Environmentalism

The main theme of "The Toxic Donut" is concern for the destruction of earth's environment. While the story takes place in the future, after humanity has devised a solution for environmental destruction, Ron, the administrative assistant, talks about humanity's past—in other words, the time in which Bisson and his readers live: "I mean it all really happened! Dead rivers, dead birds, dioxins." In Ron's time, environmentalism is a worldwide concern, so much so that there is an "International Institute of Environmental Sciences." As Ron notes, Kim represents "everybody in the world who cares about the environment, and these days that includes everybody." However, instead of trying to minimize pollution, as today's environmentalists advocate, the futuristic human society in the story is free to produce as much toxic waste as it wants, since at the end of the year, it can be compressed into one donut with...