Our health is at stake.
Nature's on
A downward path,
Save her with
Some voter wrath.
A downward path,
Save her with
Some voter wrath.
America's rare
environmental victories often earn headlines. They might involve the successful
blocking of a dangerous pipeline, a new mercury standard for coal, or perhaps
the signing of a hard-fought pact to curb overfishing.
Unfortunately,
the worst anti-environmental activity goes unreported. After all, who is likely
to bankroll efforts to spread the word about the plague of Parkinson's disease in California's central valley — where so many of
our toxin-sprayed fruits and vegetables grow, endangering farmworkers and their
families? The government? Food companies? Monsanto? The corporate-owned
mainstream media?
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| Mountaintop removal mining in Kentucky. (ILoveMountains.org/Flickr) |
Maybe not. The
Sierra Club might be onto it, or Earthjustice, or the local university and
county neurological society. But in general, the people with deep pockets don't
give a fig. They just want to keep all that good food and cheap labor coming.
Parkinson's isn't their department.
Much the same
unofficial secrecy pervades air pollution, habitat destruction, coral reef
shrinkage, whale killing, toxic waste storage, expanded oil drilling, species
extinction, poisonous consumer products, and even climate change.
Although
government agencies are ostensibly charged with tracking and documenting these
scourges, they generally lack the money or the will to make an adequate fuss.
Plus, Wall Street stands ready to pooh-pooh any environmental anxiety that does
go public about its investments.
The state of the
Earth is why being a "good citizen" today can be so depressing. There
are just too many crises to worry about. Does mercury from coal plants really
affect me? You bet your patootie. How about emission standards for diesel
trucks? Are you kidding? And the disappearance of major fish species affects
both the oceans and all of us landlubbers.
Further, if you
think that coal companies blowing the tops off mountains is none of your
business, think again. The destruction of one region's quality of life is a
blow to all. New York and Pennsylvania thought natural gas fracking was just a
problem out west, until it got to them. Now they're frantic too. Who's next?
Our health and
the future of all healthy lives are at stake. We can't reasonably keep up with
everything as the threats to humanity materialize faster and faster. It's like
the original "Space Invaders" video game. Eventually, the aliens
overrun you. In today's real-life corporate exploitation game, you may not even
realize what the marauders are up to.
This erosion of
nature is part of what Occupy Wall Street is getting at. Since there's no way
to stay informed or be effective on every issue, we need a powerful,
knowledgeable surrogate to defend us. Like the government. But the government
is subject to corruption.
That means it's vital for each of us to stay on top
of at least one issue personally. This might be keeping up on destructive
Brazilian power dams, depleted-uranium weapons, new signs of devastation from
the BP oil disaster, or whatever. Just pick one, Google it, support the
non-profit group that's leading the fight, and bug your members of Congress.
This is called
"democracy." While it needn't be a whole lot of work, it does require
persistence. Lawmakers hate knowledgeable, persistent constituents. They will
occasionally vote the right way just to shut them up. The environment, with its
multitude of issues, is well suited to this approach.
And Mother Nature
seriously needs our help.
OtherWords columnist William A. Collins is a former state
representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. otherwords.org