The Truth About Pollution and it Stinks

It is all in your mind - Literally

Sometimes the truth sucks and this is one of those times.

I maintain that it is not the cars or the smokestacks or the industry waste that is ruining our world's environment: the air we breathe; the water we drink; the food we eat; and the nature we enjoy. WE are the polluters. The buck stops here.

Just like any problems which we want our governments and regulators to solve, we are willing to approve and back whatever is proposed - as long as it affects those other guys and not us. Go ahead and cut the budget but I still want my piece of the social pie. Tell everybody else to buy smaller cars or take the bus but I still need my 300 horsepower muscle car or truck to get to the supermarket or drive to work - by myself. Let those guys drink city or Britta water but I'm sticking to my bottled water and the 365 - ??? plastic bottles of waste that I generate all by myself every year. So what if a few fish swallow some of them?

OK I hope you get my point.

Many years ago despite a huge amount of protest and pushback, the idea that smokers can't pollute the air in public places finally took hold. I don't know what percentage of people used to be smokers so pick any - 50%. The point is that a certain percentage of the population eventually won out over the others through a combination of legislation and common sense.

Here are 10 things for starters which it seems to me involve even larger percentages of the population than those smokers meaning more of us are the guilty parties. Now if we could only manage to convert enough of them to match the percentage of the non-smokers back in the day, imagine what could be accomplished with the holdouts! Most smokers - albeit begrudgingly - finally respected the new rules and attitudes and for them it was indeed a big inconvenience. Surely a similar result could be accomplished with some of the following:

1. Stop drinking bottled water - completely. Companies banned tobacco smoking - do the same here. It should only be permitted for humanitarian and rescue operations. FIlter your own and carry a re-useable bottle.

2. Ban fossil fuel engines of a certain size in passenger vehicles. Permit them only for commercial vehicles, public transportation; industry - like bulldozers; agriculture; military and emergency vehicles; commercial flights. For the rest go four cylinder maximum until electric takes over. Yes I just kissed many jobs goodbye.

How am I doing so far? I can just hear the groans.

3. Stop the "sport" of racing any fossil fuel powered vehicles including boats, monster trucks etc. It will cost some jobs - a few paying millions to drivers and organizers - but a relatively small number.

4. Crack down - REALLY crack down - on those vehicles which are permitted to use internal combustion engines but are spewing smoke and other pollutants.

5. Shut down industrial polluters. This is probably the toughest because they always buy their way out and once again WE the purchasers of their products and services will be inconveniencing ourselves!

6. Completely ban all retail plastic bags for groceries etc. Paying a small fee for them did very little.

7. Ban ridiculous packaging. Plastic should be at the top of the list. This problem should improve as retail stores disappear and more product is delivered since much of the hard shelled stuff is to inhibit theft. Also direct shipping from manufacturers should require less packaging. There will be less displaying of large inventories of products on the shelves of stores. Just package and send.

8. Litter. There are countries in which it is a crime - ethically or by law - to litter. Like smoking, this is a cultural change. One of the best in my opinion is a ban on spitting out your chewing gum. I still can't accept that so many people do this. Anyone caught littering on video should pay severely - no court time required or allowed. (added thought: all gum manufacturers should provide wrappers for disposal as part of the packaging even though I might be violating my own #7. They would still have to be dropped into a litter box.)

9. Households. Turn off anything electrical that you are not using. This is a no-brainer.

10. I don't know much about managing forestry but surely for every tree taken one or more should be planted. Perhaps this is already in place.

There are many, many more that any of you could name. I simply wanted to test the waters and provoke some thinking. How much are you willing to sacrifice?

To summarize we could all cut the crap - or at least some of it - if we took action ourselves.


The Brewster