How About "Global Poisoning?"

Edition #91 — March 3, 2007

Um, Is This Virginia?

Today I watched an opossum feeding in our back yard. It's not a common sight up here in Central Ontario, Canada. In fact, last year was the first time I ever saw one. Since then, I've seen three. Their sudden arrival from the southern USA is due to our climate getting warm enough for them to survive here. Global warming? I think they call that evidence.

Al Gore may not have become president, but his film, An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary about the threat of global climate change, has made him far more admired than that tragic Bush figure who stole the presidency from him in 2000. I haven't seen Al's film, but I know the plot. So do you. We're killing our planet. Plain and simple. And if we're not doing it directly, then we are accomplices for allowing it to happen.

So what's delaying the clean up? Well, semantics for one thing. Some can't decide if this sudden and potentially catastrophic earth event should be called "global warming" or just "climate change," and whether humans actually have a role in it. So for those last few clinging to denial, let me make it easier for all of us. Let's just call it "Global Poisoning." There, feels better already, doesn't it?

Here, Drink This!

Personally, I've made a lot of changes in my life over the last ten years. I no longer smoke and I eat very healthy without being a fanatic about it. I even gave up dairy about two months ago, and I don't indulge in activities that could lead to my untimely death, including drugs, alcohol, and having sex with intervenous drug users while hang gliding over Iraq. I recycle, I compost, I don't dump litter, and I feed and protect wild animals. But no matter how much effort I put in, someone out there is negating it. For every step that I gain as a human being, I lose it because someone else out there hasn't woken up yet.

Just this week a barge spilled 8000 gallons of toxic chemicals into the Ohio River after running aground. Those toxins go downstream, into people's drinking water while killing wildlife along the way. It's not global warming, but it's the same attitude that informs such events. Sure, accidents happen, but the first order of business for any company hauling toxic liquids along rivers should be to build inpenetrable containers to protect the environment. But they don't. It's cheaper to pretend to clean it up. The same with railway tracks being poorly maintained despite the mounting derailments of trains carrying lethal chemicals that spill onto land and water. We have to remember that we're not choosing whether to be responsible based upon which option makes more money, we're doing it to protect our planet.

Our attitude can be summed up by what happened to New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. People didn't have to die that way, but it was cheaper in the short term to risk a catastrophe. And that's what they got. Think of our world as New Orleans just before the hurricane hit. I think that's an accurate assessment at this juncture in time. We've had ample warning. We know the risks. And we're ignoring the danger because it's more convenient.

Let's Just Do What's Right.

The environmental trade off is always clear. If eliminating the risks to our environment erodes company profits, then we must simply accept the risks. This includes the risk to those people and animals living downstream who aren't part of this negotiation process. The same mentality informs carbon and other green house emissions. I have only to step outside in downtown Toronto to realize that the air is literally poisonous. City dwellers are marinating in a lethal stew of airborne and water borne toxins, whether from cars, nuclear power plant irradiated water, or the smog and sludge of industrial waste. Sure, we may be alive, but are we healthy? How do you feel, honestly? Unfortunately, drinking bottled water and eating Granola bars won't save you. It only sells more bottled water and granola bars...

Each of us is an accomplice in this environmental dumping because we don't demand an alternative solution. Brazil, once again, has been on Ethanol since the 1970's. Why aren't we leading in this technology, instead of acting as though it's something untried and revolutionary? I suspect that oil company profits are blocking our way to a healthier planet. Google for alcool, it's sugar cane alcohol. In 1993, 50% of Brazilian cars were using it exclusively. It's nothing new. And it's renewable.

Sure, we complain about pollution, but most of us aren't pro-active. We're busy with other things, and also shy about conflict. We prefer the comfort of home with our warm couch and tv set, or a computer. Meanwhile, our politicians and the media act as though it were still unclear whether human industry and overpopulation are detrimental to our planet. I say, drink from the Niagara River for a month, and you'll begin to understand what a fish feels like. But don't eat one. They're toxic. But with millions of mouths to feed, we have to eat those fish as well. I wonder what our immune systems think of that?

Who's In Charge Of Change?

We can't afford to risk the life of our planet, and our own, by always choosing the path of least resistance — repeating yesterday. We are creatures of habit, and comfort as well, but how long will we keep our eyes glued to the tv (and the demise of Anna Nicole Smith) to avoid looking at the reality of our situation? I can see the brown clouds hanging over Toronto from 50 miles away. That's what people breath. And some of them even jog in it, for the health benefits. How tragically ironic...

The change won't come from those who have no reason to change. Let's face it, we're dealing with governments who are proven liars and industries which lay off people during times of record profit because it's even more profitable. Our planetary health will have to be regained at the "mom and pop" grassroots level. Those who choose profit and fear driven "competitive survival" over health and happiness are not of sound enough mind and body to lead us out of this free fall into extinction. They are more like babies with guns in their hands; selfish, hungry, and impulsively protective of their own survival, at any cost. And we are that cost.

It is time for the adults of our civilization to take the guns of pollution and planetary mismanagement out of the hands of these spiritual infants. Do whatever you must. Life depends upon it.

See you in the spring. Until then, plant a tree and if you see an Opossum, offer an apology on behalf of our species.

Roland Kriewaldt.


Subscribe to free newsletter
Search Realitycheckers.com