I think these perspectives are heavily influenced by where we usually conduct our daily business.
Yeah, a lot of people litter, especially in cities. But out where I live people for the most part keep things pretty clean, with the exception of City People who come visit as tourists, and people generally hate them regardless
(Why can't they just stay in Washington, dammit?)
As for pollution, I think in the long term we will see a change in that considering the 'meta attitude' toward it. But a lot of it is just too ingrained in our base existence. I pollute every time I start my car...but there's not much I can do about that. I mean, I could get rid of my car, but then I'm basically resigning myself to stagnate and never get anywhere in life. School is too far to ride my bike, and I need my car to drive to fire exams to try and get a job.
But work is within biking distance usually, and so is the store. And instead of having a dirt bike or ATV for recreation, again, I ride my mountain bike which in my opinion is better in every way because it's just as exciting, quieter, and is great exercise. And by popping my car in to neutral going downhill or coming to a red light, I'm reducing emissions.
And even in my slow-to-progress town, there are community gardens being put up, which in the long run will reduce dependence on mass-scale agriculture by at least a little bit.
And in the fire service: We used to have three 'Incident Priorities': Life Safety, Incident Stabilization, Property Conservation; in that order. But a fourth, 'Environmental Protection', has been added to the end of the list. It is now becoming a practice to try and contain some of the more hazardous run-off from our fires, within reason. Obviously when the
Wright Building burned, we weren't going to dike the 850,000 gallons we dumped
We're seeing it in technology and consumables, too. A few weeks back I was talking to a coffee shop owner about their new corn-based cups and lids that can be thrown in a compost pile. And at the grocery store, the plastic bags are an organic polymer that breaks down under sunlight. And there are a myriad of fascinating ways of garbage disposal being developed, from decently clean incinerators to my favorite, plasma gasification. With gasification, all waste gas is converted to energy; enough to run the plant as well as feed in to the grid. Anything, even hazardous materials, can be fed in to it, and the only by-product is an obsidian-like slag which can be used in construction and roadways.
As you can see, there is actually money to be made in being environmentally friendly, especially as laws and regulations change.
I don't think we'll see the end of it in our lifetimes, but I think when we approach our later years we'll be seeing the decline. And ultimately, even five of our lifetimes is not 'long term'. It's a tiny comma in the story of the earth. But to see that, we can't be misanthropic about it. We have to lead by example and encourage people and pick up the slack where we can.
It's a different situation, but I have proof that the concept works. I know two firefighters who used to never, ever wear their seatbelts in the engine. But after months of me nagging every time we get in, and a few times of them realizing that if I'm driving I don't even shift out of park until they're buckled, they now wear their seatbelts
every time, even if I'm not there. Through leading by example, I am now a voice inside their head, and they actually feel good about it because they realize it's not such a hassle after all. Neither is picking up or packing out trash. It's just a matter of getting people to realize it.
It's not so much that people are
all morons, I don't think. I think it's more of a problem that there are very few
leaders being bred out of this generation, and far too many followers to go around.
