Inherit the Earth

Step outside and look around. Get in your car and take a drive.

What do you see?

People callous and careless, reckless and inconsiderate--these types of individual dominate a sizable portion of humanity. These hedonistic souls inhabit our cities and suburbs.

The planet they treat as a playground. This world they turn into a wasteland.

Forests dwindle and resources thin. Oceans and air get polluted.

Trash litters the highways and fills our parks and streets.

By and large, we tend take care of our things. We wash and wax our cars. We soap and shampoo our bodies.

But our planet we let atrophy. This, the most valuable possession we have, we treat with apparent indifference.

This--the singular home that all have in common--we act like we've no responsibility for its care.

Because we share joint ownership of the planet, we perpetually see its concerns as the problems of someone else. Because we assume others hold authority over those issues, those responsibilities we eschew for ourselves.

That trash littering our world we see as the responsibility of others. Those problems plaguing this planet we bequeath unto future generations.

Wrong attitude and dangerous presumptions--and those apathetic viewpoints will only end in the destruction of all. For unless we each assume responsibility for our share of the world's issues, never will those concerns be resolved.

Until we each act to inherit the earth, nothing will ever change.

Owning the planet means caring for it like our other possessions. Assuming responsibility over our home means treating it with care.

It doesn't take much. If we all do a little each day towards cleaning up this mess we've created, in scant time every problem could be resolved.

All it requires is fixed intention. All it takes is firm effort.

All you need do is resolve towards being part of the solution instead of part of the indifferent herd. So the next time you see a stray scrap of paper littering the ground, the next instance you stumble across an empty can or bottle laying there, instead of walking past and offhanding that problem unto another--bend down and pick it up.

If just a small percentage of us did nothing more than that, soon enough our world would sparkle bright.

Then, with that job accomplished and those responsibilities assumed, those caring spirits would actually deserve to inherit the earth.

a reply to: Trachel

Nice sentiments…

So the next time you see a stray scrap of paper littering the ground, the next instance you stumble across an empty can or bottle laying there, instead of walking past and offhanding that problem unto another--bend down and pick it up.

If just a small percentage of us did nothing more than that, soon enough our world would sparkle bright.

What about the smoke coming from that smoke stack on the horizon? Or the garbage at sea, the runoff from chemical fertilizer and jet exhaust blocking the sunlight?

I can't just bend over and pick that up.

Sure the litterbugs are a problem, I say arrest the clown that throws his garbage out the car window, make it a fine to litter if a video is submitted catching the offender. We could chase each other around all day picking up after the litterbugs. etc.

I can be the change I want to see by doing a lot more than just picking up litter. If I don't drive a car, buy gas, fast food, or work for one of those conglomerates that produce all that stuff everyone uses…

Then yah, surrre… right.

a reply to: Trachel

Sounds good to me, while you are picking up their trash...I'll be over here slapping the crap out of people who litter. Don't get me wrong, I have picked up after slobs before and will again, but if there is any way I can catch them...or atleast give them their trash back, I sure would.

I just don't know what is wrong with people, who in their right mind thinks it's ok to use the world as their personal garbage can.

a reply to: Trachel

Whoops, sorry Trachel, noticed it was you. Of course we need to clean up our environments.

Just not sure that picking up litter is the only thing we can be doing. People need to change their lifestyle in bigger ways than stop littering, imo.

a reply to: Hidinout

I just don't know what is wrong with people, who in their right mind thinks it's ok to use the world as their personal garbage can.

Often times its not simple to clean up.

At our complex, people are moving in that have lots of parties at the clubhouse, they have lots of kids and the activities include candy wrapped in plastic and water balloon fights on the clubhouse lawn.

Over the last several months the gardeners have run their lawn mowers over the grass, chopping the bits of balloon and candy wrap into fine confetti of brightly colored bits and sparkly plastic. Its becoming the lawn garbage gyre patch.

I can't pick that stuff up.

I don't even know what to say to them either, they are oblivious to rules in general. The ones they don't have to pay attention too, anyway.

I think some people are misinterpreting what is being said here. He is not saying to do anymore than is possible, he is saying to do all that you can within your means, regardless of what other people around you are doing.

No one person can fix everything, but if enough people do their part then it would lead to a better situation. Who cares if no one around you seems to care? Be the example.

a reply to: Trachel
I was raised in a liberal household. One of my very first lessons in social responsibility was learning to not be a "litter bug". This lesson was taught to me by my mother, a fine liberal woman who believed that what this world needed was good examples, that as more and more people matured into intelligent adults, litter, for one, would disappear. I raised my children to not litter. One time, a son of mine tossed an empty bag out of the car and I stopped, drove back and made him pick it up.

Alas, to this day I find litter litter everywhere. As a common denominator of human maturity, this one issue alone, litter, demonstrates our lack of maturity as a species.

Another thing that is pretty astounding is the amount of cigarette butt litter out there.

There's is literally (no pun intended) billions of pounds of smoke butts laying around across the world.

www.cigarettelitter.org...

So, if you're a smoker, butt out in ashtrays or better yet, butt out altogether.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
I think some people are misinterpreting what is being said here. He is not saying to do anymore than is possible, he is saying to do all that you can within your means, regardless of what other people around you are doing.

No one person can fix everything, but if enough people do their part then it would lead to a better situation. Who cares if no one around you seems to care? Be the example.

Thank you very much for seeing and reiterating the point.

Yeah, that's all I'm suggesting. Be the example. Do the work that you can to help our world.

a reply to: Hephster

Another thing that is pretty astounding is the amount of cigarette butt litter out there.

I'm a smoker I use ashtrays and receptacles. What bugs me is your post. Its so "obvious" to the non-smoker that a butt is "intentional" litter. Do you have the same hate for this (nano particles)? - Or is it beyond your "attention" or line of sight?

Going after individual smokers is a no brainer in todays world. Dare you take on the Giants of Industry?

marinelitterblog.wordpress.com...

Source: Science for Environment Policy

Fish fed polystyrene nanoparticles are less active and show changes to their brains and metabolism, according to a study by Swedish and Danish researchers. The findings suggest that nanoparticles in the environment could have a major impact on fish and aquatic ecosystems.

Nanoparticles are increasingly used in consumer products, such as cosmetics, and enter the environment via sewage systems. Plastic waste, found throughout the world’s oceans, also disintegrates over time, producing plastic nano-sized particles. Nanoparticles in industrial and consumer products are controlled by existing regulations such as the REACH or cosmetics Regulations; the underlying assessments are complex as many substances behave differently at the nano-scale. The effect of nanoparticle exposure on people and animals is not fully understood, although there is evidence that some may be harmful, particularly to fish.

Typical defensive smoker behaviour.

For your information I used to smoke myself and didn't think twice about tossing butts on the ground.

Just because you secretly feel guilty and embarrassed about the idiotic habit of smoking doesn't make my post wrong. Why don't we attack any company that produces products that contribute to garbage while we're at it?

The main point of the original post was to try and make a personal difference by not littering or maybe even picking up garbage once in awhile, not crusading against mega corporations to stop producing products.

If you use an ash tray, well that's all jolly and good, but obviously billions of people don't. My message was primarily for them.

a reply to: Trachel
Most people don't even notice the environment that is here - they are mostly lost in thoughts about other times and places - preparing or dreaming of 'next'. To see what is here and judge it as not good enough is still not actually seeing what there actually is.
Just imagine how life would feel if all that was seen was seen as a work of art in itself.

Compare that to how life feels when there is a strong conviction that it should not be like this, that it should be 'better, different'.
That is the suffering.

However life is appearing is unconditional love - it has been painted just as it is. The separate me does not see the painting as it is but wants differently, imagines other. The mind produces other than there is (clean streets, everyone being nice) and what actually is is never really seen - it is not wanted by the mind.
The mind will never allow rest - it seeks for more and better.
That which is divided is trying to mend the picture (image) to feel 'better' (mending dirty streets and bad people). But it is believing that the image can be improved and should be different which makes for the struggle - makes life feel heavy.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Why do think this is a liberal thing?

I was raised in a conservative household, and I was taught it was no more or less than my responsibility to clean up after me and mine. You pick up your mess because it's what you do. It's disrespectful to expect others to do it for you. So we take our trash, even at large sporting events when we KNOW there is a cleanup crew who will do it later on.

Sometimes, we pick up what others have left.

However, it's less about social responsibility and more about respect.

Blame the plastics companies.
You can't even recycle in many places and no one does.
A landfill is not much of a solution either.
In the old days everything decayed, because it was part of the ecosystem and trash took care of itself.
On another note, in Fukushima nothing decays because all the bacteria and micro organisms are dead.
a reply to: Trachel

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Why do think this is a liberal thing?

I was raised in a conservative household, and I was taught it was no more or less than my responsibility to clean up after me and mine. You pick up your mess because it's what you do. It's disrespectful to expect others to do it for you. So we take our trash, even at large sporting events when we KNOW there is a cleanup crew who will do it later on.
Sometimes, we pick up what others have left.
However, it's less about social responsibility and more about respect.

Well certainly you are right Kedsuko, not being a litter bug was not a liberal thing for us. Like you it was taught as a sign of respect in ourselves, our neighbors and those who would follow. When we would go camping, part of the ethos was to leave the area cleaner then when we arrived.

The 'liberal aspect of my parents teaching was that not only was cleaning up after oneself a personal responsibility, but also a social responsibility. That is why we were encouraged to clean up after others in the area. The liberal aspect of my parents teaching was that if we did it, then others would observe and do likewise by the good example we would set. But that of course, is not just a liberal thing either. But for us it was.

How do we get people to stop littering. We can have our government establish laws and set fines, hire police to enforce the laws and make courts to collect the fines. The government, being an extension of ourselves could act to prevent littering while we acted correctly, cleaning up after ourselves and setting that good example.

It was this teaching of setting a good example as part of social responsibility that has fallen through and proved to not be a viable avenue of needed social change, cuz people gonna do what people gonna do.

The simple fact is, people don't care.
Why recycle rubbish if others are going to just throw it on the ground. The planet will be around long after most of us are long gone, so why worry about it. That seems to be the line these days
There has been a non caring attitude creeping in over the last 5 years that isn't good. The earth is becoming a horrible place to live because of greed and selfishness.

Sadly I can't see the trend changing anytime soon. People just don't care.

a reply to: Trachel

Someday all the trash will burn!