Gathering Places
Gathering Places
My 3-year-old son is my pride and joy. Perhaps because he is built a bit lower to the ground, he is attuned to the things found there. Perhaps he will be a geologist when he grows up. Why else would he favor the piece of gravel to the pretty bird, or the airplane, or the clown, or whatever else we think he should appreciate? Help preserve Hawaii’s beauty
by backing the bottle billHe also has a fastidious streak -- he will pick up the trash he finds on the ground, sometimes unrecognizable, often cigarette butts, and demand that we throw it away.
If a 3-year-old can understand that trash has its proper place, why do so many mature adults fail to see it? Hawaii has tremendous natural beauty. Hawaii is paradise. Yet not a week goes by that I do not witness someone throwing trash, cigarette butts or other litter from their car windows. I suppress the urge to shake these people: "what is it that you do not understand? The world is not your ashtray or dumping ground!" Cars are equipped with ashtrays, and it is quite easy to place your fast-food remains into a garbage bag and recycle your soda cans. Our taxes pay for public roads and spaces, so we all are defiled by these negligent and rude people; our taxes also pay for road crews to scrub the streets.
A dead cigarette butt is a hazard for young children, but if the cigarette is still lit it poses an enormous threat to ecosystems and species that are unique to Hawaii. Many people talk about the plight of rainforests a world away, but in Hawaii the rain forest is doing fairly well relative to the leeward dry forests.
In Hawaii the dry forests once held more species of trees than the rainforest, but they are now reduced to less than 5 percent of their original extent. Already overwhelmed by the combustible African fountain grass and ravaged by a five-year drought, fire now poses the most immediate and lasting risk to these unique species and ecosystems.
At a stoplight near Keaau on the Big Island, I witnessed one family emptying their car of what seemed like several weeks of accumulated trash. Soda cans, fast food bags and miscellaneous refuse flew from three windows in a frenzied blur. I have tried confronting people and calling license plates in to police hot lines, but that does not address the problem.
The problem seems to be that many people do not care. Or they think that someone else will clean up their mess.
The bottle bill under consideration in the Legislature would do much to address this problem in Hawaii. It provides a financial incentive for people to recycle much of their own refuse, and encourages others to pick up what is left over. Our resources are not infinite, nor is the space to store our waste.
Parents often feel guilt for their children. How could I bring an innocent soul into a world where people have so little respect for the environment that sustains them?
I feel this acutely, but I am also hopeful that my child will still see the beauty of our surroundings, as we can today. Hopeful that species and natural areas will remain and even prosper. Hopeful that the planet does not become one big garbage dump. Hopeful that my grandchildren do not find cigarette butts as they explore their world.
Daniel S. Gruner is a science teacher and doctoral candidate
at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, studying ecology of
insects on native Hawaiian trees.