If ever you have a need to have a visceral and simple lesson on the wrong that we’re doing to the planet, pay a visit to your local Toys ‘R’ Us store. I was there today so that my kids could spend a couple of gift certificates they received. I’ve expressed this sentiment elsewhere, but it was driven home again today: the waste we create for the sake of mindless, useless, deplorable junk is unreal. Everywhere I looked in that store my eyes were met with blinding reminders of the license we take with the resources the planet offers. Particularly offensive to me (as this is where we ended up) were the mind-numbing array of action figures of every possible description: Bakugan and Pokemon, toys based on movies (like Toy Story, Avatar, Jurassic Park, GI Joe), Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, WWE wrestlers, and on and on and on.
Then there were so-called eco-toys — ones that consisted of plastic figurines of animals and benevolent scientists or eco-crusaders — ostensibly attempting to instill in children concern for the environment while at the same time using up massive amounts of resources for the sake of short-term profit.
I realize that this is only one man’s subjective opinion, and it therefore counts for essentially naught, but there were very few toys in there that seemed to me to warrant any merit at all — books, true educational toys, balls, bikes, outdoor activity gear,… that sort of thing. Again, as in Wal-mart, the enthusiasm demonstrated here for unbridled avarice was sickening to me. Almost literally sickening. I could feel the bitterness rising in me at what we are collectively allowing corporations to do as I walked the aisles following my children. They didn’t see what I was seeing, just as I didn’t see it when I was a kid. How do you explain something like that to kids without taking away some of the innocent joy of childhood? I don’t want my kids to be too concerned about the danger that we are putting ourselves and the planet in, but I also don’t want them to be completely ignorant of it. I teach them to recycle. I teach them not to waste what’s on their plates. I teach them not to damage trees. I teach them to respect and care for animals. But these are small things in the big picture. The things that matter most and have the greatest impact are in the hands of governments and corporations. Who’s going to teach them?
And I know the argument that goes “Well, corporations are only producing things that people want. It’s people who are to blame. If they didn’t want these things, corporations wouldn’t produce them.” But for me that doesn’t really wash. The reality is that corporations create need where there is none. Marketers know this very well and are quite skilled at manipulating us into purchasing whatever it is they want to sell. For this reason I don’t believe that people will ever stand up in large enough numbers and say No! to the waste. I firmly believe that intelligent legislation against it is the only thing that will work. Believers in the power of a free market economy say that prices will naturally rise as resources become scarce, thereby reducing demand and curbing consumption. The problem with that idea is that the real cost of things is not reflected in their price, because we have an inadequate understanding of the larger repercussions of our smaller actions. By the time we get to a point where we can put a real price on things, it will probably be too late. The downward spiral will have already begun. Hopefully we will come to our senses before that.
Good for you. It all begins at home. Too many people expect the school to raise their children, teach them values, etc. When I see adults throwing their papers on the ground, I know what their children will do. I am a hiker and it breaks my heart to see all the garbage dumped in our beautiful woods, fridges and computer equipment in the creeks and old building supplies everywhere. How can anybody with a conscience do this? Obviously some of us have never developed one.