I was sitting on my front porch earlier this morning, sipping on my first cup of coffee for the day. The birds weren’t out yet and the wind wasn’t blowing, it was quiet.

Then, from down the street, came the roar of an engine. I looked down the hill to see a pair of headlights racing up the street. As the dark SUV sped past, a hand reached out the window and tossed a plastic wrapped newspaper in the general direction of my neighbors house. Without hesitation, the engine roared again and the ‘paperboy‘ continued up the hill.

What happened? I never had a paper route. But I remember when I was in elementary school my best friend did. Whenever I spent the night, I would wake up early with him. We would grab the stack of flat papers from his front porch, pull out a bag of rubber bands, and wrap the papers up. Then he would strategically load his double sided bag and we would walk up and down the neighborhood streets, carefully tossing papers onto porches as we went.

I can’t remember the last time that I saw anyone walking a paper route. And I certainly haven’t seen any kids doing it.

So many things disturbed me about this morning’s experience (not the least of which that someone was speeding down my street…grrr). The fact that an SUV is apparently required for a paper route is ridiculous. As if this isn’t inefficient enough, the driver is racing around with totally inefficient driving habits. Then the fact that this guy cares so little about his work that he barely slows down to toss the paper with any sort of consideration for the customer. And of course, what happened to the rubber band? It wasn’t raining. Why the plastic bag?

I think that our society needs to take a long look at ourselves. We need to slow down, live in a way that is healthy for ourselves and our environment, we need to live in the moment, and we need to be considerate towards others.

So disturbing.

It’s the Fourth of July again, and after watching our neighborhood look like a war zone I’m compelled to do the unpatriotic thing by pointing out how bad fireworks are for the environment.

As Salon’s resident eco-expert Pablo Päster points out, all the fireworks purchased in the United States in 2006, would, if detonated, emit 60,340 tons of C02, the equivalent of what is produced by 12,000 cars running for a year. He also notes that the compounds used to create fireworks’ bright colors contain heavy metals that contaminate soil and water.

What’s more, most fireworks contain potassium perchlorate, a chemical thought to pose health risks to humans and wildlife. Last year the Environmental Protection Agency discovered a definitive link between fireworks and surface water perchlorate contamination. But perchlorate levels returned to normal after a month or two.

One way to solve this problem is to invent a greener pyrotechnic. That’s what the Walt Disney Company did in 2004, replacing black powder with compressed air.

In addition to the noise pollution and copious amounts of litter strewn from one end of the block to the other, fireworks do pose another significant environmental hazard in wildfires. As MSNBC reports, a number of cities and towns in California and other states have banned fireworks displays out of fear that they may spark brush fires. Polluting the environment is one thing, burning it to the ground is another matter altogether.

I don’t mind celebrating our fabulous nations birthday, I just wonder if shooting bombs into the air and hollering drunken cheers after the explosion is the best way to do that. But I’m just sayin’.

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Much of the content contributed to Christian Science Monitor