The Sunday Comics: An Environmental Impact Question

Cul De Sac by Richard Thompson raises an interesting environmental impact question. In today’s edition, the father is racking leaves and the daughter comes out to “romp in the leaves”. The leaf pile is small; it is not big enough for one person to enjoy romping. The girl kicks the leaves and then jumps in them. A friend asks what she is doing and she answers “romping in the leaf pile”. About this time, her brother comes out to romp, but there is no leaf pile left for him; he did not want to ramp in the leaves anyway. As the brother and sister return to the house, the sister’s friend asks, “Who knew that romping could have such an environmental impact?”

This raises the question, what is the environmental impact of romping in the leaves? I remember romping in the leaves as a child. I enjoyed scattering the cottonwood leaves all over my grandparents’ front yard. Grandpa, even though he had just raked the leaves, enjoyed watching my siblings and me scatter the leaves.

After we finished, he raked the leaves again. Eventually, he burned the leaves (it was legal to burn leaves in the city limits at that time), but for a while we had fun romping in the leaves without worrying about the environmental impact our actions had. This is a reflection of the times, then no one (individuals, business, or government) worried about the environmental impact their actions would have.