Reading back over this I realize this has gotten long. SUPER LONG. You will also notice the title covers a LOT of subjects. This is what happens when things float around in my head and then something happens to pull them all out...
I got sucked into watching "Ice Bear" a few weeks ago. It is about the Polar Bears and their migration...yeah, it was not a happy time show. This was sad. It was showing how these bears that used to have snow are now without snow and food because of the heat, they get overheated and die.
There is no doubt about it, this planet is changing. All of the pollution we create and all of the waste we are creating can't be good. Everyone has to see that right? Global Warming. It is real.
Why am I bringing this up now? We just had a large festival in the city where I live that lasted three days. I happen to work at a business right in the middle of the madness. What did I observe? The laziness that we have become.
People were putting trash right next to the doorway of our shop. There was no trashcan there. Let's just throw our trash right next to the 200 year old building on the cobblestone sidewalk. That will look great. That will add to the ambiance. What you ask? Couldn't they bring it in and ask if we had a trashcan? No. No they cannot. People are lazy. I say people because once one lazy person does it, another will see how that is a good idea and pile the trash on top of that and on the window sills of the buildings in the Historic Neighborhood. Thanks for visiting!
I did not walk around much at this festival, but during my little trek I did not see any recycle bins. This is the fault of the committee and the city. Really though, would people use them?
Let me just say that I am not claiming in any way to be the best at recycling and preserving the environment. I try to do what I can when I can. Do I recycle? Yes. Do I have trash that goes to the dump? Yes. Our trash and recycling bins are the same size. Our recycling bin is completely full every week while we might only have one to two small bags of trash in that trashcan....back to the blog...
So, I get home from a long day of working and those thoughts of all the trash generated were floating around in my head. I sat down to relax and scrolled through FB to see if there was anything that I had missed and there was one of those "SomeEcards" things.
This pretty much summed it up. So I shared it and then looked up info on garbage before going to bed.
Here is some of the nuggets of info I came up with.
Have you ever heard of a trash vortex? Yeah, we have one on Earth - well actually two
(the Western Garbage Patch and the Eastern Garbage Patch). The one between California and Hawaii is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. While I am talking about trash in the ocean, did you know that the ratio of plastic to plankton ratio is 6 to 1?
SIX TIMES MORE PLASTIC IN THE OCEAN THAN PLANKTON.
Wait, we don't live in the ocean so let me bring up some garbage info on the USA. Did you know there are over 3000 active landfills and over 10,000 old Municipal landfills in the United States alone? One of our largest located outside of Los Angeles, CA is over 700 acres. That is about one square mile. Picture a square mile of garbage. That isn't the biggest though. Apex Regional located right outside of Las Vegas, NV is 2,200 acres. Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, NY was closed in 2001 and also 2,200 acres. Did you know that at one point the mountain of trash was taller than the Statue of Liberty? The landfill is now in the process of being developed into green space.
Can you imagine all of these mountains made from trash? Seriously, Google "Mount Trashmore" for pictures.
Sure the gases from landfills are now being used to power homes and the green space on these trash mountains are used as wildlife habitats...but still, do we have to throw so much stuff away? Also, that is how the modern landfills work. What about all of those other ones before we got smart?
Remember when I said that I shared that picture above before going to bed? The next morning I had a few friends click "like" on the picture...and one comment after I was at work. Was it regarding how we are destroying the Earth? No.
She is the pink, I am the green.
If you are wondering - yes, she did unfriend me. Am I hurt? Well, we went all through school together. You can see that we have 64 mutual friends (maybe less once I post this). Shoot, I went to a few slumber parties at her house as a kid...but since graduation I have seen her once. I will say that she is and always has been a beautiful person with a kind and caring soul. The kind of someone you want on your side, so yeah I guess it kind of stings a bit where she severed that FB friendship. Am I crying about it? No. I just think about things and then when these thoughts are too much swimming in my head, then I write them out --so here we are.
It took me a little bit to think on how to respond. Do I approach the fact that there are several religions that are older than Christianity and some have different beliefs on how the Earth was created? Do I throw science and evolution in there? No. I will leave that alone for now
She got me wondering what I
"continually make posts" on and what else she found
"hurtful." I scrolled back through my timeline...and back...and back....I didn't go back the whole year, just a few months What did I find?
I POST A LOT OF CRAP ON FACEBOOK.
What are in these posts?
I post a lot of pictures of my kid. I post a lot of pictures of events and trips. I check into places. I give shout outs to my friend's and family's businesses. I take and post pictures from my phone of funny things that I see on my travels about . I share random thoughts and silliness. I share lots of geeky links and geek humor. I don't see how any of these are "hurtful." What else could it be?
I do share links to my blog posts. I don't think these are it, they are links that whisk you away to blogger.com and aren't really "in your face" on FB to be "hurtful"....so then that leaves the other things that I can combine into my
"I love my gay family and friends and want them to have every right/freedom/benefit that I have" category.
If this is what is "hurtful" then I guess I am now the one that is hurt.
Then that makes me reflect on that first sentence.
"I find it really hurtful the way you continually make posts that are based on your perception of a group of people rather than the reality about them."
What reality of what group of people am I perceiving incorrectly?
I have FB friends and family that are different race, religion, sexual preference, beliefs, political views, lifestyle...you get the picture. These differences are what makes the world interesting. How boring would it be for everything to be the same? While I don't agree with everything that I see on FB, I don't let it bother me. Do I tell people that I don't care about it? No
(unless it is some obviously photoshopped image with false statements, then I put my two cents in). If it makes them happy, brings comfort into their lives, and isn't breaking the law or harming others - then let it be.
If you see things that you don't want to see, Facebook makes it easy. Just click on that arrow by a person's name and
-POP- there is a magical little box where you can click on different options. I know that a lot of my facebook friends have me hidden, or only see my important posts. It doesn't bother me, I have a handful that I have hidden too.
I was having trouble on the ending of this post and yesterday a friend posted this image. Perfect.