The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012 - Dr. Synthia Andrews Nd [108]
Pollution Fallout
Have you wondered why so many children today have asthma? Or why allergies are on the increase? Have you noticed the bulletins along waterways saying: “Don’t eat the shellfish”? It’s not new news that we’re poisoning the planet and the species living here. As our population grows, pollution gets worse and the planet’s ability to clean up the mess decreases. Of course, what we do to the earth we are doing to ourselves.
I hear people say that we don’t have to worry about pollution because the planet has mechanisms to clean the environment. So what are these mechanisms? Trees clean the air; they are the lungs of the planet. We’ve already noted the loss of mature ecosystems that provide trees for this process. Natural environments like swamps, wetlands, and tributaries filter and clean the water; they are the kidneys of the planet. We are fast developing this marginal land despite laws passed in the 1970s to protect them. In reality we’re growing exponentially, producing more waste than our planetary lungs and kidneys can process, while at the same time destroying these vital organs.
Nature has no way to clean modern-day hazardous waste. Nuclear waste will survive on this planet a hundred generations into the future. Not such a happy thought when we consider the insufficient storage containers!
More and more people are seeing the planet as a global ecosystem and are beginning to respond to the signs of ecosystem imbalance. The truth is that the planet will survive and recover whatever we do. It’s not the long-term health of the planet in question, its human health and survival in the balance.
Plastic Waste
How are we getting rid of the enormous waste we generate each day? Much of it’s dumped in the oceans, weighed down to land on the ocean floor. However, huge floating mountains of plastic waste are being reported “growing” in the Pacific Ocean.
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is the world’s leading flotsam expert. He refers to the area of plastic collection in the Pacific as “the great Pacific Garbage Patch.” The garbage patch is the size of a continent and is composed of plastic fragments that have floated together. Captain Charles Moore reports, “My research has documented six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton in this area.” The plastic waste is entangling sea life, being eaten as food, and destroying ecosystems.
As problems like this grow, we’re challenged to find new solutions. Many solutions come from simply seeing the world through different eyes.
Cosmic Caution
Hazardous waste is defined as any waste that is toxic, infectious, radioactive, or flammable and that poses a hazard to human, animal, and/or environmental health. Worldwide, about 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year.
Vote with Your Dollars
We all have choices. You probably already live with an awareness of the impact you have on your local ecosystem. Interestingly, right now in the United States, any state that tries to exceed the federal government’s environmental standards is chastised. State air-quality standards are not allowed to exceed federal standards. Why? Because it creates “unfair” economic stress on corporations.
You may be active on environmental or conservation committees, or in local politics, all good ways to influence the direction we’re taking. Another point of power is the influence we have as consumers. If economics is the language of political and corporate decision making, then make your dollars count. Every dollar you spend is a vote. If people stop buying energy-inefficient products, choose organic foods, and start demanding new energy technologies, corporations will alter production to fit the new demand. Change happens from the bottom up. We can change the direction we’re going, and if we don’t, the snake will certainly bite its own tail before long!