Say no to leaf blowers

THE EDITOR: Unparalleled as the stupidest of ALL inventions is the leaf blower. Take a few moments to think about your world and its gloomy, scary future. Then reflect on rakes and yard brooms.

Rakes and yard brooms are perfect creations. They are simple tools which enable us to gather leaves and grass clippings into neat piles destined for the compost heap.

There is a minimum of science and physics involved in their use. They provide ample opportunity for some beautiful and, for some people, much-needed exercise.

They are silent – possibly their most endearing and enduring quality especially in the noisiest of societies – and are pleasingly scratchish or sweepish...yes, adjectives I just invented.

Even with today’s inflation, they cost very little (certainly not the hundreds or thousands of dollars some leaf blowers cost) and have no moving parts.

Most wonderfully, they require the user to belch no million-year-old fossil fuels into our already badly polluted atmosphere.

As simple as they are, rakes and brooms aid in combating non-communicable diseases by way of exercise and also help with mental health and happiness by encouraging friendly chat and banter between fellow-wielders.

The obnoxious, carbon-spewing leaf blower has no place in a healthy future for us and our threatened world and should be consigned to the rubbish heap.

Show your brains and your commitment to the future – say No! to leaf blowers.

A BLADE

Tobago