Winter wonderland is more than it’s cracked up to be

SPRING is an exciting time, when the little buds swell on the branches, ready to burst into lush leaves. Tiny spikes of flowers and weeds push their heads tentatively through the damp earth to see whether it’s safe to wake up again. A sad reality, however, in cold countries like Canada, is that the pristine blanket of snow that has turned it into a wonderland all winter now begins to melt, revealing the tons of junk hidden under its crisp blanket.

As the snow turns to slush, the roadsides and traffic islands are seen to be littered with trash.

One of the laws of nature is that everything gradually flows down to the sea.

Scientists say about 8 billion tons of plastic garbage finds it way into the world’s oceans every year. Studies by Nasa show most of it lands up in five vast trash islands, known as gyres – one each in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North and South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Nobody knows exactly how big these trash islands are because the edges are not clearly defined. Also, nobody is sure how deep these floating islands go.

Some reports claim the larger gyre islands are bigger that Texas, which is about 700 000km2 in area

That’s more than half the total size of South Africa and three times the area of Great Britain. Imagine a rubbish dump stretching all the way from Cape Town to Bloemfontein, and you get some idea of the problem.

In the cities we scratch the surface of the problem by building “landfill” mountains out of much of our trash. Too much still gets away and heads off slowly, aided by wind and rain, until it joins that vast Trash Heaven in the ocean.

I sometimes see heroic people walking along the roadsides or through parklands, here in Canada or home in the Cape, armed with garbage grabbers or spikes, collecting rubbish and putting it into plastic bags. I could be cynical and say: “Do you really believe your pathetic little effort will make any noticeable difference to a pile of garbage thrice as big as Britain?”

That would be wrong. That garbage pile was made by millions of individuals, each dropping one chocolate wrapper or tossing one yoghurt cup or coffee pod away at a time. To reverse that tragedy, it will take a million individuals armed with spikes, each collecting just one bag of rubbish every weekend.

Our challenge is for each of us to convince enough people that it’s worth the effort.

It would be a pity to allow the planet to die, drowned in an ocean of trash.

I, for one, rather like the old place. I’ve become used to its quirky ways. It may have its flaws, and its rather scary leaders, but it’s home.

I would miss it.

Last Laugh

A police officer called the station and said: “I have an unusual murder case here. A woman shot her husband because he walked over the floor just after she had mopped it. Over.”

The radio crackled and said: “Did you arrest her? Over.”

“No sir. The floor’s still wet. Over.”