ON MY SOAPBOX

Human beings are experts at waste, wastage and wasting.

Consumers in the Western world waste food at alarming rates. Some statistics suggest 50 per cent of food in the world is wasted.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-11/half-of-worlds-food-going-to-waste/4460322

It is estimated that the average Australian wastes 200kg of food a year.

http://theconversation.com/the-average-australian-wastes-200kg-of-food-a-year-yet-two-million-of-us-also-go-hungry-why-5278

I personally take food for granted and hardly consider what I throw away at the end of the week. Some of it I feed to our chickens. A large proportion is thrown into the bin. I wonder how careful I would be with rationing if I were starving.

Not only is food being tossed. There are whole islands of plastic waste in our five oceans. The South Pacific, North Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean have gyres that consist of plastic rubbish. I help form a part of those vortex's of garbage. I use and discard plastic at a shameful rate. I rarely consider where my household rubbish ends up. I can reasonably assume most people are not that different from me.  I wouldn't know how to live without plastic packaging as it has been wrapped around my food ever since I can remember. Plastic products appear everywhere in my house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6i16CrI8ss

We waste resources we waste our time. We trash and sabotage, pollute, wreck and ruin. We tear down habitats and waste their products. We bring species of flora and fauna to its knees and all the time we sit in our air-conditioned homes, wasting power, throwing away clothes a season old and kidding ourselves we are developed and civilized and superior.

Not only do we waste resources but we are also adept at wasting life. How many lives have been wasted at war? World war 1 saw around 37 million civilians and military deaths. World war 2 caused 60 million casualties. Although these two wars are pivotal in our history there have been thousands more conflicts through the ages. As time progresses our effectiveness at wasting life has multiplied. How many lives are wasted through drugs and alcohol? How many people are murdered every year?

I wonder why our race takes so much for granted. We are users and abusers; we discard, reject and destroy. We take and pillage and spare little thought or consideration about the consequences of our actions. We barely care about the impact we have on our world or the people living in it. We selfishly consider our own personal wealth and standard of living. We tend to care for our own self and family and rarely consider anyone else. Our survival instinct has seen our race expand and dominate and succeed but at what cost? 

Perhaps our planet is reacting to our actions. Perhaps it is already too late to change our way of life.