Discuss: Environmental Amnesia

I am a victim of toxic poisoning. A school roofing project gone wrong exposed over a thousand students and teachers to deadly isocyanates, leaving dozens with serious injuries.  I was one of the teachers. In the years that followed, I learned that this was not an isolated incident.  Toxic Justice: A Conspiracy of Silence is my story.  I know what Sandra Steingraber meant when she wrote, “Despair is a luxury we can’t afford.”

Why the amnesia?  Have we been mesmerized by a Tower of Babel? 

Perhaps we are forever forgetting about the environment because too many people, especially the economic powerbrokers, their bought-and-paid-for politicians and their minions in the mainstream media, are worshipping a “totem”. At least to me, there appear to be many too many people for whom the economy, in and of itself, is the primary object of their idolatry. This behavior is observable, obvious and flagrant. In many instances, these worshippers make what they evidently believe are rational arguments that suggest manmade financial and economic systems are somehow essential to, and an integral part of, God’s Creation; that indicate the growth of the global economy will occur from now on, even after the Creation is ravaged and its frangible climate destabilized by unbridled overproduction, unchecked overconsumption and unregulated overpopulation activities of the human species. Aside from the “Economic Colossus” nothing matters to them.

Today, it appears that the financial system of the economic powerbrokers is collapsing like a “house of cards” and the real economy of the family of humanity is threatened. Experts in political economy are saying internally inconsistent and contradictory things. Communications about financials and the economy are generally confused and in disarray. Confidence and trust in the operating systems of finance and the global economy have been undermined by the invention of dodgy financial instruments and unsustainable business models as well as by the promulgation of con games and Ponzi schemes. Transparency, accountability and honesty in business activities have been largely vanquished. A great economic system is being undone by con artists, gamblers and cheats. In such circumstances, does the mammade colossus we call the global political economy remind you in some ways of a modern Tower of Babel?

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

Another beautiful piece by Sandra Steingraber.  What strikes me about memory is its limit set by biology.  That’s why “story” is so important.  Sandra can remember beyond the barbershop to the school that preceeded it.  But she doesn’t mention what was before “school” because that has been forgotten.  A farmers field most likely.  Or what was before “field.”  A wooded area most likely.  Or was was before that or before that or before that. We need to build those stories in a way that compels us to turn mega malls back into farms so that we can turn the farms back into woods. That would be something super worth funding.

The economic powerbrokers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians in my not-so-great generation of elders have much to learn from Sandra S. and Crow H.

Many too many leading elders among us are ignominous; even so, they have proclaimed themselves Masters of the Universe. They suffer from a venal combination of distinctly human weaknesses derived from their culturally-condoned greediness: willful blindness, hysterical deafness and elective mutism, whenever the needs of our planetary home are presented to them. These leaders cannot see, hear or speak of such things as industrial pollution, natural resource dissipation, environmental degradation, climate change, per-capita overconsumption, human overpopulation, etc. None of this is real, they say repeatedly. Denial is evidently not just a river in Egypt. Preserving Earth’s body and protecting its environs are everywhere ignored by these leaders. They have effectively chosen a manmade construction, the “global political economy”, as the primary object of their idolatry, I suppose.

Thank you for the wonderful, nostalgic article.  I too am an observer of nature and funny thing is I do my best observing when running as well.  I am a political science senior with a minor in environmental sciences at the University of Colorado at Denver.  I lament the sprawl of the urbanites and the concrete jungle that encroaches on the natural settings that give me comfort. 
With experiences in biology, chemistry and human anatomy I am all too aware of the effects that chemicals can have on our human systems.
Modern lifestyles do not put us in “touch” with our environment.  Ammennities consume our everyday life if we let them.  Being in touch with natural surroundings requires a quiet calm that displaces our technologies.  You hit it right on the nose when you notice our over-worked and propaganda fed citizens.  It is a disapprearing skill to be observant outside our “personal space.”  I appreciate your awareness and can only say keep it going.  You have sparked a common interest in me.  Thank you.

I agree with Steingraber’s opinions about this issue, what stuck out in my mind of this article was her stating “Or maybe we’re now spending so much more time with consumer objects than with our natural environments that we have forgotten how to think about them.” It completely describes practically everyone in this world, we let things overrule what’s really important.

Some of the things that Sandra Steingraber says are very interesting.I had no ideal that there is lead in lipstick.

This is our environment and we need to do everything we can to rid of hazardous material not only for our environment but for our health as well.

Megan im glad you stated what Sandra said that was one of the main things that stuck in my head as well, i dont if it is because it is so true or if it is because not many people realize how important the environment is.