This morning I was paying the monthly bill for my SBC phone-DSL service on their website. Now, you might wonder why I need to pay for pathetic service like the kind I receive from SBC. But that is a whole different rant. Anyways, as soon as I logged onto their website, I was shown this big screen stating that I should switch to paperless bills. The page also said something about saving trees. My curiosity was piqued and I clicked the link. A cute screen with lots of cartoon trees popped up and asked me chose one of them. I chose a tree and a small note at the bottom displayed the tree's actual geographical coordinates and proudly proclaimed that it had been planted in October this year. Wow! I was impressed. These people really meant what they said about saving trees. I thought I should sign up but did not as I could not find the link which confirmed that my switch would contribute to the tree-growth fund (which was what the cartoon trees were all about). The whole incident then slipped out of my mind.Till I returned home this evening.
I checked my postal mail-box as usual. A whole bunch of advertisement papers fell into my hands. After scanning through quickly to see if there were any envelopes caught in between, I tossed them all into the waste-basket without a second glance. Then it struck me. Wait a minute. I throw away bunches of useless paper away everyday and they seriously expect me to believe that my signing up to not receive the *two* papers that constitute my phone bill will save a forest?? I agree little drops of water make the ocean. But we are talking about a really miniscule drop in a really huge ocean.
If anyone is really serious about saving any kind of forest, the first thing to do would be to stop sending all these paper ads. Or at least send them only to people who are interested in receiving and reading them. The next thing would be to ban all credit card companies from mailing out offers. If I want a credit card, I will apply for one. A special ban must be put on the citicard group. I am not kidding - they sent me two credit card offers every week for a whole year. I have stopped receiving them recently only because they haven't located me yet at my new place. I have a lot more suggestions but the above-mentioned will be good for starters.
I doubt if any such ban will happen though. On one side all these self-righteous companies will urge to save two more pieces of paper and will plant trees. On the other side, a forest will vanish in less than the time it takes to say "tree" because some other company decided that everyone on earth has to be persuaded to own one of its credit cards. Is it just me or do others also feel that in a lot of cases, there is a lot of clean up done after the mess is made? Why not just stop making the mess in the first place? For example, why not just leave the tree as it is instead of turning it into paper first and then planting another tree in its place?
12 comments:
itz a process..:-)
inevitable at that..
pazhayana kazhiga puthiyana puguga..
or something like that..:-)
"To be considered successful, a woman must be much better at her job than a man
would have to be. Fortunately, this isn't difficult." Wrong post, I know. But still, one of your old feminist signatures ;-)
btw, be a nice girl and please say YES to you-know-who! :-p
Hey Arch, Nice thought, exactly mine too.
LOL @ looking for a real envelope that matters hiding in between bunch of useless ad papers. Seriously. It is a highly irritating process.
And I _think_ you can notify the post office to not send you some of the ads, discount coupons, if I am not wrong. But who will take the pains to ask the post office to _not_send something? We might as well get it and dump it in the trash.
And wats spark talking about?? I smell something phishy..
On second thoughts, I think most of those useless ads come in recyclable papers, so its not so bad I guess??
The best option would be to recycle our trash, trash them in the right place.
Ginkgo: Hmm, not so inevitable you know. We never used to get so many paper ads in India (at least 4 years ago) and people still used to survive. BTW, idhu enna Tamil saying? Translation please!
Rahul: Welcome aboard! That's true :-(! I too *have* applied for credit cards due to marketing gimmicks. What bugs me is this kind of two-faced behavior. First causing the problem and then acting all magnanimous about fixing it...
Spark: I still thrive on feminist sayings and never let go of an opportunity to quote one :-P! BTW, unakku enna akkarai :-)?
Saranya: Oh I did not know about this post office thing. Maybe I should try it! Yes, recycling is good. But again, why even use it in the first place? Aaaah, kollapurein!
onnum illiye. illa, comments to the qotd post looked too fishy as sk points out. un mela engalukku ellam akkarai irukkadha enna?
"pazhaiyana kazhidhal pudhiyana pugudhal" is that saying, if i rem rite. i thought it sounds pretty straight for any tamil knowing girl. discard the old, welcome the new!
ah spark and saranya, looks like Im getting some support :-)
thnkoo thnkoo..
btw, was referring to the fact, that u just cant live with the same old things all the time..u have to keep replacing them..everything is a cycle..
Nothing can stay un affected
Spark, my Tamil sayings knowledge is a little weak...please excuse! Thanks for the translation.
Ginkgo, oh you meant not being able to live with old things. Thats true! My wrong interpretation!
lady, have you ever lived in Greenways road, RA puram? my friend wants to know.
So where do recycled papers go?
Anyways, if you can convince our Dubya in following the Kyoto protocol, I think you have done half the homework in preserving mother nature. :)
cheers.
~\ random blog browser /~
Hmm, if had the capability to convince Dubya to do something I wanted to happen, I wouldn't be sitting here blogging in the first place ;-)!
~\random blog writer :-P/~
that's a long break, for all i know :p
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