Spring 2000
Earth Day 30 Years Later--
Both Hope and Dispair
By Richard McMurtry
The past 30 years have brought positive environmental changes full of hope as well as destructive changes full of danger and despair.
On the positive side:
1) Penetration of an environmental perspective into the fabric of the general culture.
Thirty years ago, only a small number of people had begun to grapple with the realities of pollution and toxics. Today, most people know and care that the environment is threatened. Most people want to see action by business and government to reduce pollution and exposure to toxics. Students encounter pollution and ecology issues in science curricula at all grade levels. People recycle.
2) Explosive growth in environmental organizations.
Thirty years ago, there were a few main-line environmental organizations (for example, the Sierra Club). Today, there are hundreds of organizations – each focused on different aspects of environmental impacts in different contexts. This growth has been fueled in recent years both by broadening of the membership base and to a large extent by foundation funding.
3) Emergence of an eco-spiritual movement.
In the vacuum created by our materialistic, exploitive, violent, life-denying society, an eco-spiritual movement is emerging. Its origins lie with those alienated by traditional religion who were drawn to revived earth-based rituals because of the emphasis on the restorative and healing power of nature. But embryonic cells of this movement are growing within most of the main-line religions, as well.
Members of this sub-culture tend to perceive a heartfelt interconnectedness and interdependency with all peoples of the earth, all creatures of the earth and all natural forms of the physical environment. “Jobs versus environment” and “humans versus bugs” and “spirit versus nature” don’t make much sense to these folks. Everything is seen as tied to everything else. Amidst the sweetness and light, there is a growing outrage – outrage against the exploitation of one people by another, the destruction of wildlife habitats to produce profits for a few special interests, and the degradation of life-giving ecosystems to make way for resource-depleting commerce of the global economy.
It remains to be seen how this movement’s emphasis on personal actions will evolve into a more concrete political expression.
On the negative side:
1) Rapid economic globalization without global environmental standards is destroying habitat, eliminating species and degrading air, water and food throughout the world.
2) Use of synthetic chemicals (such as pesticides and other chlorinated hydrocarbons) is dispersing low levels of toxics into human mother’s milk, the eggs of birds, and the sexual organs of fish and other animals.
3) There is growing evidence that this world-wide toxics orgy is threatening brain development, sexual development, and immune system functioning in ways which may take decades to fully manifest and even longer to be reversed, if even possible.
My hope is that spreading the word about these environmental threats will contribute to the activism needed to curb corporate power and reform the political campaign finance system that perpetuates corporate domination.
Richard McMurtry is SVTC’s Environmental Engineer
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