On my first trip to New York, many years ago, I visited the NBC gift shop. I bought a Third Rock from the Sun t-shirt, I love the series. At the back of the shirt there is a small picture of our planet with the text ”Just visiting”. Somehow that phrase has stayed with me ever since. I have had to move frequently, not just between flats but between countries as well. Just visiting, it seems. But then again, aren’t we all just visiting? We only have our brief time on this planet, and we seem to do our best to destroy it. There’s a lot of talk about leaving a ”better world” for our children, but as a whole, we really are doing a rotten job of supposedly taking care of the planet. I think it would be very different if we lived a thousands years. Then we would have to face the consequences of our actions ourselves, but unfortunately the human life is so short that our waste will be someone else’s problem, so it’s easy to go on wasting. Not that I would want to live a thousand years. Heck, I’m worried what the planet will look like 5 years from now.
I do my bit to recycle, I believe that if you can carry the food to the picnic site then you can carry the wrappers back to the nearest waste bin, I take pictures of nature in conviction that it will not be there in a few years’ time so this my way of preserving it, I shudder inside every time I read about the destruction of yet another precious ecosystem, I feel like crying at the thought that polar bears will starve to extinction in two decades because the polar ice will melt away.
But still, I go about with my wasteful ways as well. Every morning I get into my car and drive to work; I drive the car to my photography spots as well. I buy foodstuffs in plastic wrappers. I use electricity for heating, lights, computer, and whatnot. I’m sure my even my beloved camera isn’t 100% recyclable. Who am I to complain about the destruction of the environment and the extinction of species when I am contributing towards those myself? The way I have figured it, the only way to stop damaging the environment is to stop being. Humans are the single greatest threat this planet has ever seen… a plague that far outreaches biblical proportions. Nature can recover from the swarms of locusts, but swarms of humans are a permanent affliction.
Is it any wonder that I like sitcoms? The world is just simply too depressing for me. I need my entertainment, forget the gloom and doom and console myself with the mis-adventures of Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally when they explore the human behaviour. Their version of it is funny.