A selfish bastard

The other day, I saw an elderly African-American man pushing a grocery cart packed with at least eight full black plastic bags of refuse to be recycled. I thought then that he was really a greater environmentalist than I was, practicing my easy curbside recycling. He undoubtedly had a much smaller carbon footprint that I ever had.

Then I thought of all the billions of humans whose homes were built from recycled materials and who live by scavenging dumps. They live on less per day than a Starbucks coffee and minimal electricity and water.

Government, science and NGO’s won’t save us, because we will largely ignore them, maybe making a few concessions to ease our consciences. We have become creatures of consumerism, comfort and convenience. We’ll over-package it, make it quick and accessible, make sure we get what we want as soon as we want it and convince ourselves that our wants are our needs.

The underdeveloped world wants what the developed world has, and the developed world wants to keep what it has and have more. Greta Thunberg can put us to shame, but what are we really willing to do? So far, I have to admit that I’m really for the most part a selfish bastard.