Who is to blame?

The cashier snapped at the old woman, “Bring your own grocery bag because plastic bags are bad for the environment.”

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The response, “That’s our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

BUT- back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

Back then, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator or elevator in every building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a car every time they had to go two blocks.

Back then, they washed the baby’s nappies because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that use electricity.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor.

The current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn’t have the green thing back then…

So who did it? When was it that our environment got so damaged?