In advance of Earth Day (but every day is Earth Day, of course), the subject of water has been on the minds of many (with brains, that is, which excludes right-wingnuts and climate change deniers), especially given the long-standing drought situation in CA. The Guardian has its articles that center on water accessible at this link In fact, after we got a few recent quick spells of rain here in STL, I felt somewhat meta-compelled to offer California an apology of sorts, because the climatogical work orders obviously got mixed up, and rain got sent to the wrong state (MO) that isn't in dire need of it now. Of course, it's doubly loserly to offer such an apology, especially since there's nothing that I can do about the rain. What I can do something about, though, which delves further into 3CM's cosmic loserdom when it comes to natural resources and recycling, comes from observing half-consumed water bottles. When I see such bottle, I feel the need to:
(a) recycle the plastic bottles
(b) make further use of the water, somehow
Don't panic, as my loserness does not extend to consuming that leftover water myself. However, there is one particular denizen in my domicile that doesn't mind such water, namely.....
......my house plant. House plants, and vegetation in general, have the advantage generally of not worrying too much about human cooties in drinking water. Or at least so 3CM the loser thinks. The result of this is that I have a bunch of 2nd-hand water waiting for me to water my one house plant. I suppose the sensible thing to do, to help reduce the uncontrollable clutter in my place, is simply to dump that water on the surrounding grounds, since that water will eventually make its way back to the water table. I can then put the empty plastic bottles (generally #2 plastic, thank goodness) in the recycling stream.
This is certainly better than the partly consumed water bottles winding up in the landfill, where the water stays confined in the bottles. At the very least, if people were to dump the water in the ground and then recycle the bottles, that's better than simply trashing them. Of course, the catch is that to observe such behavior, that requires exceptional care and attention to every little bit of natural resources, and who has the bandwidth to do that all the time? Even 3CM slips off that "ultra-purity" environmental wagon once in a while. What I do isn't much there, literally a drop in the bucket. It would be nice if more people, if not everyone, were more conscientious about, since incremental behavior from individuals does add up, to be sure. (Kind of like not voting in the mid-term elections.) One case of arrogant individual ignorance comes from Matthew Post in Benedict Canyon, CA, quoted in this NYT article thus:
"I’m not going to stop watering. The state does not know how to arrange the resources they have, and so we have to pay for it. They say that they will raise the prices because there is a drought, but when the drought ends, will they reduce the prices?”
Actually, Mr. Post, why are you being such a selfish jerk about water that way? Sadly, your attitude seems all too typical of too many "Amurrikans" who value money more than resources. Granted, governments, or any large organizations, can always do better with safeguarding and intelligent use of resources. One such unfortunate case of water going to waste, in a public way, is a leaking public water fountain in Forest Park that I once saw. There are some water dishes there for people who walk or run with their dogs. Putting the dish under the leak would at least capture the dripping water in a bowl from which dogs can partake, although it would be infinitely more sensible for the city to stop the leak itself.
So sure, government can do better on this, as indeed can the agriculture industry, not to mention the whole infrastructure around fracking. But so can individuals, if they have a sense of responsibility. Matthew Post of Benedict Canyon, CA would not appear to have such a sense of responsibility. Any shortcomings on the part of government (or industry, for that matter) do not justify the Matthew Posts of the world from being such resource wastrels. Fortunately, other CA denizens seem much better, as quoted in this other NYT piece by Samantha Storey.
With that, time for the standard SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories for the week.....