According to Sam and Jim Commenting on things that irk us off, make us laugh out loud or just seem too weird too believe According to Sam and Jim: Litter Bugs Are Bad Bugs and Should Be Totally Squashed !

Friday, November 1, 2013

Litter Bugs Are Bad Bugs and Should Be Totally Squashed !

Sam and I don’t like to say we hate something - hate being such a forcefully negative word - but we totally hate litter. As far as we’re concerned anyone who litters is lazy and no good and ought to be sentenced to at least one year’s hard labor picking up litter or at least working at a garbage dump, plus paying a huge fine.

We were prompted to write this diatribe against litter because we read this article by Marco della Cava in USA Today about this guy named Jeff Kirschner who photographs litter and posts it on a web site called Litterati as a way of documenting the trash problem in our country. Way to go Kirschner, (everybody needs a job) but your idea doesn’t look like it will help much; we humans are such slobs.

Sam and I just don’t understand why someone was so lazy this past weekend that they left beer cartons, drink cups, fast food containers and other detritus in an area of Rainier Vista Park where Sam and I usually walk. We hope the culprits weren’t the rugby players we saw. Hey guys! Ever heard of pack it in, pack it out?

According to a web site called Litter in America, more than 51 billion pieces of litter appear on U.S. roadways each year. That’s just on the roads, not anywhere else. Think about it. And 46.6 billion pieces of litter are less than 4 inches each. Tobacco products comprise roughly 38% of all U.S. roadway litter, while paper comprises 22% and plastic comprises 19%.

But litter isn’t only a problem in America. Ever heard of the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The gyre has actually given birth to two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and collects trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000-mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Research flights showed that significant amounts of trash also accumulate in something called the Convergence Zone.Pacific Trash Vortex. Pictures and videos of these patches should make you physically ill.

Gag a maggot! Please God don’t send me down to that Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

And how about the trashing of the Himalayas? You know, Mount Everest, Kathmandu, Nepal,Tibet and that area? According to the Himalayan Times, more than 2,000 metric tons of garbage have been dumped on that pristine area since 1950. More than 30,000 tourists and climbing expeditions last each year leave behind cylinders, plastic bags and other materials. Volunteers picked up about 8 metric tons of waste one ear, but that was just a drop in the bucket.

Reportedly, some expeditions have said they carried out their burned cans, plastics and non-degradable items, but clearly enough people aren’t doing that. Some tourists and expeditioners are leaving a lot of crap up there. A dump outside of the village of Tengboche, according to the Himalayan Journal, a publication of the Himalayan Club, is becoming so overwhelmed by garbage the sight is totally detracting from once spectacular views of the Lhotse and Amu Dablam ranges. Unfortunately, the government of Nepal has continually sought to increase the number of visitors to that country.

Sam and I would say three bags of poop on littering but we’re afraid we’d be contributing to the problem. Just pick up behind yourselves, okay?


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