, etc.

3., 4., 5., 6.....

What are your ideas?