Dealing with the Environmental Hypocrite

If there's one thing that drives me absolutely crazy, it's an environmental hypocrite.  You know someone who preaches awareness of the environment but proceeds to act exactly the opposite.  I encounter this on occasion, and it makes me mad as hell.

Allow me to give you two examples:

One evening, while out walking my collie/timber wolf, I stopped to chat with some folks who recognized the dog from a picture of him which appeared in the newspaper some time ago. They asked me many questions about him, which I gladly answered.  The conversation then turned to environmental problems such as world population, greenhouse gases and pollution. It doesn't take much to get me conversing on these subjects, so I imagine we must have talked for a half-hour or so.

We had no sooner finished our conversation and said goodnight, proceeding in opposite directions, when my dog Moonsong became tangled in his leash. As a result this required me to turn around and kneel down and inso doing; I ended up facing the backs of the people with whom I had just spoken. To my utter surprise, I saw one of them throw a tissue to the ground.  This was no accident; I saw the person deliberately drop it. I simply couldn't believe it. We had just finished what I interpreted as a meaningful discussion on the seriousness of pollution, only to observe this same person littering.

On another occasion, I was enjoying a conversation about the outdoors and wildlife with a certain gentleman - I use the term loosely - who for several minutes, impressed upon me the virtues of nature. He expressed concern for endangered species and how everyone must do his or her part to save animal life.  What he didn't say, at least at first, was that he felt only certain species should be saved. He proudly informed me that when he's hunting, he'll shoot wolves at every opportunity - a species I happen to greatly admire and have studied for many years.

"They're good for nothing," he said, "and besides, they kill all the deer" - here was another 'expert' on the subject.  It was then that I realized I was talking to a moron, and decided it was best to end the conversation quickly.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. Rather, he continued by saying that the population of ruffed grouse appeared low this year, given that he and his brother had poor luck poaching them.

He chuckled, saying the birds are so stupid; he can practically walk up to them and bonk them on the head.  I wanted to say that I didn't think it was the grouse that were the stupid ones, but I bit my tongue.

I guess I've made my point that there are some very hypocritical environmentalists out there. It's frustrating that they identify and call themselves as such when nothing could be further from the truth.

There's a saying I like because it's cut-and-dried: if one is not part of the solution, they are part of the problem. Simple, straightforward and true. It's too bad some people must pretend false concern for wildlife and the environment.

Has it become so fashionable to be conscious of the environment that people will go to great lengths to fake it?  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that without a healthy environment, we can kiss everything else goodbye. Healing the Earth won't happen overnight, but it has only taken us about 150 years to seriously damage it.

That in itself is ample reason not to become part of the minority of environmental hypocrites.

Be honest with yourself and Mother Nature; only good can come from it.