Not really our fault..!
Robert Clements
Thursday, March 29, 2012 - The other day I saw grown up children holding placards saying, “Save planet earth!” I went to them to ask them what this was all about. “You have ruined earth,” shouted an angry teenager, “Stop! Save earth for us!”
“In our day,” I told the children, “ we didn’t have plastic disposable tetra packs of Fruity or milk to throw away because back then, we returned milk bottles, coke bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled.”
“We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have a lift in every home and office building. We walked to the baniya store and didn’t climb into a fancy car every time we had to walk. Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind.
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling washing machine burning up 240 volts!” “It was only good old wind and solar power really that did dry our clothes back in our early days. We sometimes got hand-me-down clothes from our brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.”
“Back then, we had one TV or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief not one the size of a movie theatre screen. In the kitchen, we mixed and stirred and chopped by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.” “When we packed a fragile item to send by post, we used wads of old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble-wrap.”
“Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower or hired help with a scythe that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.”
“We drank from a tap when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.”
“Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their cycles to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.” “But isn’t it sad you say how wasteful we old folks were because it’s you who have got used to what we never needed. It’s not really our fault at all..!”
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
“In our day,” I told the children, “ we didn’t have plastic disposable tetra packs of Fruity or milk to throw away because back then, we returned milk bottles, coke bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled.”
“We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have a lift in every home and office building. We walked to the baniya store and didn’t climb into a fancy car every time we had to walk. Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind.
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling washing machine burning up 240 volts!” “It was only good old wind and solar power really that did dry our clothes back in our early days. We sometimes got hand-me-down clothes from our brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.”
“Back then, we had one TV or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief not one the size of a movie theatre screen. In the kitchen, we mixed and stirred and chopped by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.” “When we packed a fragile item to send by post, we used wads of old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble-wrap.”
“Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower or hired help with a scythe that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.”
“We drank from a tap when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.”
“Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their cycles to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.” “But isn’t it sad you say how wasteful we old folks were because it’s you who have got used to what we never needed. It’s not really our fault at all..!”
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
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