I can’t think of any positive spin to put on waste.  I’m challenged, as well, to find examples of it for which humans are not directly responsible.  It comes in many forms:  food, natural resources, opportunity, space and most tragically and maybe encompassing all others, time.  Nearly all human activity results in bi-products which we consider to be waste and the frivolous disposal of it has more and more begun to expose the lethal consequences of that folly.  The Earth’s push-back against centuries of unfettered littering of land, air and sea with the detritus of hubristic indifference is played out, daily, as ‘Breaking News’ of disaster after devastating unnatural disaster.

Personally, I have become more aware and proactive, thanks to my wife, an avid composter, repurposer and recycler.  I contribute to organizations like 4 Ocean that are making valiant efforts at cleaning up our collective mess.  I drive electric, use reusable bags and beverage cups and generally remain mindful of my footprint.  I don’t expect kudos or rewards for my efforts, my point being that it’s really simple and if everybody did it we wouldn’t be in such deep, deep doo doo.

However, the time thing has me discombobulated.  Surely, we’re going to have much less of it as a species if we continue, willy nilly, down our current wasteful path, but my immediate issue is with the seemingly blurry acceleration of the atomic clock.  I’m convinced that there has been a creeping, ever-shortening gap, maybe down to some nano scale, of the second-to-second interval, and the result has been Groundhog Day-esque.  It’s hard not to waste time when, no matter how well-intentioned your scheduling, the aforementioned Einsteinian time acceleration has made every day seem like trash day, resulting in all of the in-between chores piling up.  Intellectually, I want to believe that my cosmic paranoia is, well…just that, but as I write this, there’s a Twin Bridges truck outside my window manipulating the jaws-of-trash to empty the meagre contents of one of my two bins.

Back to Mother Earth…the science is unspecific with regard to just how close to or how past we are of the tipping point, but the lack of an all-out global response is, pure and simple, madness.  The politicizing of the harm man has done to the planet and the consequences that believers and non-believers alike are facing every day is stupid.  Anyone who promotes inaction while blocking programs and funding aimed at reversing the effects of our destructive behavior, is, shamefully, a waste…of humanity, of space and, tragically, of all of our time.