I continually preach that investing in your health should be your top priority each and every day. But, in order to do this, you must also take care of your little piece of the earth.
This coming April 22 will mark the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, and I would like to prompt you to give it more than a passing thought. Space constraints really limit details here, but please contact me if you have any questions or comments.
During a recent trip to a Costa Rican rainforest I was reminded of some jolting realities. Every second of every day, one and a half acres of rainforest are lost. This contributes to the loss of 50,000 species of plants, animals, and insects every year. Ecosystems depend on every component to survive. The loss of one species leads directly to the loss of another, as plants depend on insects for pollination or on animals to disperse seeds, and so forth. The damage is cumulative and picks up speed quickly.
So, how does this impact you? For starters, at least one quarter of all pharmaceutical drugs are derived from rainforest ingredients found through leads from anecdotal native reports.
Two thirds of the world’s population depends on natural herbs, and both plants and wisdom regarding their use are disappearing at alarming rates. I read that when a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a unique library had been destroyed—one holding thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge contained in no other place. The Sacred Seeds Project, which I was privileged to visit, seeks to create thousands of living “banks” of plants throughout the world, and document their traditional uses. If you are an herbalist at heart, please consider becoming a part of this incredible project. (Amateurs are welcome.)
Apart from healing herbs, don’t forget that the world’s rainforests produce a significant portion of our planet’s oxygen, and influence global rainfall, temperature, and weather patterns. The long term consequences of rainforest destruction must not be underestimated.
These issues are not just related to the tropics, however. What healing herbs are native to our mountain region? What plants are being wiped out as we clear land to satisfy urban growth? What herbal wisdom did your great grandmother have that has now been lost?
Let’s narrow the scope to just your yard. How many of you remember warm lazy days lying in the grass on your stomach with a friend, while you both tried to see who could find a four-leaf clover first? Remember trying not to step on bees as you ran barefoot through that cool carpet of clover?
Today, few lawns contain clover and the bees are nearly gone. American lawns are toxic enough to increase childhood leukemia risk by nearly seven fold. Rates of cancers and liver failure in pets are also skyrocketing. Other side effects of this toxic exposure include all types of reproductive disorders, including infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects, a wide variety of cancers, including Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s.
The EPA estimates that we apply over 90 million pounds of pesticides & herbicides to our yards each year. They also estimate that 1.5 trillion gallons of pollutants leak into our groundwater each year. Those figures don’t take into account industry waste or what runs into our streams, rivers, and oceans.
These pollutants include every imaginable chemical used in homes, garden, and farming, as well as the thousands of pharmaceuticals that go down drains and toilets.
These toxins come back to us in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil our food grows in. (Tap water has been found to contain at least 700 different chemicals, though very few cities test for these, and virtually none remove them.) We have already reached many limits on what the earth is capable of dealing with. The saying that “there is no away, as in throw it away’ is as true as it gets.
“Greening” your home and garden means exposing your family to fewer toxins and reducing your toxic contribution to the earth. Feeding your grass, plants, and trees organic compost means improving water retention and nutrient content. If possible, let a few areas of your property go wild, literally. You will spend less money and have more free time to enjoy your healthier life.
We can choose to be good stewards of our tiny piece of Earth. We can leave our grandchildren a cleaner planet and the chance to have a healthier life. Earth Day celebrates our potential to make serious improvements. If you think your efforts aren’t important enough to bother with, please consider the words of Margaret Meade,
“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”