Garbage, Garbage, Garbage

I’ll be honest and admit that before today, I didn’t know who Pete Seeger was*. Sure, I’d probably heard his tunes in the background of various TV shows (Weeds, anyone?) but I never knew that he was so forward thinking and all about big issues like women’s rights, civil rights, and…yep, environmental stewardship. Folk singers, they’re the coolest. I’m only sad that I came around to him too late. Bummer…

So why mention him on a blog devoted to all things plastic pollution? Well this harkens back to my Bill Nye post about garbage and realizing yet again that people have been talking about this issue for a long time. In 1996, Seeger released a song entitled “Garbage” and there’s a verse in it that goes like this:

In Mister Thompson’s factory, they’re making plastic Christmas trees
Complete with silver tinsel and a geodesic stand
The plastic’s mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration
That’s been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land.
And if you question anything, they say, “Why, don’t you see?
It’s absolutely needed for the economy,”
(source: Lyrics On Demand)

Hearing this song was like a shock to my brain: plastic pollution, pollution in general is such a critical issue! When it comes to pollution, I think people often get bogged down in the details and the nitty-gritty of “Well, this issue is too big and there are too many moving parts so why bother?”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX3ljsKF6bQ&w=560&h=315]

Why bother? Because it keeps happening. People are still writing songs about garbage. Haven’t we learned yet? We tend to write off plastic pollution in favor of larger, “hot topics” like oil exploitation and climate change but the reality is that all of them are connected. We suck petroleum products from the ground, turn them into single-use items and plastic Christmas trees because “it’s absolutely needed for the economy” and in the process pollute our homes, our air, and our water.

I like that these songs exist, because they reinvigorate my excitement about this issue and are good tools to help raise awareness but it would be so awesome if the idea of “garbage” as the focal point for a song became a true thing of the past.

*Many thanks to my Mom for pointing me in the direction of this cool cat! 🙂