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I used to hold a special category of anger, disdain, and contempt for criminals who litter the land, and who, for the most part, get away with their crime.  But, I’ve come to understand that these people don’t love nature because they were never taught to:  our economic system and society at large victimizes nature, believing that humans are put on earth to dominate nature, control it, and ultimately use it any way we choose; it’s no wonder that many humans treat nature with such disregard; it’s no wonder nature is fighting back.

Litter is one thing.  But now let’s just look at some of the places humans have “triumphed” over and the anti-environmental legacy left in the “conquering” of those places:  1)  Scientists have found that Antarctic snow now has micro-plastic particles embedded in it, carried there in the water and the air – the last place you would expect to see that phenomenon; micro-plastics are now said to be found in every human body, 2)  until very recently, tons of trash were routinely left on the Antarctic continent by numerous scientific and professional expeditions, and some trash was even put on floating ice to sink when the floating ice melted, 3) NASA reports that there are approximately 500,000 pounds of trash left on the moon (the man in the moon will soon have a visible necklace!, 4) NASA recently announced on its Twitter account that it had encountered a piece of human-generated litter on the Mars, 5) as of January 2019, there are estimated to be over 128 million pieces of debris in earth orbit smaller than 1 cm; let me repeat that:  128 million (approximately 900,000 pieces from 1 to 10 cm; the current count of large debris – defined as 10 cm across or larger- is 34,000), and 6) just this week, University of Stockholm researchers announced that poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – the type of substances called “forever chemicals” because nature cannot break them down; the type of substances found in food packaging, electronics, cosmetics, and cookware (non-stick) – have been found in rainwater all over the earth, including Antarctica:  no rainwater is now completely safe to drink.  Ain’t progress great…..

Back to litter:  I want to thank those “litter bugs” (litter criminals) for littering our roads and highways, otherwise, many caring community groups (and some caring individuals) would not have the opportunity to get together and “adopt” streets to pick up the litter the “bugs” have (so criminally) left for everyone else to take care of; the litter bugs are giving those good citizens the opportunity for comradery while also giving them time to spend out in nature, getting exercise in the fresh air!  Shoot, while we’re at it, I would also like to thank the “litter bugs” for their efforts to give incarcerated individuals the opportunity to temporarily get out of jail (supervised, of course) and get some fresh air and exercise while they pick up the trash on the sides of our roads and highways the “bugs” threw there.  Who’d a thought the litter bugs might actually doing a public service?!

Litter is an in-your-eye example of much of humanity’s disregard (un-taught love) of the rest of life on this planet:  it has not always been that way.  Litter is a symptom of the attitude that we humans can do anything we want to the rest of the planet.  Shoot, even in America, our cowboy/whatever-is-best-for-the-individual mindset tacitly allows the “trashing” of the environment just because the “law” says that it “belongs” to the owner, and the owner can do whatever “he” wants with what “he” owns (let’s keep the evil of “patriarchy” front and center here where it belongs):  forget what’s good for the commons.  And the rest of us just tacitly look the other way, tolerating this crime against nature and our better selves.  So, who’s to blame for this?  The people who have never been taught to love nature, or the ones who just let them get away with it, and probably weren’t taught to love nature either. Ain’t progress great?

Litter might stop when humans realize that we are just part of nature, subject to all the laws of nature, and re-learn to love our nature-based relatives and treat them with all the respect true relatives deserve.  Now that would be progress!