A Rant

I have been hearing about the suspected effects of the nicotinamide pesticides on the bee populations for about a year now and their deadly effect has become increasingly clear. It is only within the past month that it I have become aware that these pesticides are killing the birds that either drink water polluted with the stuff or eat insects carrying it in their bodies. 

We have evolved on this planet in exquisite balance with everything in, on, and around it.  There is nothing superfluous, nothing extra, nothing not needed.  We are part and parcel of it. Yet within the past blink of an evolutionary eye, our species is determinedly destroying the one known place in the universe that he is perfectly evolved to inhabit. 

My frustration grows with the knowledge that we will not stop until we are stopped. 

A Questionnaire by Wendell Berry

How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.

For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.

What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy

In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.

State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security;
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.

"Questionnaire" by Wendell Berry from Leavings. © Counterpoint, 2010.

Don't Drink the Water

Don't Drink the Water

Especially if you are in West Virginia.  We have been assured that all the toxic waste water from fracking can be safely stored and there is no cause for concern. Only it wasn't and now you can't drink the water in a 9 county area in West Virginia. Why are we so passive and let these fracking companies destroy our ground water??Because we need oil for our Humvees to pollute the air and to make plastic to pollute the oceans. 

Now that the water has been polluted in WV, how long will it be before it is "cleaned up" and certified as drinkable again. And will it really be drinkable?  The oil companies are doing this all over this nation and our Congress, having been bought by the oil companies, does nothing, our agencies charged with protecting our environment have been emasculated by budget cuts. And the band plays on. 

I just came from a pleasant family gathering and not one person there has any knowledge of or interest in the environmental devastation that is going on. And my family is just your garden variety, average American family.  It isn't just that they don't care, it really just isn't even on their radar.

My Neighbor's Yard

It would be hard to overstate the perfection of my neighbor's yard.  The grass is a perfectly  smooth carpet of green perfectly edged and trimmed. No leaf or blade of grass sullies the porch, walk, or driveway. The flowers are promptly removed and replaced as soon as the blooms fade.  And this vision of perfection exists not only after yard work has been accomplished, it is all the time.  The neighborhood association may as well cement the Yard of the Month sign in place because no one else even comes close.  But I call the place the Dead Zone because you'll never see anything living there. It's kind of like a horticultural Stepford Wives. It looks perfect but it's not really alive.   The green of the grass is chemically induced. Pesticides keep any creepy crawly thing from making an appearance which means there are no bees on the sterile flowers, no butterflies, no dragonflies, and I doubt if a mosquito stands much of a chance either. All undergrowth has been removed out of fear of snakes. This means there are no birds, raccoons, possums, snakes, lizards, toads, or armadillos.  I honestly can't think why someone would buy acreage in the country and then proceed to make it uninhabitable for any living thing. 

Garbage

I started recycling when I was still in high school. (I graduated in 1965.) The local Audubon Society had a monthly paper and can recyling drive. You notice that plastics were not included and that is because there was relatively little plastic circulating back then. It is hard to imagine time before plastics but it is true--milk was in glass bottles or waxed cartons, shampoo came in a glass bottle, tooth paste or powder in a metal container. I wonder how many pounds of materials I have recycled over the years--tons I am sure.
We still recycle--paper, metal, glass (not much), and plastic. We do not have curbside recycling out in the country where I live so we have two large (plastic) trash cans--one for plastics and one for paper--and a (plastic) bin for metal. All the recycling goes into these containers and once a month I take it all in to the recycling center in Houston. They also take any electronics we need to dispose of as well as used motor oil. It is not a lot of trouble because it is simply a habit we have done for decades.

Over the last year or so I have been using my own tote bags when I go shopping rather than use plastic bags from the stores. There are two problems that I have encountered with this--the first is remembering to take them inside the store with me, so many times I don't think about bags until I am in the check out line and my totes are still in the van. Have to work on that. The second problem is some of the checkers are stymied by someone wanting to use their own bags. They want to put the groceries in the usual plastic bag and then put the plastic bag into my tote. I suppose they think of me as a little old lady in her dotage that must be accomodated.

Reusing items is the second leg of reducing the amount of garbage that we generate. I find it so simple to reuse printer paper--just turn it over and print on the other side. It is very seldom that I need a good copy printed only on one side. Clothing or household items that I don't want or use are dropped off at the Goodwill center. Another way to reuse is composting. Actually most of our food waste goes to our local raccoon population which is fine with me. I love to see Mama Raccoon leading her brood of babies to our goodies.

The third leg is simply reducing the amount of stuff that we buy. I am by nature and necessity a frugal person. I believe in planning ahead, giving thought to what is needed, and buying quality that will last. I don't like clutter and the easiest way to be clutter-free is to not buy the stuff in the first place.

That's how we reduce our garbage output--Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Nothing new, just habits.

The Oil Spill

I am so horrified at what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico that I try my best not to think about it. Offshore drilling is risky, dangerous work; I know this because DH was a petroleum geologist working for first Pennzoil and then Conoco. He has spent many weeks on offshore rigs. Drilling at the depths that are being done now is unknown territory; experience is very limited. However, from what we've read and from DH's experience, it is for certain that BP ignored glaring warning signs because to stop the drilling would have cost millions of dollars. Well, as it turns out, BP's best option would have been to stop everything before it got to the critical state. BP is to blame, our government's regulatory and inspection agency is to blame, and all of us oil-addicted drivers and disposable everything consumers are to blame. However, it is the living creatures of the ocean and marshes who are going to pay the price and I can hardly bear to think about it.

Grief

I am not grieving for Michael Jackson--I didn't like him or his music. And I don't really identify with the culture that makes a pop star death a major news story. But that's just me. There are things that I do find a profound sense of sorrow over. Here are some of them:

1. I will always miss my parents; they were such good people who lived their hard lives with courage and dignity. (And I miss a culture that knows what courage and dignity are.)
2. I mourn for the loss of the beaches and salt marshes of Galveston where I grew up and all the birds and wildlife that lived there. The huge beach houses that displaced them make me want to vomit.
3. I long for the days when trash wasn't every place you look--plastic bottles, cans, bags, garbage.
4. I am almost paralyzed by an overwhelming sense of helplessness as I see the beauty of the earth strip mined and polluted.
5. I can't even bear to think about the animals whose lives are processed in our food factories.

Pop stars don't really come close.

The Environment

I've been interested in environmental issues since high school. I remember that the Sierra Club had a monthly paper and can recycling project. I faithfully collected all our paper and cans and took them to the pick up location. JMM and I still recycle cans, bottles, and paper; I wonder how many tons of paper, cans, and bottles we have collected and recycled over the decades. I love the beauty of nature and realize how we utterly dependent our species is on a delicately functional environment. But what I truly love are the little creatures--the skunks, raccoons, bees, butterflies, and the innumerable others that live in the little nooks and crannies of habitat.

There are many other people who are much more active in environmental issues than I am and there are others who have chosen much more environmentally friendly lifestyles than I have. But I have made the best choices that I could within the restraints of my life. One of the things I want to do when the house is paid off is to contribute to the Nature Conservancy of Texas on a regular basis.

The Two E's

The Economy and the Environment, like two ends of a see-saw. While the world economy was soaring, the environment was plummetting. The question is, now that the world economy is tanking, will the environment get a respite from the pillage and plunder? I wish I knew. While people have stopped buying stuff which is good, they are losing their jobs which is not good. To have a good economy, do we have to plunder and destroy the earth and its creatures? Perhaps we need to change the definition of good economy. A good economy cannot be one that consumes itself. Maybe a good economy is where there is enough--enough creative work, enough nourishing food, enough clean air & water, and enough clean energy--and that if these are not present, the economy is not good.

A good step toward answering the question of what is enough is a step toward the mirror while answering the Quaker queries:

Do I look for and see the face of God in all creation?

Do I spend time in nature listening for what I might learn?

Have I mourned the loss of species and the harm done by pollution, and am I aware of my part in these losses?

Do I endeavor to change my personal as well as societal practices as an epression of hope for the future?


Thought for the day:
"Ye have no time but this present." George Fox