Chemical Soup

This article by Dave Pollard is really depressing but incredibly real. We live in a chemical soup that is way out of control. I can hear my brain screaming exuses for ignoring the mess. I figure that my options for dealing with it are denial, apathy, or action. Since I'm alive and presumably want the earth to sustain life for a long time to come, the choice is pretty obvious but difficult.

Jeremy (husband) had to work in Kelowna yesterday so the girls and I went along for the day. I'm not sure why I'm super sensitive to chemicals right now but I've always had more trouble than most people. There were a bunch of things that physically affected me and drove me nuts. Blacktop fumes, diesel fumes, "new car" smell, glue of some kind on the construction worker sitting next to me, an improperly washed apple, and almost everything in the mall. No, I can't justify my presence in the mall. On top of those direct physical reactions I felt nauseated taking a little tour through the burgeoning, cheaply-built-but-making-up-for-it-in-size vanilla subdivisions. I know we all need to live somewhere but to think of how short term that planning is and the amount of crap that goes into (and out of) each of those huge homes is grotesque. Not to mention that everyone is ignoring that there is still only ONE access road for those hundreds of new homes going up every year.

So after all that complaining what am I going to do about it? I am always working on ways to reduce the chemicals we come in contact with in the home but action outside of my little zone is also going to be necessary. Some ideas...get involved in the Green Party for educational purposes if not strictly political, harass friends and family until they get on board (only partly kidding), and make sure that at the very least that my strata doesn't use chemical fertilizers, herbicides orpesticides.

I will stop using those asinine plastic grocery bags. I have the worst time remembering to bring my own cloth bags but can be trained. For a more lighthearted statement on not using plastic bags, check out L.J. Williamson in "It's Not My Bag Baby" . I got a few good snickers out of it.