I've been walking to school for the last few months. I live close to campus and its a nice walk, and besides, I could use the exercise. I walk through a school playground, which is fun since all the little kids look at me like I'm just a bigger kid. I hope one day a dodge ball rolls near me, cause I'd for sure pick it up and join the game. Then just clobber the kids.
Kids can be pretty hilarious when they aren't screaming, stinking, annoying little heads running around. Like when they swear, god that makes me laugh. They don't even know what they're saying. Or when they smoke. When a 12 year old asks me for a cigarette I just laugh and laugh. Why would a 12 year old smoke? To ease the stress of that book report that's due on Friday? To take his mind off of the fact that he can't find Charmander and already has 30 Pikachu's.
So I've been walking to school, which I have been really proud of myself for. I'm not driving and polluting the environment with sulfur dioxide and nitrates. All I do is suck in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, which in turn nourishes the plants who give life to this earth. So on I walk to school, breathing albeit a little heavily, but that's it. The birds swoop and chirp, the bees buzz and sting, the bums rummage and mumble; and I meander down the sidewalk listening to my walkman feeling very full of myself. Eco warrior, defender of mother nature.
The I read an article in the newspaper. It turns out 99% of the world's flamingos live on this one lake in Africa. They are dying by the tens of thousands a day because the lake is polluted by an Eveready battery factory, among others. These birds don't know the water is toxic and killing them, so they're all dying. I know flamingos are useless. But there's a lot of stuff way more fucking useless, disc jockeys, fashion models, marketing, mtv. A rare and in its own ugly way a beautiful part of the world gets destroyed for something as shitty as eveready batteries. The worst batteries on the planet, they last about 2 days and then the battery casing cracks and fills your walkman with caustic white powder.
So I stopped using my walkman since it requires batteries, and I don't want to be responsible for killing anything I don't intend to eat or wear. Logically I must also stop using any remote controls, since they also require batteries. Anyway now I walk to school with no walkman, but at least I'm not in any way contributing to the death of some flamingos.
Then as I walk along with no music I start thinking and I realize that I'm wearing out my shoes. The more I walk the sooner I'll need new sneakers. And unless I want to pay $1000 for new sneakers I'm going to have to buy ones that bought the rubber for their soles from the production slag of a Goodyear rubber plant in Nigeria. That plant or any one like it can only afford to make cheap rubber by paying 10 cents an hour and burying waste in the water table.
I guess I could always buy leather soled shoes, but those will probably be treated with varethane or something else totally toxic.
So what's the point? You can't do anything in the world without fucking up something else. My t-shirts are sewn in sweatshops, my shoes are stitched together in an east asian prison, my computer was made in Malaysia for $1.00 and sold to me for $1000. There is no escape.
But I guess there is one thing you can do. Know what your doing. When something I do has evil consequences, at least I want to know about it. I won't change, or even give a shit, but at least I can't claim ignorance.
Don't get me wrong I'm not crusading for the environment, I prefer concrete to grass any day. I like the glass and plastic beehive we've made for ourselves. We deserve it, we've built a twisted prefab hell and it suits us. And when this prefab disposable beehive collapses we'll have no more nature left to consume cause we destroyed it all. Then without a doubt we'll turn on each other.
You know what, I'll be the first guy to bite into a bar of soylent green, knowing full well its made of people, and I'll say its about fucking time!
Bon appetit!