Following a nasty head injury a couple of years ago, I became concerned about global warming. Whether one was a direct result of the other I have never understood, but I was so concerned that I felt compelled to do my bit, make a difference and start to recycle. To be honest I really enjoyed it, at times it left me feeling quite smug with myself, a kind of vigilante super hero saving the world, one diligently sorted sack of plastics and one of metals at a time.
All was going well, the eco-warrior that had laid dormant within for so long had been roused. Not only was I recycling at home, but I would catch myself casting a beady eye over any pile of refuse, and have to resist a strong urge to sort it into its constituent recyclable groups. I knew I was hooked on recycling.
I also started to admire the bin men, not in a homosexual sense (at least I think not), but I admired the countless opportunities they had to sort through rubbish and save the world. The scale of rubbish they handled made my attempts look impotent. I envied how they would handle the trash, no disgust and no fear, they were at one with the rubbish, in a zen like state. This is a mindset I can only ever have dreamed of attaining.
Do not underestimate me though, I had by now lost nearly all my squeamishness to garbage, indeed sometimes I find its pungent aroma to be exhilarating, arousing. But I still do not have the level of comfort, nor could I channel the energy contained within the garbage like the binmen could.
Do not, under any circumstances consider the previous paragraph to be a sarcastic one. We need binmen, this is a truism. One week they did not come to where I live, by the time they came the following week my housing estate resembled a grimey, apocalyptic landscape. The sort of wasteland that not even the Maddest Maxs would consider to be a habitable environment. Without binmen to take away our rubbish, diseases would increase rapidly, a greater prevalence of vermin would facilitate the spread of those diseases. In short, life as we know it would quickly come to a very dirty and smelly end. Now I am a teacher, and in comparison to a binman I am superfluous to the needs of society. Ask any logical human being who they would rather do away with first, teachers or binmen? They should always answer teachers.
Then something shook my recycling values to their very core.
Record hot August adds to world’s warm spell
- Sydney Morning Herald, September 16, 2014
I would very much doubt that many of you, know who Peter Hannam is. Peter Hannam happens to be the Environment Editor at the Sydney Morning Herald, a well educated hack having graduated from Harvard. To me though, for reasons I will go on to explain, he is a swine.
Hannam’s article “Record hot August adds to world’s warm spell“. hit right at the heart of my recycling psyche. In fact it could not have been more insulting if Hannam himself had urinated over every pile of rubbish I had sorted through. But Hannam does not stop there, the swine gets personal. Not only is he stating that the world is still getting hotter despite my efforts, but he goes on to say:
For the two years to July 2014, mean temperatures were a full one degree above the 1961-90 average used by the Bureau of Meteorology for its baseline.
The two year period to which Hannam refers coincides precisely with two years I have been recycling. In essence Hannam has provided me with precise data detailing the impact of my recycling efforts.
For Hannam makes it explicitly clear, the world has got hotter since I started recycling. My actions have not just failed to help the planet, but according to Hannam I have gone and made it worse. For me this is no random coincidence, but a case of cause and effect. If I were to carry on with my recycling we will all perish. In some ways I must thank Hannam for bringing the situation to my attention, I would however have preferred it if he had spoken to me directly and not through the medium of the Sydney Morning Herald. Hannam had driven his dagger of carbon dioxide through the fragile, chlorophyll heart of my inner eco-warrior. I knew there was no point arguing with Hannam, those Harvard types would be ready, prepared for any counter claim with streams of data for rebuttal. I knew I was beat, I knew my days as an eco-warrior had run their course.
For all of you out there that may be recycling; I urge that you do some research, because it is just might be possible that you are screwing things up as well. I thought recycling would be easy, and I nearly caused irreparable damage to the world. Recycle responsibly, and if you are unsure do not recycle at all.
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