Scott Hacker over at birdhouse.org has a nice little anecdote about janitors rolling their eyes when he mentions reusing serving platters to reduce waste and you know, clogging up landfills.
Why are so many people dismissive of environmental protection?
I blame it on the fucking hippies. Their impassioned speeches full of angst and vitriol at our waste. Their smug self-righteousness while denouncing our wasteful habits. Far left liberals ( I am myself a liberal, just not insane) do far more disservice to their causes than good.
Really if we want real environmental reform, it has to start with Big business and government. Our government has steadfastly resisted any type of real environmental protection because it is squarely in the pocket of big business that refuses to spend the money to clean up their act. Shareholders want money in return for their investment, not environmental consciousness.
Perhaps a large scale public outcry would help, but it’s not as simple a subject as say, Malaysian sweatshops making sneakers for Nike. It’s an incredibly complex issue, and the common person has pretty heavy evidence of science’s tenuous hold on weather prediction in the form of their daily forecast.
It’s going to be hard getting people involved at any level. I personally still can’t believe that people doing mind buying drinking water because tap water is undrinkable these days.