Honestly what is wrong with people? It's bad enough to leave dirty diapers in parking lots (where I have seen quite a few of them) but to leave them in a beautiful area like that?? I wonder if these people leave their dirty diapers laying around in their front yards!? I'm glad you posted the article.
Posted by David Weber on March 13, 2007 at 3:31 PM
"My opinion is not suitable for polite company"...
...or even impolite company.
Grrrr!
Gary's note regarding contacting 'park' officials and raising awareness is good start. Sadly, the very people who need to be educated about this, and similar acts, likely don't care.
-PB
Posted by Mary Dennis on March 13, 2007 at 4:48 PM
Grrrrrrrr! Yuck. This always pisses me off whether it's a national park or people who live on the rural road I drive every day. Oblivious, ignorance, carelessmess, cluelessmess, selfishmess, rudemess, disrespect, I DON'T KNOW...but I'm tired of it. I'm finding ways to deal with the mess along my county road though. Last week I purchased a 30 gallon trash can, put a big blue bow on it, and anonymously put it in the yard of some people who WEEKLY (for many months now) have had their uncanned garbage bags pilfered by dogs, strewn and blown all over the place making a real big cumulative mess. I think the message was received. All visible traces of garbage was picked up. We will see if they choose to use the can this week for putting out the trash. Now I need to buy a half a dozen more cans and repeat the process up and down the road. I KNOW that Yosemite has trash cans!!! So no damn excuses right?
Unfortunately this occurs here in upstate NY as well. As the saying goes, you don't have to have brains to make children. Unfortunately the brainless then have to take care of them; which at least some of them are not qualified to do!
I am always amazed how garbage can pop up in remote/natural areas, I have found soda cans, potato chip bags and cigarete pack (the 3 worst culprits) in places that require 15 hour hikes.
Nothing is unbelievable in Yosemite Valley, Gary. It's just normal Civilization housed between some of the most beautiful mountain walls in the world.
Posted by Richard Wong on March 13, 2007 at 8:10 PM
lol, i like how Michael just says it like it is. What really bothers me is graffiti. It is such a low class, caveman like behavior that those who deface nature and property should be jailed. Seeing the expression of that kid tagging the LA mayor's bus showed that people who do stupid stuff like that don't think anything of their activities. It's as normal to them as drinking water. That is scary.
Then there is the flip side too. I once met this photographer and nature lover at Yosemite who couldn't stop talking about all the destruction caused by stupid people who don't care about the environment. Yet, that very same person didn't think twice before opening his SUV door and leaving a nasty ding/scratch on the side of my car (which was unfortunately parked in the adjacent stall).
The lesson I learned that day was that "everyone" has stuff they care about and stuff they don't care about. We only seem to have a problem when folks deface or destroy the stuff we care about.
Posted by Kent Staubus on March 13, 2007 at 10:12 PM
I have just accepted the fact that some people are pigs, and not let it ruin my day. I too would have carried the diapers to a trash can. In the end, I feel sorry for these kinds of people who are so numb to the beauty that surrounds them. It's as if they are living in a black & white world and don't have the perception to see the glorious colors! Think of how empty the life must be to not be able to be moved by such beauty! They are to be pitied.
Fully agree with Gary but guys you have never been to Belgium ... not only diapers but everything else used by humans can be found everywhere. We don't have those beautiful landscapes you have over-there so the little nature that's left here isn't even respected by that kind of MORONS !
Posted by Robert Scholl on March 14, 2007 at 10:07 AM
This kind of thing is so frustrating and common. I can never understand how people can make the effort to go enjoy some pristine beautiful place and then trash it.
Yup. I think I should by stock in the Hefty plastic bag company, I go through so many each year picking up after the slobs. Picking up is the only solution, whether to clear a view for photos or simply from a sense of responsibility to the places I lover.
Posted by Jim Erhardt on March 14, 2007 at 10:19 AM
A guy I used to car pool had ZERO tolerance for those who threw litter from their cars. One day when sitting in traffic, the guy in front of us threw a half-full paper coffee cup from his car. My buddy George put his car in park, got out and handed the guy his litter. I asked George what he said to the litter bug;
Even when you understand that many people are slobs and care neither for the landscape they are trashing nor the folks coming up the trail behind them; I'm continually amazed by what people are willing to pack into a wilderness and yet are not willing to carry the light weight empty containers and wrappings out!
Same experiences here in Austria - with some exceptions. In Austria when doing hikes in the mountains, people are told NOT to throw away their garbage it is prohibited of course. There are almost NO trashcans around. Everything they take there, has to be taken home again. If they spend the night in a cabin - there are no trashcans - they have to take home all their litter again. Quite surprisingly almost everybody do respect this. If you are in the mountains you can rest assured that your view will not be destoyed by some litter.
But if less effort is necessary to go to a place (no hiking to higher elevations, no 4 hour car drive) - just that park around the corner, a public place, whatever, then people become pigs. I wonder if this is some kind of selection. People that go for a hike in the mountains maybe respect and love nature, outdoors and other humans more, and hence keep that environment clean. In the cities, in more crowded areas, it is likely that there are some morons around that dont give a sh... about their environment and hence drop everything they don't need anymore. This includes the feces of their dogs as well. Even if it is prohibited that dog-owners let their dog drop its "stuff" on the sidewalk, people just dont care. It's disgusting. If you tell them to remove it, you get a gruffy answer.
Look at the floor of a movie-theatre when the film is over - popcorn and other waste on the floor and on the seats. Or even in the plane, especially long-distance flights: What a mess afterwards - even in the business-class section.
That's how mankind is. It makes me sad and angry, but one cannot change it. It's a result of affluence...
The "problem" with nationalparks in the US is that they are sometimes overcrowded, visited by everyone, and many places are easily reached by car. Its so "easy" to go there. You dont't even have to be a nature-lover because it takes no effort, no stamina and no inspiration to get there.
Just my speculation why people dont care.
Regards Dietrich
I know there are many disrepectful people who litter and I despise them just as much as the rest of you. However, let me take another vantage point this time. It is possible that the diapers were properly discarded and later pulled out by animals. I have seen rodents rummage through out-houses and take toilet paper before so diapers is no stretch of the imagination. Maybe it is one rogue squirrel at this location that has a thing for the undigested food found in diapers? It doesn't make much sense that someone would change a diaper in the middle of a field, or go through that much trouble to take a used diaper to the middle of a field at a popular area. Same for being 20 feet from a trash bin, it doesn't make sense. Maybe the trash bin was full and people were precariously placing things on top - to eventually fall off. People can be ridiculously stupid and disrespectful, I'm just trying to say that sometimes there can be other explanations... Not that it makes it any better though.
Jeff
Posted by Gary Crabbe on March 15, 2007 at 12:21 PM
Hi Jeff:
Yeah, that point has been considered. However, as a parent of two young kids, it wasn't that long ago since I was changing diapers enough to recognize their state. These were ' fresh' within a few days and in otherwise frsh condition with no rips or tears, If it had been mauled by and animal, I would have regocnized it as such, and cleaned it up without all the fuss. Based on where this was, and the condition, and no place near enough to even lay a changing blanket or walk without loosing balance - not a place to be walking while holding a toddler, I can only assume these were actually tossed or thrown into the grass.
Cheers, and appreciate weighing in with your thoughts.
Posted by David Senesac on March 15, 2007 at 5:08 PM
Whether or not the diapers in that meadow got there by negligence or inadvertant accident doesn't dismiss the general issue that there is a lot more trash showing up in both Yosemite National Park and other parks and public outdoor areas in our USA than ever has been the case in past generations. Here in California, there has been increasing trashing ever since about 1975 when the rebellious punk generation began. In the 50s and 60s there were regular "don't be a litterbug" campaigns in media including tv that became ingrained in the mindset of young people of that generation. And because of the enormous influx of immigrants, and especially poor illegal immigrants that often come from poor areas of foreign countries with absolutely no sense of environmental ethics, those new people readily have picked up with that disgusting trashing attitude status quo. However there has been little effort to curb litter since those distant times with many police departments using an excuse they are too busy with more serious crimes than to bother. And of course politicians have not been pressuring them because their constituents haven't. Hence areas along our urban highways often have enormous amounts of visible trash even though the department of transportation regularly has those sentenced to community service work clean such roadsides.
How might we change the situation? Well we who are concerned need to influence those who might be able to do something about it. We alone can at most only pick up trash in garbage bags when outdoors while having no hope as individuals to effect policy. But as members of a larger community of photographers, with numbers such as we have on this reputable board, we might craft up a letter or email agreed or voted upon by members that we could send to some of our state politicians and various media. If we sent the same letter/email to a number of them, there would be more incentive for some of them to act given politicians don't like to be seen as unresponsive especially among their own peers. And if we could get other communities of outdoor enthusiasts to join us as some most certainly would, such might have even more chance of eliciting action. In the past we peons on the bottom of organizations and outdoor enthusiast groups had little or no mechanisms to make a difference. But the internet age of the world wide web has all changed that. Only if people like us take that first step in making a difference.
...David
Why do such people behave that way? Because they know there is someone who will eventually clean up after them. And very likely their own property and home is neat and meticulously clean because they have to clean up themselves. There is no excuse for these slobs. Garbage containers in the parks are beast tamper proof. And parents who take a toddler with them into a pristine nature should make preparations to deal with things like dirty diapers. Or stay home until the child has been potty trained.
You know...I have had the great fortune of teaching young middle schoolrs for the past year now the wonders of digital photgraphy. One of my classes is geared towards creating a photo essay of their choice. They have to come up with a theme, and then go about photographing that theme. The photos they make are then produced into a short slide show that might include text and or music. One of the lessons I give them is on the photo essays of Lewis Hine when he was hired by the US Congress to photograph children in the mills bak in the late 19th century and the like. The photos he presented raised such an uproar that congress enacted the child labor laws in place today.
Photography is a powerful medium. If we want to see some change about garbage in our natural places, what say we start photographing it as an element in our artistic compositions during the magic light and make it a prominent feature and then we can some how create a DVD or maybe a book, that we then can send to our policy makers to make it clear that the pristine beauty that we keep showing everyone is really being abused and trashed and if they don't do something its only going to get worse.
If we love our dear mother earth with all her beauty shouldn't we, who are most invloved in portraying her be her most vocal advocates?
Posted by Gary Crabbe on March 17, 2007 at 2:34 AM
Thanks all for the replies. Youssef, your post reminded me of my first editorial, which by coincidence, was for Forbes Magazine. They hired me to go to Yosemite for two days to document the (then) change in concessionaires from the Curry Co. to Deleware North. My assignment was to actually photograph some of the not so nice aspects of the valley, including potholes, the gas station, litter, crowds, etc.. My most vivid memory was seeing a kid playing on a roped of handicap access ramp sitting in complete disrepair, while the Concessionaire office was getting a new roof.
Discussion
23 replieshttp://www.enlightphoto.com/views/2007/03/13/diapers.htm
For anyone here that likes to get their blood a-boil'n...
RRrr. Woof!
...or even impolite company.
Grrrr!
Gary's note regarding contacting 'park' officials and raising awareness is good start. Sadly, the very people who need to be educated about this, and similar acts, likely don't care.
-PB
The lesson I learned that day was that "everyone" has stuff they care about and stuff they don't care about. We only seem to have a problem when folks deface or destroy the stuff we care about.
Kent in SD
"Here, I think you dropped something."
But if less effort is necessary to go to a place (no hiking to higher elevations, no 4 hour car drive) - just that park around the corner, a public place, whatever, then people become pigs. I wonder if this is some kind of selection. People that go for a hike in the mountains maybe respect and love nature, outdoors and other humans more, and hence keep that environment clean. In the cities, in more crowded areas, it is likely that there are some morons around that dont give a sh... about their environment and hence drop everything they don't need anymore. This includes the feces of their dogs as well. Even if it is prohibited that dog-owners let their dog drop its "stuff" on the sidewalk, people just dont care. It's disgusting. If you tell them to remove it, you get a gruffy answer.
Look at the floor of a movie-theatre when the film is over - popcorn and other waste on the floor and on the seats. Or even in the plane, especially long-distance flights: What a mess afterwards - even in the business-class section.
That's how mankind is. It makes me sad and angry, but one cannot change it. It's a result of affluence...
The "problem" with nationalparks in the US is that they are sometimes overcrowded, visited by everyone, and many places are easily reached by car. Its so "easy" to go there. You dont't even have to be a nature-lover because it takes no effort, no stamina and no inspiration to get there.
Just my speculation why people dont care.
Regards Dietrich
Jeff
Yeah, that point has been considered. However, as a parent of two young kids, it wasn't that long ago since I was changing diapers enough to recognize their state. These were ' fresh' within a few days and in otherwise frsh condition with no rips or tears, If it had been mauled by and animal, I would have regocnized it as such, and cleaned it up without all the fuss. Based on where this was, and the condition, and no place near enough to even lay a changing blanket or walk without loosing balance - not a place to be walking while holding a toddler, I can only assume these were actually tossed or thrown into the grass.
Cheers, and appreciate weighing in with your thoughts.
How might we change the situation? Well we who are concerned need to influence those who might be able to do something about it. We alone can at most only pick up trash in garbage bags when outdoors while having no hope as individuals to effect policy. But as members of a larger community of photographers, with numbers such as we have on this reputable board, we might craft up a letter or email agreed or voted upon by members that we could send to some of our state politicians and various media. If we sent the same letter/email to a number of them, there would be more incentive for some of them to act given politicians don't like to be seen as unresponsive especially among their own peers. And if we could get other communities of outdoor enthusiasts to join us as some most certainly would, such might have even more chance of eliciting action. In the past we peons on the bottom of organizations and outdoor enthusiast groups had little or no mechanisms to make a difference. But the internet age of the world wide web has all changed that. Only if people like us take that first step in making a difference.
...David
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
Photography is a powerful medium. If we want to see some change about garbage in our natural places, what say we start photographing it as an element in our artistic compositions during the magic light and make it a prominent feature and then we can some how create a DVD or maybe a book, that we then can send to our policy makers to make it clear that the pristine beauty that we keep showing everyone is really being abused and trashed and if they don't do something its only going to get worse.
If we love our dear mother earth with all her beauty shouldn't we, who are most invloved in portraying her be her most vocal advocates?