There can be few kinds of pollution that distress me more than the trash that chokes our landscape. The detritus created by humankind that senselessly litters our seas, rivers and countryside …
I can’t remember when it was that I fell in love with the great outdoors. Then again, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with it. For me, the great outdoors has always meant more than just the countryside. I can’t deny that I’m drawn more to mountains, oceans and forests than I am to cities, streets or industrial complexes. But I love those spaces too. They are an equally valid and integral part of the exciting landscape that we live in. Let’s face it, nearly all of the countryside that we regard as natural is as artificial as the incredible cityscapes that stand as testament to our human resourcefulness.
So there we have it. Humans are resourceful. Yet resources are something that we humans squander pitilessly.
Who’s guilty? Let me rephrase that. With whom does the burden of responsibility for eradicating pollution lie? It seems to me that there are three potential candidates. Three parties that have become entangled in an almost impossible to unpick relationship of interdependence. First up, we have the individual — the consumer. That means you and me. Alongside the consumer, we have the producer — e.g. industry, commerce, finance. Finally, we have the regulator — e.g. state, government, local authority.
While I have plenty to say about corporate resonsibility and the environment, it’s the habits of the ordinary person in the street that drove me to write this article. In particular, the antisocial habit of dropping litter. Litter anywhere. Litter everywhere. I genuinely don’t understand what it is that makes people think it’s acceptable to scatter their refuse throughout the environmant. I don’t believe it’s laziness because those same people are quite happy to carry their snacks, drinks, or cigarettes with them while they’ve not yet been consumed. The only way I can explain it is that it is all a part of the ‘throw away’ culture that has somehow become the norm. How do we expect factories, oil companies, or meat producers to clean up their acts and fix the issue of climate change while the ordinary person in the street is littering the landscape? Pollution is pollution. It’s ordinary people in the street who own, and work for, and invest in, and buy the products from those factories, oil companies, and farms.
I grew up being told that dropping litter was a peculiarly British disease only to discover that, with a few rare exceptions, it’s a global issue.
Some fourteen years ago I relocated to Italy where I thought things might be different. The village that I’d chosen is located off the beaten track in the Tuscan mountains. It’s an area with almost no tourism, far away from any of the big honeypot sites. So, I was shocked when, soon after I’d settled in and started to explore, I discovered that every forest and mountain stream is congested with rubbish. And I’m not talking about casually dropped litter (though there’s plenty of that, too). The gulleys and gorges are full of dumped white goods, rusting old cars, the fly-tippings of local builders, and black bin bags bulging with household waste.
Naively, I assumed that people who, like me, enjoy spending their liesure time in the countryside, would be different. Apparently not. Cyclists, runners, walkers, and picnickers all seem content to leave a trail of rubbish in their wake.
As a photographer, this means I frequently have to ‘clean’ an area before I can photograph it. All too often, the scale of the problem prevents me from being able to take the shot at all. And, many has been the time that I’ve started proofing images only to discover an unnoticed eyesore spoiling the shot.
But I don’t want to turn this article into a rant. My concern here is not the impact that pollution has on my photography, it’s the impact it has on our planet — and, ultimately, on us.
Of course, the issue goes much deeper than ordinary people dropping their litter. Industry and its bedfellows are far worse polluters. Mining. Drilling. Logging. Quarrying. Farming. And these are just a few of the culprits.
Here in the Tuscan hills, the stand-out offender is the quarrying industry. The Apuan stone known as Carrara Marble is beautiful and world famous. But does that make it right that entire mountains are reduced to mere stumps in order for homes and offices to sex-up their kitchens, bathrooms, and hallways? There are parallels here with the fur trade. I can hear a collective intake of breath. How can I compare the extraction of minerals to the killing of animals for their coats? Very easily. The number of individual organisms, not to mention entire species, that has been lost as a result of habitat change is huge. It’s just the way that it happens is less graphic. Less sensational. Less media attractive. But we’d do well to remember that this beautiful blue globe that we call Earth is, itself, a living breathing thing. The sobering point is that robbing and polluting it will kill us long before it kills the planet.
So what role does the state have in tackling pollution?
In a world without pollution, the state would ensure that the environmental impact of actions driven by consumers, and the industries that supply them, was low. It would ensure that resources were sustainable and reward businesses that reduce their carbon footprint while punishing those that don’t. It would invest in recycling facilities that actually recycle instead of turning the rubbish into another country’s problem. Above all, it would educate.
The problem with all of the above is wrapped up in a word I used earlier. Interdependence. Big business has been guilty of driving consumers to constantly upgrade to newer and shinier models. Manufacturers deliberately make their components incompatible with those of their competitors. Products are no longer designed to be easily or cheaply repaired in the field. In fact, much of the modern tech that we have become dependent upon is deliberately designed to have a short life. We are enthusiastically encouraged to throw out the old in favour of the new. We have so bought into this model that we now wait impatiently for those new shiny toys to be announced and released. Meanwhile, governments do nothing more than pay lip service to addressing the problems because they are too dependent on the big businesses, lobbyists, and the voters that keep them in power.
When the changes that are necessary do come, will they be led from the top down or the bottom up?
The question has become irrelevant. We can’t afford to wait and see. It has become incumbent on all of us, individuals and organisations alike, to act before it’s too late. My greatest concern is that we end up wasting the most precious resource of all. Time.
At the start of this article, I made reference to human resourcefulness. It is my singular hope that we can harness that capacity for innovation and set it to work on finding practical solutions for tackling climate change, sustainability, and pollution.
Together, let’s put an end to this wanton waste.
