Here is a discarded bottle of Evian I found while picking up litter in Washington Square Park. If you can’t tell, the bottle remains about three-quarters full.

We live in a culture where we pollute at every step of creating plastic bottles, filling them with water, shipping them thousands of miles, refrigerate them, buy them for several dollars, then drink a few sips, and leave the nearly full bottle in a public park for others to deal with. That park, by the way, has water fountains that deliver for free water that consistently ranks among the best tasting and safest.

I was worried if I should feel bad for my recent post Poor wittle American can’t wait to buy coffee in a mug or drink water from a tap. Maybe I was too condescending, I thought, but now this. Then again, I see things like it nearly daily. This evening is just the first time I decided to photograph it.

Here are more pictures of it, in case you need to induce vomiting or feel you have too much faith in humanity and need reason to lose it.

A close-up:

We have abandoned Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You, Leave It Better Than You Found It, and Live and Let Live, at least regarding the environment, in favor of capitulation, resignation, and abdication. Folks, that trade isn’t worth it.

• ← 640: Mark Mills, part 2: Low cost, high availability energy creates wealth
• Ela Bhatt 1933-2022 →