farting in a bell jar

27 hours into transit, i had an epiphany at 39,000 miles above average low and high tides.  bored out of my mind and tired of sitting, i started staring out into space, literally, computing atmospheric escape velocities in my head.

i realized that even with some atmospheric escape and other exchanges, earth is fairly self-contained, a bubble if you will.  so i wondered why, if we live in a bubble, people would be so reckless of what we do in this bubble.

and i think it's because we don't see most of it.  we produce an average of 4.3 lbs of waste a day, and it's carried away dozens or hundreds of miles away.

we turn on our taps and water instantly gushes out.

we flush our toilets and our poo swiftly swirls out of sight and smell.

we consume an average of 4.7 lbs of food a day with hardly a clue as to where most of it comes from.

but imagine living inside a small bell jar.  you would probably be fairly mindful of the food you grew, the waste you created, how you process the waste, the proximity of your waste from your food, the quality and quantity of your water, and your overall resources.  i bet you'd devise some sort of sustainable system because you have nowhere else to go.

and i sure as heck bet you'd be really cautious of farting.  so why aren't you as mindful about the waste you create?  sure, we live in a slightly larger bell jar, but we sure as hell have nowhere else to go unless i missed some monumental discovery in my last hour of slumber.