I walked past what was once likely a planter bed filled with lovely flowers or maybe a tree. I presume it was something nice because someone installed a plaque that began “In loving memory of.”

Instead of flowers, a tree, or anything lovely or nice, the bed was filled with garbage. I’ve passed it before and seen it filled with garbage.

---

It’s nice to think that environmental problems haven’t hit us yet, since then we’ll act. What more sign do you need than that were desecrating our ancestors? Can you imagine what our ancestors from before plastic would have thought of how we honor our loved ones? I can’t imagine them finding filling a space dedicated to love and memory of loved ones with garbage.

We don’t have any other place for it that isn’t already filled. People who start picking up litter because of me tell me they didn’t realize how much garbage there was. They information reached their eyes, but they didn’t let it reach their consciousness.

I’d rather not live in a world with this much garbage, but since I do, I’d rather be aware of it than not. I figure you would too.

---

EDIT: The day after I posted that picture, I saw this desecration of a memorial for a loved one, also in a sidewalk square. Actually, I should have stood a foot or two back because just to the right was a big plastic wrapper for a carton of bottled water.

Sadly, I expect I’ll find myself adding more pictures to this post, as I am with pictures of Fiji water bottles and discarded e-bikes. Although none of these tragedies likely measure up in in-your-face killing-for-no-benefit loss of Christmas pagan trees.

• ← You’re lying to yourself if you believe we can ramp up wind and solar to replace fossil fuels and stop using them
• When they say “transition fuel,” they mean “more polluting and depleting,” not less pollution or depletion →