What kinds of things do you see that make you think harder about the environment?
I took my kids for a short walk just a few minutes ago. We passed by a fenced in area in our subdivision. In it are two very large drain pipes. The water/excess runs from the street into the drains under the sidewalk and out these two pipes. We heard some frogs "chirping" and stopped to listen. I love the sounds of nature. We continued on walking down the sidewalk. A few houses down I noticed water running down past up. Very soapy water. I only noticed it because I could smell the fragrance first. The resident had just washed their SUV.
It got me thinking. These little frogs will probably die from being poisoned. So many people don't even consider for a moment that they'll have an impact.
What are some things you see?
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Fattening Up the Birds
Some people believe that it is their duty to feed the ducks. At all times of the year people love to feed ducks, geese, swans and gulls all of their stale, prosessed bread products. I don't know where this idea came from but there are many problems associated with feeding waterfowl and other wild animals.
- When ducks and swans eat bread they fill up on something that they would never eat in the wild and doesn't give them any nutrition. Eating bread can also lead to a disease called Angel Wing where eventually the bird cannot fly anymore. Feeding duckings allows for them to never learn how to forage on their own. These animals have no fear of humans and tend to be run over or killed because of it.
- Large amounts of waterfowl tend to stay in areas where people feed them regularly, which helps to spread disease, decrease migration, increase competition for food and shelter to non-migrating species, and eventually after enough people complain about these nuisances, there is usually a mass killing of the birds.
-An increase in food and birds also increases the amount of nutrients via bird poop entering the body of water where they gather. Not only can this be unhealthy to human visitors to the pond, but also acts as any other fertilizer and can eventually kill the fish in the pond due to lack of oxygen after algal blooms.
-The WORST and most unseeable result of feeding wild animals (Canadian Geese, Invasive Mute Swans, Great Black Back Gulls) is that they can now out-compete native species that are already in decline. Gulls and Swans will gladly eat bread but they prefer eggs of other nesting shorebirds like endangered terns and plovers. These Endangerd Birds get hit double because do not get fed suplementary meals (not a good idea either) and their eggs and offspring are the center of predation after the bag of stale bread is gone. This problems also stems from edible refuse from landfills and bait/leftovers from the fishing industry.
But even after all this people tend to get angry when told to please stop feeding the ducks.
Don't be afraid to stand up for what is right and inform others of their wrong doings.
Wasting Water
I live in a large city and every day I see someone hosing down the sidewalk in front of their building. The problem is that they are not cleaning up a specific mess such as liquid from a torn garbage bag or doggie poop, but they are simply pushing the basic dirt and debris to the curb and flushing it down the local sewer drain. Why don't they use a rake or broom? I understand the occasional need to cleanse a smelly mess with some water, but hosing the whole sidewalk down?! Really?! The wonderful maintenance crew in my building knows better. They work very hard to sweep, rake, and keep our sidewalks clean, and I rarely, if ever, see them use water.
Also, if more dog owners here would properly CURB their dogs then there wouldn't be poop remains on the sidewalk that would need to be hosed away. The whole point of curbing your dog is so that any waste that remained after the owner scoops the poop would get flushed by street sweepers and/or the rain.
A Broken System
I have lived in both urban and rural areas and I have to say that the waste that goes on in rural areas due to corporate farming practices has got to be one of the most disgusting things about our modern world. Farmers in Eastern Oregon (and other places I am sure) routinely water the roads while watering their fields. Not only is it wasteful and against the law (I am told it is cheaper to pay the fine than update irrigation systems) but the water is often full of herbicides, pesticides and/or fertilizers. This massive contamination is just one small part of the broken system. Individuals do have a small impact, but nothing will change until corporations change how they do business. These crops do not get sold to individuals. They get sold to other corporations and shipped over seas to be processed and sold back to us. A lot of things are worse than washing an SUV with non-environmentally friendly soap. And guess what, tougher environmental protection laws would fix both problems.
Lawn Chemicals
I live on a lake and I get really upset every time I see the TruGreen truck pull up at the many neighbors houses that use them. Don't they realize that those chemicals go right into the lake? We don't even have frogs around here anymore and I am sure that has a lot to do with it.
Wasteful Behavior
I'm tired of seeing people still be very wasteful. Retailers and restaurants are still throwing away things that could be recycled. People still throw away cans, glass and plastic bottles in the trash when a recycle bin is right next to the trash can!
Trash on the Trail
I love the Upper Tampa Bay Trail and often hike it with my camera, photographing the birds, the alligators (far from human reach), turtles, (endangered) gopher tortoises, rabbits, squirrels, plants, trees, flowers, waterways and lakes, and even some of the intruding architecture. There's a filled in landfill, a waste treatment plant that accepts recyclables, a water treatment facility, and, also, a bunch of trash. Normally it's really beautiful, so interesting, but I find all the bits of trash left by the wayside so sad.
Tons of things that I see
Tons of things that I see get me riled up on my green soapbox. Trash alongside roads and highways is probably the most prevalent one, though. Car washing is another one that definitely gets my blood boiling. This little thought about the frogs made me really sad. I wish people weren't all so obsessed with keeping their cars clean, not only because of the chemicals used, but also because of what a complete waste of water it is.