Like an old, blind wise person in a village who gets picked on simply because people can get away with it, the Earth’s environment gets beaten up daily. Carcinogens are released into the air in a never ending stream of industrial production. This leads to pollution, which is carried along on the molecules of oxygen, and fed to all living things. Whether it’s plant based life, marine, air, or land based life, virtually every living organism on the planet is affected by contaminants.
Clouds of smoggy, dirt particle filled air are hardly the only evidence of the bullying that people are engaging in where Mother Earth is concerned. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a much more visible sign that littering is not really the main problem at hand. The problem goes far beyond littering and raises questions about product life and disposal methods. As the Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic and other non-degrading components, grows in size, better solutions to product disposal seem necessary. The Patch is impassable by boats, who need to circumvent the “island.” It also acts as a giant net – it’s presently the size of Texas – which ensnares fish and other aquatic wildlife. Trapped, these creatures die pointlessly.
Solutions to the man-made problems of pollution of various types are available. Recycling utilizes products which have been used and are now considered trash. Problematically, where plastic is concerned, only 20% of recyclable plastic materials actually make it into recycling bins. People prefer to throw things out so that they’re not labeled litterbugs, but if a recycle bin is not present in the immediate vicinity, they’d rather toss their trash than carry it anywhere to recycle it. Unfortunately, like the kids who thoughtlessly bully a defenseless old person simply because they can, people will continue to bully the earth until something, or someone, intervenes.