Everything Seems Fine

I don't get a newspaper and I don't watch TV. Right now, it is a sunny day here on the central coast of California, with a slight breeze and clear skies. Everything seems pretty hunky-dory(sp?).

Even though I don't go to a regular news outlet for my news, I still hear about all the big stuff. Earthquake in China kills 68,000; Obama clinches the democratic nomination (though not yet officially); gas at $4 a gallon; etc. Are these things affecting me right now? The answer is truly NO. Perhaps they will affect me very soon - when I go to buy something at a store, or want to take a trip somewhere, or don't want to pay my taxes next year, but at this very moment, none of that stuff is affecting me. My laptop runs on a battery, my internet rarely has issues, and even if the power went out, I could still be sitting here, typing this, totally disconnected from the grid.

How then, with the outside world playing no role in my current day-to-day activities, am I supposed to care about all of the things that people are trying to convince me to care about?

How am I supposed to care about the things that truly are going to affect me in the future, if I can’t even see them?

How is Joe Shmoe in the middle of America supposed to care about rainforest deforestation in Brazil? How is he supposed to care about food shortages in Africa or earthquakes in China? Or the lack of clean water for 2 billion people around the world? How is he supposed to care that Wal-Mart puts a few people out of business in the next town over, if he doesn't even know who those people are?

And yet people do care.

I care because I am able to look beyond this moment in time. I care because I can see that my actions as well as the actions of every other speck of matter in this universe will affect my future, as well as the future of every other living thing on the planet. I care because I know that my actions can make a difference, because I read scientific studies about the effects of human activities, and because I want to have healthy, happy grandchildren someday. I care because I know that if I sit around and let the world pass me by, then it will become a worse place due to my negligence, and I will not let that happen. It is a call to action, a moral duty to do what I can to make the world a better place because I know that some of my actions are affecting others negatively. I care because I am educated, thoughtful and compassionate, and I have the ability to improve things. I care because if I don’t take action, then I am NOT an innocent bystander, I am guilty of watching the world and life as we know it (including ourselves) slowly and methodically murdered by mankind.

The question is, why do some people not care?

And more importantly, why don't people DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT if they do care?

Of course other priorities get in the way, most predominantly: Making sure you and your family have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, and a safe place to sleep. But ultimately, these priorities are the same priorities that I have for current & future generations. What if all of our food and water is poisoned, our homes are threatened by severe climate disturbances and massive migration due to war and famine, and we can't get food from a store because shipping costs due to high oil prices go through the roof? Then why are we so stuck on taking care of these smaller, more immediate needs that MOST people, especially in 1st world countries, have already met and exceeded?

The truth is, most of us who have the power to make change have already met our basic needs, and we have surpluses of time & energy with which to take on a truly meaningful calling. Many of us will look at the statement "surpluses of time & energy" and scoff, but if we took the time to analyze what we actually spend our time and money on (both of which can often be equated to our labor), we would realize that much of it is drained into a system which has more negative impacts than positive ones. Who are you helping when you buy a new TV? Where does the money go when you spend it on gasoline? How many hours do you work in a week, and whom are you helping with your work?

Are you making the world a better place for yourself and future generations? If not, then why not?

"In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation... even if it requires having skin as thick as the bark of a pine."
- Great Law of the Iroquois

It is difficult to change our way of life from thinking about money and retirement and material things to thinking about the future health of our species and the health of our environment. It is difficult, but necessary. The seventh generation into the future depends upon it.

The question then, that I come back to is: How can we ensure that every Joe Shmoe knows that his/her own healthy survival, as well as that of the seventh generation, depends upon his/her actions?

And if the people don’t care about survival, family, and health, then what do they care about?

Plastic is the DEVIL/hipocrisy

Plastic: the most prolific man-made material that will NEVER BIODEGRADE. It is so highly synthesized that no known organism can digest it, and therefore every piece of plastic that is ever manufactured (from petroleum) will persist in our environment FOREVER! This has major implications! It can photo-degrade (break into smaller pieces) but never biodegrade.

First of all, the extraction of crude oil and all of the problems that go along with it (war, environmental destruction, international instability) are part of the plastic cycle because PLASTIC IS MADE FROM CRUDE OIL. (At least, 99.999 percent is at this point).

Next, the manufacture of plastics is incredibly energy intensive, and produces TONS of toxins & some carcinogens. (Toxic = negative health effects, Carcinogen = causes cancer).

After that, many of the plastics themselves are toxic (such as PVC: http://www.noharm.org/us/pvcdehp/issue).

That "new car" or "new paint" smell is most likely giving you brain damage due to off-gassing

Also, drinking and eating from many plastics can cause reproductive harm

And even more so, our natural environment is filling up with this totally unnatural stuff: http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/

What to do? STOP USING, BUYING, CREATING PLASTICS made from petroleum. They are the most unnatural material on the planet, will never go away and are totally BAD FOR OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE ORGANISMS ON THIS PLANET.

That said, I am wearing plastic sunglasses, a plastic hat, and a plastic shirt in my profile picture. I didn't know as much about plastics when I bought those things as I do now. But I will also be the first to admit that I am a hypocrite. We are all hypocrites, and while contradicting ourselves constantly is part of human nature, that does not make it "OK". We should strive to rid ourselves of our hypocrisies and live true to our values, especially if we are teaching and spouting those values to others.

When you are able, please buy natural materials and not plastic. A wonderful industry of alternatives is sprouting up everywhere. Some great new advances have turned vegetable oil, silica, soy, bamboo, corn, potatoes, wool, silk and natural rubber latex into all sorts of things that we used to rely on plastics for. Plastic hides under many names, especially when it is turned into apparrel. Here are a few of the names of plastic:

Vinyl
PVC
Nylon
Polyester
Gore-Tex
PTFE
Lexan
polyurethane

Take the time to research your consumption! And if nothing else please don't buy products that are KNOWN TO CAUSE CANCER!!!!