Speaker: Heather Huckeba, Arkansas Canoe Club
The anti-litter campaign that started as early as 1953 and went into high gear in the 1970’s can only be seen as a failure if you think the goal of that public education campaign has been to reduce litter. Instead, the primary goal has been to ensure that we all believe that litter is entirely an individual’s responsibility and up to individuals to try to fix the problem. As long as we don’t believe that corporations or manufacturers or even governments have any role to play in addressing our ever growing litter problem, this campaign has hands down been an overwhelming success.
When we “follow the money” we find that the same big money backers of anti-litter campaigns spend MILLIONS opposing proven, effective solutions. Are there actual solutions to litter? YES. But we will need to change how we define the problem and then we need to be smart about advocating for these real solutions. We’ll look at how changes in consumable products and consumer habits have accelerated exponentially the problem of litter, and what solutions we need to start demanding if we want to see a change in our waterways and natural places.
Heather Huckeba has been an avid whitewater kayaker and blackwater canoeist for the past 12 years. She serves on the Arkansas Canoe Club’s Board of Directors as Membership Chair, and is an American Canoe Association Level IV Kayak and Level IV Canoe Instructor. When not chasing whitewater in the Ozarks or Ouachitas, or exploring Eastern Arkansas blackwaters, she usually can be found exploring and cleaning up Little Rock’s Fourche Bottoms.
Location: Fletcher Library. Time: 7 PM.