Un-littering the landscape (Week 19)
"I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour." Besides being one of the finest non-fiction writers in the English language, Bill Bryson is a committed environmentalist who has a lot to say about the modern way of things. And one of those things, unfortunately, is litter. In a week that saw an explorer uncover garbage in the deepest depths of the world (the Mariana Trench) and a team remove tons of garbage on the world's tallest mountain , I made a miniscule contribution to the effort by picking up trash every time I went out the door. I know I looked ridiculous with a plastic bag (compostable!) attached to my waist and work gloves on as I walked down the sidewalk, but I was nonetheless pretty gob-smacked with how much litter I picked up on each journey. In my 15-minute walk to work, and this is in one of Canada's "cleanest" cities, I always collected at least half a pound of stuff people had thoughtlessly tossed aside. The Pep...