Don't look at me like that.
Yeah, you.
I see you there on that bench beside the garbage can nose deep in a palahniuk novel shooting me the crook-eye for tossing that soda can into the improper receptacle.
Whats the problem? Are you upset that i'm sending old canny to the landfill rather than the smoke-billowing-smog-producing recycling plant?
"What an asshole", you think to yourself as you take a swig from your plastic spring-water bottle.
"This stupid kid doesn't understand that the world's climate is in crisis, and by tossing that soda-can he's totally fucking up his carbon-footprint numbers. It's this sort of apathy that is sending the world into disrepair."
Yeah I knew you were thinking that. I could tell by the distracted look you gave me as the can hit the bottom. I'm sorry if i interrupted the decemberists anthem you had going on your ipod, but I felt I needed to make a point, so i've collected every empty aluminum can i could find and dumped it in the garbage (thats where i was through those 8 chapters and two decemberists songs. wakka wakka).
Now your look has grown to a unique blend of perplexed-annoyed. This is great. Your parents would be so proud of you for speaking up to lower-class scum like me!
"You know, those can be recycled. Its people like you that are fucking up our climate, and our country's carbon-footprint. Why don't you try reading something once in a while? You know, make a difference."
Okay Mr. Bench-Sitter. I'll play your game. I'll relent, and rock a little devil's advocate on you.
So I ask: "uhhh...re-what-lying?" To which you reply:
"UGH! Nevermind! You are whats wrong with the world!"
Hahaha! That was fun! I'm really enjoying this but I'm late for work.
"Can I ask you one question?" (I say that as I reflect on the fact that i'm already in the middle of one).
"No, I don't have any spare change, what do you want"?
Your tone is really becoming more cocky and dismissive Mr Bench!
"Do you work full time?" (I ask, knowing that you must and gaging my judgement on your 6th generation iPod, and the 200$ american made [by dominican children, outside of america] sneakers you're rocking).
"Yes, I do, I work at whatevercorp in the inside-whatever-whatevers-department."
"Oh." (I say to sound surprised, and generally try to start developing some sort of rise out of you).
"Why? What is it?!"
Mr Bench-Sitter! You sound interested now! Not as dismissive as before! Funny how the conversation just turned around like that.
"Well, do you drive a car to work?" (I already know the answer to this as I see the easily recognizable Mazda logo glimmering from your electronic-entry-key).
"Yes, I work in Whatever-town, and I have a 15 minute commute, every morning."
I see. Interesting.
"Do you have a point here? I'd really like to get back to my book."
Well. I work full-time too. My commute is 45 minutes within the city. But you see, Mr Bench, I don't have a driver's licence. I've never owned a car. I've rarely driven them throughout my 27 years on this earth.
You look about my age, did you start driving around, say...18? (you nod) So thats 9 years for you. 9 years driving a car, nearly every single day. I bet your parents bought you one for high school graduation eh? (again, with the nodding) Thats almost 3300 days. In a row. Of driving.
You see good-sir, I don't often drink soda. When i do, i throw my cans in the garbage, because i don't want to throw them in the street. Hey, if there was a recycling bin closer to me right now, I likely would have went with that. Its not really that important. The climate has been in flux for quite some time, and this has been most notably covered by famous "Scientist-of-the-People" Carl Sagan many many years ago. (He died in 96...so...do the math. Okay, yeah well i know you're not doing math, you're an HR guy! Thats 12 years ago).
He predicted that our fossil fuel reliance and wealth-insecure society would come to a breaking point. He also urged people of all communities, not just the often impenatrable-language-scientific-community, that the climate would undergo great changes because of the apathy of the people, and the tilted balance of their consumption. He used the idea of a human future in space to try and unite all of the world as a species.
You know that guy thats #2 on your Myspace "who i'd like to meet" section? Yeah, that dude who comes in at a distant second to your #1, Lily Allen. Al Gore. The former Vice President of the United States of America. The guy who made the movie that eventually (if not expeditously) trickled-down and initiated the misinformed rhetoric-rockers movent you wear on your sleeve like an editors patch you bought at glastonbury. Well, he was inspired by Carl Sagan to do that. He was a student of Mr. Sagan. He even namedrops him in the film like hes a superstar producer on some dance-pop track you heard on Stereogum (even though Pitchfork gave the effort a 3.141592!).
You see, Carl Sagan is someone which i, as a child and an adult, have looked up to, and been fascinated by time and time again. I've read nearly everything the man put to paper, because I DO read, Mr. Bench-Sitter. I have a very keen intrest in many different things, most notably sciences like physics, chemistry, astronomy, and paleontology.
Anyways, i'm digressing a bit here. As an upstanding gentleman of upper-middle-class-society, i beg for your forgiveness and i get back to my point.
I can assure you now, that the minimal amount (i'm going with about 100 maximum per annum here) of canned beverages i consume and discard affects our environment, climate, and future as a species one fraction of a degree (thats less than 1%! ) of the amount that your galavanting around with your buddies on a thursday, just "cruisin, looking for something to do".
I ride my bike to work. 45 minutes of refreshing excersise a day, and absolutely no environmental impact. I've lived near the poverty line my entire life. I am proud of where i'm from, and i find great joy in learning and discovering things within an infinitely wide range of subjects.
So, Mr Bench. I would like to request that you take your bullshit "green-movement" passion and rhetoric and violently insert it into your rectum. Perhaps the next time you defecate it may form itself into a brand new idiom you can share with hollywood celebrities. Maybe you'll become a vegetarian. You'll spout off to meat-eating-leather-wearing-jell-o eaters endlessly because of the gigantic arsenal of rhetoric you amassed in such a short period of time. That will impress them! You'll be in the running for sexiest vegetarian at the Warped Tour PETA booth in no time!
At least this particular situation would ACTUALLY reduce your environmental impact (and the irony of the fact that you'll never understand how or why while you're running around like a sheep whos fur MUST NOT be harvested to make a sweater is more delicious than tofurkey!).
Oh. I'm sorry. Here. Have a tissue (made from non-recycled materials).
p.