Don't worry about the environment...

It'll all be ok as long as everyone uses paper straws and wooden cutlery.

A few days ago I went to the park to think, read and write (I love doing that) and with some new-found additional time on my hands currently was looking forward to spending it in this enjoyable way amongst the trees and the grass, the birds and critters, gentle breeze, fresh air and all that other stuff the outdoors provides. I grabbed a take-away salad and coffee from a cafe close by and made my way to the park in a positive and enthusiastic mood...and then ate my lunch with the wooden cutlery the cafe had provided.

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I don't know about the state of play in your location, but here in Australia the shift to wooden cutlery (for take-away purposes) and paper straws has occurred because it's going to save the planet from it's ultimate demise and the human race as well. But is it?

Whomever came up with paper straws and wooden cutlery is a fucken diabolical thunder cunt.

Anyway, no matter who's to blame and how big a thunder cunt they are, they can't match the thunder cuntiness of the fucken assholes who ignore entire countries whose behaviours are far more damaging to the environment than plastic cutlery and straws could ever be; I don't have to name them, we all know who they are. And what about virtually every human on the planet who demands more and more consumer goods without any thought to how all that shit adds to the issues. (Shoes, phones, clothing, electricity, those little fragrance things that go in the air vents of cars...)

We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for commercial fishing (globally) to accept that their catch is 50% by-catch (fish they don't want to harvest) which is thrown overboard dead or dying and to dump an estimated between 500,000 and 1 million tonnes of netting, line and fishing equipment into the ocean annually also. (Google it)

We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for clothing labels and manufacturers to produce endless "new clothing items" (the fast fashion craze) which ends up in landfill of on the beaches of Ghana. The clothing/textile industry produces some 20% of the planet's waste water and more gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined. (Google it.)

We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for some 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption to be wasted. I read that if food waste was a country it'd rank as third largest carbon emitter globally. (Google it)

I think you get the point here. There's loads more things I could list but you all either know them, can research for yourselves, or simply don't care.

Make no mistake, I'm not saying that plastic cutlery and straws are good for the environment or that alternatives aren't required...just that it seems a very cursory and ineffective strategy when compared against some of the other environmental issues we face; it seems to me that those items are an easy target and in blaming them (and controlling them) it applies a facade or veil (thin though it is) over the real issues...it's a deflection because things are so out of hand and rectification methods far too costly. Another example of people being controlled and kept in the dark.

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So there I was, picking splinters out of my mouth because of the wooden-fork-lunch-eating-experience cursing the inventor of that wooden torture device, in the glorious outdoors and wondering if humanity will ever wise up and if they do will it be in time. I don't think so though, people just don't want to pull back on their demands for more and more and the cycle will continue. Sure, a few try to do the right thing but it's all too few and all too little.

Have you experienced eating food with those diabolical wooden knives and forks or used a paper straw only to experience it's demise half way through your drink? (Why the fuck do we even need straws in the first place, can't we drink out of cups?) If you love it then please tell me why.

Are you one of those people who actually feels enough is being done to curb the wastage and environmental impacts humans are responsible for? (You'll never convince me of course, but you're entitled to your opinion.) Comment about whatever you like I guess, if you'd like to.