Ignorance is Bliss

It all started when I began researching the subject of storm water for my new job. I was astounded and distressed by what I learned. I have been driving now for 40 years and not one time did I ever consider where the rainwater went that landed on the road. Nor did I ever stop to think what was in that water. Never. I was ignorant. Now I know.

Much of the time it ends up in our rivers, streams, and wetlands. It ends up in roadside ditches or makes it way into ponds and lakes. What is in it? Heavy metals, gas and oil, fluids from cars, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), salt and deicing  agents (sometimes deicing agents contain cyanide), suspended solids, trash...you get the picture. And where does most of the mercury come from that is found in many fish species today? "About 70 percent of the mercury in the air is the result of emissions from coal combustion, mining, incineration of mercury-containing products and other human sources", according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

What's in the rivers, streams, wetlands, ponds, lakes? Birds, fish, muskrats, beavers, otters, invertebrates like mussels and crustaceans...and people. Do you want to see some eye-opening maps of Michigan's rivers and streams which show impairment due to pollution or E. coli? Click here and download the PDF, look for the maps. Have a box of tissues with you. It is alarming. Or, to really have the state of our waters stare you in the face, open Appendices B1, B2, and B3. Until you know what you're looking at, the tables seem daunting. But the point is to simply note the NUMBER of water bodies that are affected by a host of problems. It is sobering, to say the least. Fortunately there are many people working on cleaning up the waters, but we have a big battle.

I saw a documentary called "Exporting Harm" a couple weeks ago that that showed poor Chinese village folks, including children, recycling mountains of discarded computers and other electronics. A large portion came from, you guessed it, the USA. The people had huge piles of this junk in front of their homes, lining their streets. They took everything apart with no safety precautions, boiled down parts over small open fires. There is much sickness in this village, as you can imagine. The environment is also being devastated.

Last night, I read an article in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Mother Jones called "Killer Apps". It is all about the the refinement process of rare earth metals used in our smart phones. How companies hired locals, paid them good money, to take toxic waste away. Dump the toxic waste wherever they wanted to. Why would the locals do this? Because the companies told them it was fertilizer. So one driver took it to his uncle's farm, offering it to him to spread in his fields. Radioactive waste. Or that it was quick lime, so one painted his house with it. Lies upon lies. Now, this particular village has high rates of leukemia, birth defects, more health issues.

I love driving on a nice new road. I feel good about recycling. I like my iPhone. At least I did.

This is the greatest failure of capitalism. Profit rules, above human health, environmental health, everything. And we as consumers blindly keep right on consuming without asking the first important question - is this latest and greatest thing good for our environment and our health? There is a reason dogs don't poop in their den.

I am a fairly intelligent person, but I don't want to be required to research every little thing to determine its harmful effects on me, the environment, poor people in another far away land. I don't want to have to delve into the scientific literature to see how polluted my rivers and streams are, or whether the particular food item I am eating is a GMO. We can no longer trust much of anything that we buy. Sadly, we have lived in ignorance so long that virtually everything in our lives has a dark side that we really don't want to know about. And who wants to spend endless hours getting more and more depressed by what we learn?

The solution? Rather than trying to figure everything out about the state of the world, I have decided to start from scratch. Live simply. Grow my own heirloom and native varieties of food. Eat organic, locally grown produce from farmers I know. Make as many things as I can myself, or if I have to buy it, strive for all natural materials. No more electronics. When this computer goes, it goes. I buy anything I need from the antique malls and thrift stores. I am reducing electronics and the use of electricity.

It is true, ignorance is bliss. But I am more interested in health. How about you?