fashionRIP: Silent Spring Revisited

Monday, December 5, 2011

Silent Spring Revisited

Machine stitch illustration on repurposed cotton
with pink satin remnant from its past life

Rachel Carson, in a letter to a friend, wrote:

"I'm convinced there is a psychological angle in all this, that people, especially professional men, are uncomfortable about coming out against something, especially if they haven't got absolute proof the "something" is wrong, but only a suspicion. So they will go along with a program about which they privately have acute misgivings. So I think it is more important to build up the positive alternatives."

"Of all insects 90% are not only beneficial but essential as pollinators and predators in our ecosystems. Furthermore. "Of the destructive variety, more than 800 species have become resistant to one or more pesticides. This keeps the extermination industry constantly bustling to invent new pesticides."(From the book Women Pioneers for the Environment, by Mary Joy Breton, (1998) p 74)

This is great for the chemical business but is proving disastrous for many living things. How many chronic human conditions are enabled or caused by our chemical contact? I mean, fibromyalgia is no doubt caused by exposure to nerve agents aka pesticides; probably the result of small doses over long periods, which makes a direct "cause = effect" proof difficult. But common sense says-dah yes!!

While I am guessing, (I am a woman after all :-) I am going to suggest that our bodies ability to handle toxins has been disabled by processed food stuffs. Our bodies natural repair mechanism needs real organic compounds with their buddies the phytochemicals to adequately sustain healthy functioning.

Thanks to monocropping and thinking of food as a "product" our agribiz giants went for fast growing, easy harvesting crops, aided and abetted by the chemical industry and bio patents (90% of the corn and soy in USA are GMOs) Edible food stuffs that trigger addictive behaviors, have long shelf life and are easy to transport are great for the corporate bottom line. But what are they doing to people and the planet's ability to sustain healthy diversified ecosystems that support healthy living things?

Look around and witness the world. Wall Street is the visible mechanism that feeds corporations
and applauds their alliances. Occupy Wall Street is the public immune system shaking off the trance.

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Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.