Friday, July 10, 2009New Thoughts on AccountabilityOK. That last post was a bit one-sided. There are many facets to a story, and this accountability issue is no exception.We've been noticing one area where Americans are far more responsible than (it appears, based on the world's worst empirical data sampling) our European neighbors: littering. Our streets are, basically, a lot cleaner than those we saw in the UK, Scotland, or France. Again, based on the worst statistics possible (the only sampling that would be less rigorous was if we had never stepped foot in these countries at all), we are finding littering to be an eyesore very much in France, and London, and (surprisingly) even in Scotland. Admittedly, Scotland is so very beautiful that even one misplaced soda bottle is an abomination, but we did see a couple of those, and some strewn about newspapers that were, in that setting, really jarring. A hasty research on the 'net (made more difficult by the fact that my browser seems intent on displaying everything in French despite my many attempts to change my settings to English), indicates that the worst culprit in UK littering is fast food. And -- of the five worst offenders of fast food litter -- the US owns three of the chains (McDonald's, KFC, and Subway.) So... we may not be that great about packaging our food, but we are pretty damn good about picking it all up afterward. And that goes for dog excrement as well. We're not too bad with that issue as well these days. So, hats off to us. It may not make up for global warming, and it doesn't even start atoning for W, but it is a start, and it really does make a difference. I'm kind of looking forward to going home and not watching every footfall with care. # posted by Katherine Shirek Doughtie @ 2:03 PM  
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