This post was written on the bus from Port Blair, the main town of the Andaman Islands to the “wild” north of the Andamans and reflects Alex’ thoughts:
Having travelled so many nice places in my life, I am not easy to impress. However the first impression of the Andaman Islands truly deserves recognition. Maybe it is also the contrast to the busy life on India’s mainland. It feels good to see the clear sky and breath the jungle and ocean air. Paradise found!
But wait! This little 8 years old shit in front of me on the bus just threw an empty plastic bottle out the window, right into the jungle. There again, an empty cup of an instant noodles soup. His father sits next to him. Does not seem to be bothered. On mainland India it wouldn’t have bothered me neither. But not here, not in the paradise I was searching for desperately. I feel the anger rising in me.
Paradise is not easy to reach, you know?!
We had to fly from Chennai to Port Blair, catch the 7:00 a.m. bus the next morning and are now driving through a super bumpy road, the only road that goes to the northern Andamans, through a jungle. We are heading to Diligpur far in the north. The bus takes 12 hours, taking us through amazing rainforests, little villages and about 10 police checkpoints.
We have already taken ferries twice to change islands: Island hopping on a bus.
We have even passed the protected territory of a native tribe. These indigenous tribes still live in the stone ages and hunt with spears and bow and arrows. Unfortunately for them the modern world settled around them and build a road through their land.
I am writing this post at hour 10 from a total of 12 which the journey is supposed to take. Excited, overwhelmed by beauty and annoyed by being thrown into the air every minute by the pot holes in the road.
Aaaand, he did it again: some plastic packaging, just flew out the window. Origin: little boy with biscuit in mouth. All right. Add angry to the bouquet of emotions.
But am I really to judge this boy? After flying here, which polluted the environment far more than his litter out the window into my paradise. He might have never been on or even seen a plane.
I am a hypocrite but hey, it is my perfect picture of paradise that he is spoiling.
PS: I did not say anything. What do you think, should I turn into this guy complaining about the youth with the skateboards, I mean garbage?!
nice post!
CO2 Emission per hour flight depends on the airplane type but you can conservatively estimate it with 90kg/h flight.
For the trip Chennai -> Port Balir = ~220kg
Plastic biodegradation can take anything from some weeks to 1000s of years depending on the plastic type and the conditions. However, once the bottle is decomposed/ burned it will have released a few grams of CO2 only. So while the plastic bottle in the jungle does look ugly for a pretty ong time it certainly does not do as much environmental harm on the global level as your flight did.
In that sense I confirm your hypothesis that you are the asshole in this story 🙂
Thanks for putting things into prespective and greetings from another hypocritic asshole
Thank you Hose!
I shared the 220 kg with 220 other pax. This means I am only responsible for 1 kg, right?
I wonder how many plastic bottles it would take for the boy to throw out the window and burn afterwards in order to reach the break even point with my flight. Probably I will never know unless this email adress of yours actualy exists und you get a notification about this question.
Anyways, I am very thankful for the scientific prove of being the bad guy 🙂
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Take care Arleen!