NEWS FROM MOTHER EARTH

(Democracy Now - Google Images)

How would you react if a bulldozer unearthed your relatives' or ancestors' graves?

Like the scene below from the film Poltergeist (1982) when my heart leapt as I learned the town's cemetery was being demolished by developers, I can only imagine how the Standing Rock Sioux have felt seeing their burial grounds in North Dakota desecrated by Dakota Access for a pipeline.

(Poltergeist - Google Images)

My question: why didn't Dakota Access plan accordingly? Knee-jerk reactions and greed color the oil company's decision-making. Per the Standing Rock Sioux, Dakota Access knew the tribe's members were going to file papers on a Monday morning to halt construction. The company then decided to bulldoze during the weekend (EcoWatch).

(Boston.com - Google Images)

Across the country in Boston pedestrians, especially those with dogs, have been warned to stay away from the Charles River this week due to algae blooms. The contaminated water could potentially harm humans and animals should they be exposed to it. At the same time in Dorchester, large numbers of dead birds (including 47 songbirds) have been found--some have been seen falling from trees (Boston Globe). And people are asking, "Why?" Necropsies and other tests will be done, but I'd bet a link exists between the two events, even if indirectly. Pollution wields its ugly head, once again.

Another consequence of pollution: WHO (the World Health Organization) and PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility) cited dramatic increases in air pollution-related health problems across the world and here in the U.S., especially among the poor who live in urban areas. According to PSR:

Despite significant progress in air quality improvement, approximately 150 million people across the United States continue to live in areas with unhealthful levels of air pollution in the form of either ozone or particle pollution. (PSR, 2016)

(Google Images)

In my case, I live in an apartment above the back entrance to a restaurant. A window fan used in my kitchen for ventilation and cooling becomes caked, in a matter of days, with sticky soot from trucks' diesel engines. I have little doubt that the particulates from the emissions have exacerbated my own health issues. I'm lucky, however, I have access to health care in Massachusetts, and natural surroundings where I can breathe clean air. The poor in the U.S. and around the world often don't have a choice as to where they live, especially children, or adequate medical care. 

Worse, Donald Trump, without forethought, wants to abolish the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The result would be a bureaucratic nightmare, let alone disastrous for our country's economic and environmental future:

It is the agency charged with implementing laws such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, which have been passed by Congress. It studies pollutants that are harmful to human health, writes rules to curb those pollutants, and monitors compliance. If Congress abolished EPA but did not repeal the laws that require the federal government to limit pollution, the result would be total incoherence. The government would have legal obligations it could not meet (Adler, Grist.org, May, 2016).

As more than 90% of scientists have confirmed, humanity can no longer ignore the direct link between pollution and climate change. Our climate has been forever altered and will continue to deteriorate despite warnings from decades ago. Citizens across the world suffer the consequences from high-level governmental and corporate indifference to these dire forecasts of global warming. For without a worldwide effort to stand against the use of fossil fuels and to stop industrial pollution/waste in the air, water and ground, edible food and clean water will become inaccessible and health costs will continue to escalate.Furthermore, indigenous peoples around the world have warned their countries that such a day would come. 

In the U.S., the disrespect shown to the Standing Rock Sioux and other caretakers who wish to protect their ancestral heritage, the land which belongs to no one, shows this writer that those in charge simply don't care.

(EcoWatch - Google Images)