OUR ENDANGERED SPECIES © 2000 & 2003 by Karen Joy During the Mechanical Age many actions could be taken without too much concern, slow movement insured that the reactions were delayed…today the action and the reaction occur almost at the same time. We actually live mythically and integrally, but we continue to think in the old, fragmented space and time patterns…[1] The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution transformed society chiefly through the production of goods that made life easier and more enjoyable. Progress was measured by the creation of new and improved machines and devices. We now utilize these machines, devices, conveniences, and consumer goods to distract us from the horrific problems at hand that have been created in the name of progress. “The infrastructure created by the Industrial Revolution is powered by fossil fuels, nuclear reactors, and chemicals. It is attempting to work by its own rules, contrary to those of the natural world. Resources seemed inexhaustible and nature was viewed as something to be tamed and civilized.”[2] The remnants of this era have left a legacy of destruction: One of 10 American women of childbearing age is at risk for having a baby born with neurological problems due to in utero mercury exposure. Pre-natal mercury exposure can hurt children’s ability to remember, pay attention, talk, draw, run, play, and keep up in school.[3] Automobile exhaust accounts for up to 60% of the nitrogen oxide and up to 90% of carbon monoxide in the air, yet sport utility vehicles which are the least efficient and most polluting vehicles on the road claim up to 50% of the automobile market. Despite being only 5% of the world’s population, Americans own 34% of the planets cars. Motor vehicles account for nearly 90% of the energy consumed for travel. Public transportation in the U.S. is declining everywhere, with less than 3% of Americans using it to get to work.[4] The technology has existed for over 100 years to transition from a society reliant upon fossil fuels to a hydrogen economy.[5] Our planetary neighbors are able to form a political consensus aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the U.S. will not agree.[6] Childhood cancer rates are soaring among children living near nuclear power plants. Childhood cancer rates jumped 75% in the San Luis Obispo area after a nuclear reactor opened.[7] A report on electromagnetic fields issued by the California Department of Health Services links EMFs to childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.[8] During the Industrial Revolution and continuing today, government regulations replace morals and ethics in the board rooms of major corporations. As long as industry standards fall within government guidelines and the shareholders are receiving their dividend checks, there is little or no thought as to the moral implications and the long-term ecological and environmental problems associated with the goods provided. Government began to regulate responsibility for moral and ethical decisions. Business leaders are not called upon to act morally, merely to follow rules and regulations. Failure to comply results only in a fine, or what more accurately should be referred to as a bribe to keep government out of the way of big business. In order to reverse the damage done by industry, it is necessary for business leaders to take responsibility for their actions and to act in a manner that does no harm to the planet and to their community of neighbors. If a father put small amounts of arsenic in his son’s water each day, and continued to do so over a long period of time, his son would become ill. Undetected, the child would eventually die from arsenic poisoning. The father would rightly be charged with murder and sentenced to prison for life. As ludicrous as this sounds, business and political leaders throughout the country and the world make this choice daily as they continue to pollute our water, air, and earth. “Most scientific groups who have analyzed these [environmental] problems agree that we have one or two decades to turn things around.”[9] Much of the problem lies in the fact that individuals who would otherwise consider themselves to be moral and ethical people, when confronted with the difficult decision to side with saving the environment, and subsequently humanity, or to find a quick fix for our economic woes, are making immoral decisions that affect our entire planet, in both the long and short term. President and Mrs. Bush (a former school teacher) ran on the “Family Values” platform and most likely believe themselves to be moral and ethical individuals, and yet: The Bush Administration wants to license new nuclear power plants and many of the 103 nuclear power plants soon up for relicensing may get a previously unexpected extended lease on life. In addition, the Administration signaled that it might reverse promises about power plant carbon dioxide and mercury emissions. The move came after heavy industry pressure from the Utility Air Regulatory Group which represents 50 large power plants.[10] In an area along the Mississippi River known as “cancer alley”, residents suffer from strikingly high rates of cancer and asthma. Although evidence ties the smokestacks and the human health problems together the industries hold political power over complacent state environmental agencies.[11] Information and Technology Age By contrast, Post-Industrial society is being transformed by massive amounts of information and new technologies that continually bombards us at a frenetic pace. Physicists tell us that matter is no longer that little dot that we could comprehend, but is instead a wave or “field” and if we “trace actions back to their sources we will discover, not God, but randomness.”[12] Science and technology have altered our notion of self, and subsequently God, since we are created in God’s image. If God is random and the universe chaotic, prevailing myths and symbols no longer reflect our belief and are thus, rendered meaningless and inadequate. “We need new symbols of transcendence and a new belief system that does not imply priority in space and time; we have tended to spatialize and temporalize God, putting him outside, alongside, or before the world.”[13] In order to save the planet we must challenge our notion of God and our relationship with the Divine. Eastern spiritual practices, specifically Hindus, teach that Nature is the body of God.[14] If we accept the concept that God is a tree, or the ocean, surely we will be less likely to do harm and more likely to make the sacrifices necessary to preserve and protect our fragile world, and in so doing, ensure a meaningful and everlasting relationship with God and our planet. Psychological Profile My work examines and explores archetypes and popular culture’s symbols and icons to reveal what I term the “collective neuroses” of our society. Archetypes and symbols, which are the expression or products of archetypes, indicate the condition of the unconscious at a particular moment. Together they form the “collective unconscious.” Psychologically and emotionally healthy individuals, and by extension societies, are able to assimilate and respond to their changing circumstances. Conversely, neurotic individuals (societies) are stuck in outmoded thought processes and do not grow with their changing environment, and rather than grow, seek to control their surroundings. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution created a great divide between the religious and scientific communities that continues to be fought today by many right-wing religious groups. Many feel the need to choose between either science or religion, rather than to challenge their religious ideology and create a new, more meaningful system of being in the world. Until recently, most religions rejected the findings of science in favor of these long held religious traditions which resulted in a failure of the church to address environmental warnings. “The perils facing life on Earth are so massive and unprecedented that they are hard to believe. The very danger signals that should rivet our attention, summon up the blood, and bond us in collective action, tend to have the opposite effect.”[15] Linear vs Cyclical Processes “It is necessary to cure our addiction to the false, short-sighted economies of the linear processes and to restore the health of nature and society by investing every available resource in cyclical processes.”[16] The problem with cyclical processes is that they require long-term rather than shortsighted solutions to complex social, environmental, and economic problems, thus the solutions are not popular and the results are not immediate. Most Americans live their lives in 20-second sound bytes, eating fast food behind the wheels of their cars whilst talking on their cell phone, and demand immediate results. Unfortunately, it is this type of antiquated thinking and lifestyle that created our current state of affairs. When a responsible married couple decides to have a child they sit down and very carefully prepare for that child’s and their new family’s financial future. How will they pay the doctor bills? How will they save enough money for college? Should they move into a bigger house in a safer neighborhood? Can they afford a 30-year mortgage? How will they provide daycare should it be necessary for both parents to work? Where will the money come from for their retirement? Unfortunately, few if any ask themselves, “What will the world be like in twenty years when my child has grown and is ready to enter college?” Will there be enough water to drink or will it be so polluted from pesticides and animal waste that people will literally die of thirst? Will my child have to wear a gas mask to avoid respiratory illnesses? Will my child die of starvation because there are too many people for the planet to support? It is imperative that moral, responsible individuals ask and answer these tough and frightening questions. U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologists found traces of hormones, insect repellent, antibiotics, and other medical and personal care products in a thirty-state study of freshwater sources, published in the March 22 Environmental Science and Technology.[17] Mad Cow Disease is a recent phenomenon created by technical innovations in agricultural production, whereby slaughtered animal parts are “rendered” and fed back to the animals, thus producing the epidemic.[18] The EPA estimates that over 125 million Americans breathe unhealthy air-almost half of the U.S. population. Bad air causes more fatalities than car accidents.[19] Lone Voices in the Wilderness There are currently organizations willing to ask these tough questions and provide viable economic and environmental answers that can reverse the damage we have done to the planet. They are composed of individuals willing to sacrifice in the short term to elicit long-term solutions. One such group is “The Natural Step” founded by Karl-Henrik Robert, M.D., Ph.D., one of Sweden’s leading cancer researchers. This organization has brought together scientists, artists, government, and the community to analyze “the systemic errors that are undermining the foundations of human society.” Rather than wait for national and international bureaucracies to form a consensus, they realize that the solutions are available to solve the problems, and are willing to take the necessary cyclical steps to change the system, one individual at a time.[20] Christian doctrine promulgates that we are to have dominion over nature. Scientific evidence shows that there is very little difference between the cell of a plant and that of a human. Only on a molecular level do our cells differ from other mammals, and yet because of this systemic error we tend to view ourselves as outside the realm of the natural world.[21] This is simply not the case. “We are not the masters of nature nor even the caretakers. We are part of nature.”[22] Christian myth bestows upon Man dominion over the natural world. During the Industrial Revolution, man sought to control and bend nature to its will. We must challenge this view and come to a deeper understanding of our interrelationship with nature and our constantly changing world. In order to do so, religious leaders must get involved and take a stand against the immorality of the devastation we have caused to the environment. The moral and ethical issues associated with the decision-making process that allows us to contaminate the water and air as long as it is within government recommended guidelines must be addressed. Cutting down an entire rain forest is immoral, not merely an economic decision designed to reap more profit for shareholders. One such group that has taken steps to bring the religious community together is “The National Religious Partnership for the Environment.” Their efforts are noble and intended to “bring an environmental sensibility to their spiritual worldviews”[23], however they rely on outmoded religious views of nature and the environment. “Human beings, as wise stewards, are summoned to mold creation’s bounty into complex civilizations of justice and beauty…”[24] Stewards, in a healthy society, will no longer be necessary because we will live as one with Nature and not attempt to control or “mold” it to our will, be it for good or bad purposes. Our Endangered Species “We need to learn to feel our kinship with the vast natural world. We need to be open to the deep intelligence of the world. We need to recognize the sacredness of nature.”[25] We have nailed Mother Nature to the cross, pierced her body with stakes, put a crown of thorns upon her head, and given her water laced with selenium, arsenic, and mercury to drink. It is not too late to take her down from the cross and anoint her feet with oil. Unlike Christ, she cannot rise from the dead and we all die with her. It is time to put ourselves at the top of the endangered species list. By solving the problems that plague our own species, we ultimately save the entire planet. Bibliography 1] V. Deloria, The Metaphysics of Modern Existence, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 105. 2] W. McDounough and M. Braungart, “The Next Industrial Revolution,” The Atlantic Online, (1998), http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98oct/industry.htm 3] J. Motavalli, “Heavy Metal Harm,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XIII:3, (2002), pp. 28-29. 4] A. Reese, “Bad Air Day,” E: The Environmental Magazine, X:6, (1999), pp. 28-35. 5] J. Motavalli, “Harnessing Hydrogen,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XI:2, (2000), pp. 34-39. 6] D. Appell, “Global Warning,” Science & Spirit, (2002), pp. 42-43. 7] J. Praded, “Glowing in the Dark,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XIII:3, (2002), pp. 40-41. 8] B. Gillette, “Raising the Alarm: Concerns Linger about Electromagnetic Fields,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XII:6, (2001), pp. 40-41. 9] K.H. Robert, “Educating a Nation: The Natural Step,” In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, (1991), http://context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm, May 1, 2003. 10] J. Praded, “Glowing in the Dark,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XIII:3, (2002), pp. 40-41. 11] C. B. Gaines, “Richard Misrach: The Messenger,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XIII:3, (2002), p. 12. 12] L. Shain, Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light (New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1991). 13] V. Deloria, The Metaphysics of Modern Existence, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 105. 14] E. Kadetsky, “Guarding Nature,” Science & Spirit, (2002), pp. 28-39. 15] J. Macy, “The Greatest Danger,” Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning, (2003), pp. 54-55. 16] K.H. Robert, “Educating a Nation: The Natural Step,” In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, (1991), http://context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm, May 1, 2003. 17] C. Kuzma, “Tapped Out,” Science & Spirit, (2002), pp. 15-16. 18] S. Rampton, “It Can Happen Here,” E: The Environmental Magazine, XII:4, (2001), pp. 34-39. 19] A. Reese, “Bad Air Day,” E: The Environmental Magazine, X:6, (1999), pp. 28-35. 20] K.H. Robert, “Educating a Nation: The Natural Step,” In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, (1991), http://context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm, May 1, 2003. 21] K.H. Robert, “Educating a Nation: The Natural Step,” In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, (1991), http://context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm, May 1, 2003. 22] K.H. Robert, “Educating a Nation: The Natural Step,” In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, (1991), http://context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm, May 1, 2003. 23] National Religious Partnership for the Environment, http://www.nrpe.org, May 1, 2003. 24] National Religious Partnership for the Environment, http://www.nrpe.org, May 1, 2003. 25] C. De Quincey, “Listening to Nature’s Story,” Ions: Noetic Sciences Review, No. 60, (2002), p. 45.