The Story of Water: Cont.

The story of water is such a complicated one, I don't blame all of the initial interviewees for simply knowing pipes were involved. Luckily this story is one slightly less depressing than the story of bottled water.

But its hard to take anything the government says as the honest truth, because we get situations like Flint, Michigan where lead levels are much higher than previously stated. It is pretty incredible the lengths in which we go to make water drinkable. The urban water cycle is definitely much more interesting in a Kiwi accent. 

Bioneers: you can bottle optimism

Bioneers was something I knew both existed, and something I dearly needed. I'm not sure about you, but in the process of learning about environmental health concerns and the overall circumstance of climate change has done a number on me. I have never felt so utterly helpless and pessimistic in humanity's ability to change what needs to be changed in order to save our planet and the future generations that will inhabit it.

Enter, Bioneers. Having grown up in a community heavily rooted in Hippie collectives and a strong emphasis on all things natural, tie-dyed and sustainable, I'm quite familiar with this subpopulation. Each and every day at the Bioneers conference in San Rafael started with drumming and dancing. I'm not kidding. I'm talking barefoot, uproarious drumming on stage while the majority of the crowd gyrates their hips to the melodic rhythms and throws their arms to the sky, drifting upwards and downwards like falling leaves. As I stated above, demonstration is a familiar story, and welcome one.

The best way to surmise my Bioneers experience is by stating that in the face of global climate change, I have never been in a room so full of glasses unanimously half full. As Annie Leonard (yep, woman behind The Story of Stuff) shared on the second day, "Hope is the best antidote to despair, an orientation of the spirit, and the ultimate form of resistance." Every speaker has a message to share, but one that fixates and emphasizes the true capacity of humanity's potential. Rather than despair, each and every lecturer had only optimistic outlooks on addressing climate change.

This doesn't mean talks were all daisies and candy, they addressed some of the most pressing problems affecting our world today. But they all had wonderful ideas to share about ways we can truly facilitate change, which I desperately needed in order to reinvent my take on climate change. Bioneers, to me, more resembled a celebration of the lives and worlds that westernized culture has diminished and nearly extinguished, than a conference. Each time co-founders Kenny and Nina spoke about Bioneers or introduced a speaker, they'd thank the Miwoks, the original natives of Marin County, for allowing them to speak on their land. I haven't seen such celebration of indigenous peoples in a very very long time, and it was refreshing and beautiful to see again.

Kenny is a very warm individual who has a pretty phenomenal way with words. Please check out his essay on Epic Change, which he shared on the first day. Let's just say he started off as describing Bioneers as "certified orgasmic".

I understand this all sounds perhaps a tad overtly liberal, but its undeniably real and hopeful. These are individuals who are awake to the circumstance of climate change and celebrating what they can do to address it. Lets introduce some of the wonderful speakers I had the chance of seeing.

Malik Yakini, of the Black Community Food Security Network of Detroit had an absolutely moving talk about the current situation of food deserts in Detroit. He shared his ideas on addressing racism, how to think beyond the logic of capitalism, and the creation of a sustainable food system.

Paul Hawken is an author, environmentalist and entrepanuer. He shared some wonderful ideas on corporate sustainability. He talked about how easy it is for people to get overwhelmed when critically thinking about climate change (or climate disruption as it was first termed), how we have the innate sense to catastrophize the future. We find it easy to imagine apocalypic futures and difficult to see the numerous, incremental changes that lead to revolution. He's of the mind that pointing and blaming others makes you no different than them in the first place. His talk was incredible!

Barbara Sattler (hopefully this name rings a bell) and two colleagues had a wonderful talk about climate change and health. Dr. Sattler's talk was wonderful because she outlined the multitude of ways in which nurses and other health practicioners have taken tangible, steps in reducing waste and eco-fying hospitals, and how these steps can become leaps. She shared the story of a student who created a program recycling batteries that became institutionalized within the hospital and she even got a job out of it (so all you Sattler students out there, you could be in a future lecture of hers if you start something exciting right now!)!

Oh man, I want to share each and every talk with you, but I have a paper to write, so ask me! I'll tell you about all of the hope that's out there because I wasn't sure it was either until Bioneers. I've got my tie-dye and kombucha ready for next year!

The Story: Why I'm an Optimistic Pessimist

Annie Leonard is an incredible public speaker. She does an incredible job outlining the many repercussions of Americans turning a blind eye to both the environment and multitudes of minorities both in our country and abroad. The Story of Stuff is a brilliantly outlined depiction of the ways in which the production of products has posed unescapable detriments to our planet. I truly can't believe this is eight years old and I haven't seen it yet. I had an idea of these circumstances, but she described them in a beautifully told, simultaneously maddening and saddening story.

One of the things that stood out to me was the circumstance of 'externalizing costs'. I had never before really questioned why products were so inexpensive, and how the intricate building of products and its journey to our stores ends up costing innocent people all over the world. Think about the dollar store. While all of that stuff can truly be seen as junk, they still require so many intricate manufacturing that truly must require more monetary investment than 99 cents. It hurts to think about it.

There are times when I think I was born in the wrong generation. Advertisements truly make me nauseous. I hate that I have to pay an extra twenty dollars to have an e-book that doesn't freeze frame on ads for bleach, or pay monthly to read the New York Times without pop-up ads. The fact that we see 30,000 ads/day, which is more than an American saw in their entire lifetime just 50 years ago sickens me. I also hate to admit how guilty I am of being a thoughtless consumer. Come the holidays I feel an almost innate pressure to buy buy buy things that are new new new. The pessimistic side of me simply argues my noncompliance changes nothing, but the optimistic side of me urges that this isn't so. She describes the evolution of American's consumeristic nature, how it became a new idealism. This way of life is now rendered old, and since people created this old way of living, means people are completely capable of creating a new way.

I apologize for my rant but I'm trying to remain optimistic!

Acrylic Nails and Environmental Racism

Project radio has posted a wonderful news report on the circumstance of chemicals involved in salons located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The story follows several nail salon owners and employees and their struggles with their health as a result of working with such toxic cosmetic products.

As a result of this class we've been encouraged to start being conscientious consumers and question the nature (or lack thereof) of the ingredients used in the products we purchase and use. This story involves this and takes us another step further by being aware of individuals who are not necessarily using the products themselves, but handling them through a means of employment.

This is overwhelmingly reminiscent of Nick Chiles' blog/article titled '8 Horrifying Examples of Corporations Mistreating Black Communities With Environmental Racism'. He shares several examples where Black communities were systematically forced to exist on and/or next to toxic areas. Ranging from hazardous waste from manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania, to oil production in Richmond, all the way to disposing of waste in third world countries, there exist obvious examples of environmental racism in literal broad daylight.

Just like the situations Chiles described, over 50% of San Francisco's 1800 salon employees are immigrants who have very little options outside of working in these salons. As a result, they touch, inhale, and absorb all sorts of critically dangerous toxins.

The noncompliance of the United States astounds me. They seem completely aware and unresponsive as a result of corporation interests. It is incredible that two and half pages that are over seventy years old are the entirety of regulations on cosmetics. The US has banned just 10 chemicals when Europe has banned over 1,000.

Sometimes it's hard to be optimistic. 

Marin's Pollution

My opinion of Marin County's environmental health services is definitely positive. Having lived in the county for over ten years, I have experienced countless examples and evidence of their attention to the environment. Despite a smattering of affluent areas with a highly conservative population, I'd like to believe the majority of it holds strong to questioning their global footprint. There are more Prius' on the road than there are stars in the sky, health food stores aren't substituted by chains, there's not one Walmart, examples go on. The pictures below are from the Marin County's Environmental Health Services webpage. As you can see there a decent amount of programs ranging from sanitation, food, solid waste, medical waste, food recalls, and more.

You can see the number of facilities with emissions of air pollutants below with San Francisco on the left and Marin on the right. What can be immediately seen, all of the tons of pollutants added up in Marin is less than that of number one and two of San Francisco's. Only 1% percent of houses have a high risk of lead hazards and there are zero superfund sites in Marin County. This all is all within the parameters I imagined.

Air quality ranking is interesting. Overall Marin does look pretty good. The carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions is rather frightening. The EPA describes VOC's as "Organic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and wax all contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products. Fuels are made up of organic chemicals." I cannot honestly guess why this is, but definitely gives me something to look further into.

Water quality is surprising as well. The percentage of surface waters with impaired or threatened uses is pretty frightening. I would assume all of California's water is quite threatened, but the site doesn't provide much information about what this is measuring. 

Getting out of Harm's Way

The report In Harm's Way by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibilty's authors Ted Schettler, Jill Stein, Fay Reich, and Maria Valenti would have made Rachel Carson proud. 

The report, which I recommend you read if you haven't yet, is a wonderfully orchaestrated conversation about the current circumstance of chemical regulations and current evidence of developmental disorders in children as a result of toxicity. I felt dumbfounded looking at the increased incidence of developmental disorders in children today. I grew up with a brother who suffered from OCD and ADHD perpetually through his schooling. When he was on medication, his emotions and weight would fluctuate, and when he was off them he experienced immense difficulty in his classes. 

The colossal increase in incidence of Autism leads me back to the attempt to blame the occurrence on vaccinations. How can people point fingers at the most influential and brilliant public health/medical discovery since sanitation when we have a litany of evidence showing the levels of chemicals humans are introduced starting even before birth?

Jane Houlihan on Chemicals

Jane Houlihan, creator of the EWG and correlated Skin Deep database of personal care products had a fantastic lecture on the circumstance of toxicity in the world today for the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Her talk was interesting for many reasons, and her startling statistics are what really got to me.

Qualitative and quantitative data tend to be antagonists in describing a problem. Upon reading the EWG's website and learning about Jane, I was left with an good sense of the qualitative data she has been able to accumulate and describe. What her lecture did for me was put some depressing, but surprising statistics on what these levels of toxicity are doing to humans. I wanted to share some of my favorite findings below:

• 216 chemicals have been associated with mammary gland tumors
• girls who begin their period before the age of 12 have a 50% increased risk of cancer compared to girls at 16
• 300 compounds have been found in newborn babies through the placenta
• 150 neurotoxins were found in the umbilical cord

What she does a great job of is introducing the problem by illustrating the problem, and then providing examples of sicknesses that we have a hard time explaining origins for. For example, she illuminates that 1 in 110 children today are born with Autism, 1 in 6 with some developmental disability and 1 in 10 have asthma. Girls today are experiencing puberty much earlier than in previous generations. On the surface level this doesn't sound like that big of an issue, but she does a fantastic job of illustrating the complicated correlations here (i.e. early development for girls increases the risk of breast cancer, and the level of estrogen in everybody resulting from toxic personal care products is a huge instigator of early development). These diseases are more prevalent than they have ever been before, and its hard to ignore the waves of quantitative data Jane shares. 

She describes this overall circumstance as a "silent pandemic". It provides a perfect depiction of the problem because this is EVERYWHERE, and we're seeing countless symptoms without any real evidence of their inception.