For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 18, 2024

We sure wish there were, April.

Sometimes I wonder. It’s nothing unusual for me to find garbage in my front yard people have thrown out of their automobile.

I wish Andrews-McMeel would put the original dates on these. Still, it’s nice to know Earth Stewardship isn’t just a “modern” notion.

No, April—there isn’t!

I like the way Elly finds a place to stop like she was trying to pin the car down to a particular place that they would miss if they did not stop the very moment she said, “Stop!!” I don’t think that’s how driving works.

Sadly April, yes.

Family picnic rule- everyone has to pick up a bag of litter before eating. We always left our picnic sites cleaner than we found them.

Out of the mouths of babes.

I figure if there were more of them than of us the problem would be a lot worse. I don’t know anybody, at this time, who is one of “them.” It has been years since i knew anybody who didn’t put gum wrappers and such in their pocket. Years ago I had a coke-head brother-in-law who was a litterer and worse.

Think about the people in your own circle… if more than half are trashers, well….

I have always had my doubts about that April and it is not just the garbage and pollution! It is also the total disregard of society ignoring the warning signs that our planet is changing and mankind in general is not adapting to try and keep things from getting out of control as we continually pollute, create greenhouse gases and continue to use one use plastic which may go down as one of the most dangerous inventions ever created by humans. Go green April and when you are old enough to vote, support the Green New Deal before it is too late (if that has not already occurred).

From Lynn’s Comments: This punch line comes from my mother. These are her words exactly as we cleaned up the garbage from yet another lovely picnic spot.

Pogo once said “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us.”. What a sad reality

It’s nothing like the 1970s when entire highways were literally littered with garbage everywhere. People usually don’t throw trash out of the window of their cars anymore… The one glaring exception being cigarette butts.

What a great question! I fear the correct answer is not what we hope it is.

I always remember our trips across Canada in the 70’s. Compared to the states, there was little to no trash along the highways. Sadly though, people do not respect Mother Earth.

Over 50 years ago a friend of mine’s dad was driving and threw a large bag of trash out of the car window into a ravine, saying “There’s more room out there than in here.” I had no words then or now.

Laziness. Irresponsibility. Lack of connection with nature.

Ugh! Why do people have to be such slobs!

Where’s a crying Indian when you need one?

We live along a rural road that is fairly heavily traveled. The trash thrown out is alcohol containers and fast food bags. From observation it is mostly the younger people who are trashing our roadside.

Two that set me off. When someone gets a coffee inside and gets back to their vehicle. They proceed to pour out some of the coffee so the next person to use that parking space steps into the mess. Same wrt emptying the ash tray. Thankfully most newer vehicles no longer have ash trays.

Liz will find the same behavior when she starts having relationships with young men… “use and abuse and walk away”. She is learning a good life lesson…

Our village has a volunteer highway side-of-road trash pickup team. While collecting, a car stopped alongside a team member, a passenger rolled down the window, dumped a bag of fast-food trash at her feet: “Here this is for you” and drove off. We waited for the vehicle to explode. It did not. We are working on that solution.

A good stiff fine works to curb littering. Unfortunately, local and state governments fail to focus enough resources on enforcing anti littering laws.

There are a lot more of “them” than there are of “us” Ref: the massive dump in the Pacific Ocean that no one, not groups of “tree huggers”, not a corporation or group of corporations or any of the countries surrounding that massive amount of garbage are willing to spend the time and $$$ to pick it up. And so it continues to grow bigger every year

I think the ghost of Farley was there ahead of the Pattersons and got into the trash, just like Elly used to let him do in their neighborhood.

It doesn’t take many people to make a mess, but if the “thems” include those who ignore other people’s messes even if they don’t litter themselves, then, yes, there are more. Squirrels are often to blame as well, though.

I pick it up from the beaches & mangroves & sidewalks & roadways & pristine scenery where I live on the idyllic island of Grand Cayman.

This is why all food packaging should be biodegradable

Let’s hope so April.

I think there are far more responsible people than those who aren’t. Sadly, those who are not responsible can create a huge mess that requires many more people to clean up than it took to mess up.

I’m beginning to think I’m the only one who picks up their dog’s poop in my neighborhood.

We can only hope sweetie, we can only hope

Next Scene : after the Pattersons leave – raccoons, squirrels, rats, bears, crows and seagulls raid the trash can spreading garbage everywhere

i certainly hope so, April

Out of the mouths of babes!

i was walking with my then 5yr old daughter when we saw a woman toss a piece of trash on the ground. i confronted her, saying that she was littering up my neighbourhood & i did not appreciate it. She countered by saying that “there was already trash on the ground.” i shamed her by saying that i was trying to teach my daughter to have respect for her neighbours & that this woman had set a deplorable example of supposedly adult behaviour. The woman reddened, picked up her trash & put it into the bin that was already only a few feet away from her in the 1st place.

Another time i was cycling down the street & saw someone toss a bag of fast-food trash out their car window. i picked up the bag, rode up to their car at the stoplight, & tossed it back into their car, saying, “Here. You dropped this!”

Their shocked reaction to the lapful of garbage was priceless!

use google and search

Russian cab driver hurls passenger out of his vehicle for LITTERING.I wish there were more of that taxi driver around!

Typical. If humans touched it then it has, in all probability, been f#@ked up.

Singapore has the right idea.

I am afraid there are more of them than us April. Much like the Patterson’s, I don’t understand the mentality of littering.

Why do people toss out garbage. Outside of nearly every store, park area, rest stop and picnic areas are GARBAGE cans! It’s just as easy to toss it in their proper receptacles than it is to throw out the window. Just do it when you get there or get home!

I’ve never understood it either. I’m fanatical about picking up trash. I was a teen during the Lyndon Johnson era when “Lady Bird” Johnson admonished the American people not to litter. There’s no way I can even toss a gum wrapper on the road.

This is one thing (among others) that is more prevalent in some cultures/places than others. No intention of a value judgement there, just an observation.

I sure hope so, April!

I think so.

There needs to be more “them” than “her”. One dead Farley is enough.

Sounds like this strip:

Michael, Lawrence and Brian are eating junk food outdoors

Brian: What do you want to do with your life?

Lawrence: I would like to dig up soil and be in landscaping, if my grades are good enough. How about you, Michael?

Michael: I dunno. But no matter what, we gotta protect the environment!

Lawrence and Brian: Yeah!

Michael, Brian and Lawrence walk away and are in silhouette. Their potato chip bags and empty soda bottles are left on the ground

Michael: ‘Cuz if we don’t care for the earth, who will?

Good question, kid.

Yep, they toss it out of their car. If it lands in my yard, I just kick it back onto the street for them to run over and smell. if they want their neighborhood to turn into a junkyard, let it. Let someone else pick it up if they don’t like it. I’m too fed up to care anymore

Small turn around on my road, at the end of my field. Pedalers like to rest there, it’s at the top of a long, winding hill. I put a trash bin out there for the entitled ones. Didn’t matter: half of them still leave their trash, 3 feet from the bin. Or closer. Yes, I empty it regularly.

Sadly, we have this problem in the NPS. People don’t seem to get the idea of “pack it in; pack it out.” And yes, there are more of “them” than us.

“Junk” by Paul McCartney comes to mind.

The last two Sundays have been kind of “Here are the things we did around Lake Superior.” Elizabeth seems happy. She’s helping out. This Elizabeth is totally not the Elizabeth that was surly the entire way on the drive. This Elizabeth would have no reason to be surly. They had fun fishing for birds last week. They are having a picnic this week. It’s funny how the personalities are different on Sundays.

It really is odd to think that there are “them” that think the world is their trash can. Even weirder, perhaps we never should have come to develop the word, or in and of itself: trash.

Calvin might find all that litter and reconstruct it into a dinosaur skeleton.

Tragedy of the commons.

Cleaning up after the oink-oinks.

We can hope, but don’t bet money on it ! ;-)

Dang, I want to print off this comic and leave it at the park I frequent. I’m always picking up garbage there. And abandoned socks, shoes, and clothes because of the splash pad.

Captain Planet! He’s our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero!

I think a lot of “them” live in my apartment complex. They take their trash to the dumpster, then toss it on the ground rather than putting it in.

The bad news is that there’s more of them than there are of you. The good news is that “you” Canadians are among the worst in the world for per capita carbon emissions, beating us yanks by a small margin.