awe944-blog

[awe944-blog]

Social Media Submission: Cage Match - Nature vs Humanity

I recently walked from the University of Utah campus to the Infinity Event Center. This walk took roughly 40 minutes. The entire walk I was thinking about what to write for this blog post. On my way back I rode the Trax and while I was waiting for train a lady spit her gum out right onto the train tracks.

I am no chemist, but I am pretty certain that gum does not decompose in a timely manner. This is a clear example of nature hostility. On the rest of my journey home I decided to count the pieces of gum that I passed by; it totaled up to 7 pieces on a mere 3 block walk from the Trax station down to my house. This was a shockingly high number and I am slightly appalled. I am unsure if this is due to a lack of education or a lack of infrastructure that encourages proper gum disposal.

Nature hostility is a relative term here. One could make the argument that everything humans make is hostile towards nature. Cities move rivers, tear up trees and kill grass in order to make the infrastructure that is required. This is the terrifying reality that we live in and there must be changes made before the point of no return is reached. A simple solution to this problem surrounding the littering on public transportation would be to bring nature back into the system. This picture is from Freiburg, Germany where the grass below the transportation system has two purposes. It helps diminish the noise produced from the train and makes it looks clean, deterring littering.