Our father of coffee and our virgin mother of ash

Littering is an inherently selfish act. Not only are those who partake in the “L word” failing to live up to their social responsibility to take pride (and therefore care) of this great planet we call home, but they're giving no regard to the fact that they're ruining it for everyone else, as well! It saddens me to see how much trash people still thoughtlessly dispose of in an age where we're well acquainted with the detriments for doing so.

I'm not sure as to whether said behaviour stems from sheer ignorance (though I'd find this hard to believe considering the Internet opens up a whole world to us in terms of knowledge acquisition) or perhaps blatant disregard (which is more likely). Considering that in public areas like streets, parks, schoolyards and the like, garbage cans are a - plenty - really folks, if you just stopped “txting” or checking your FB account for a moment, you'd notice — there is really no valid excuse for partaking in this socially inconsiderate activity.

Irrespective of one's so-called justification for recklessly contributing to our streets' scat, the more we continue this behaviour as a species, the more likely that anthropologists in the distant future (if humans even last that long since we are in the middle of yet another mass extinction, and if you actually believe that our species is immune to such phenomena, you've got another thing coming), will be left to conclude that our culture was one centred around worship of the spiritual entity of java known only as the all holy “Tim Horton,” and the goddess associated with fire and ash coined, “Du Maurier.”

If someone you know tries to legitimize their littering habit as a consequence of it being inconvenient to find a trash receptacle in their surrounding area, I suggest you remind them that Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth wasn't titled merely for its catchiness or memorable nature.

Perhaps when half of our coastal areas are wholly submerged underwater like the lost mythical land of Atlantis, perhaps when our air quality is so poor that we all have to don oxygen masks just to breathe, perhaps when civil wars break out globally over the remaining limited reserve of drinkable water — maybe then, maybe then will the world wake up and pay attention. I hope, in all sincerity, that things don't have to go that far, BUT I also hope you realize that I'm not simply being melodramatic.

Change is on the forefront, whether we like it or not, and when it comes to down to the Darwinian-adopted notion of, “survival of the fittest,” considering our own detached relationship with mother nature which has been jilted instead for a reliance on technology to solve all of our problems, we, my friends, will be first on the list to go.

So…the next time you decide to treat our home like a mega-dumpster, perhaps you'll have a little food for thought.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.