Life, Money, and Illusion: Lesson from the East Coast Fishery

The City of Hamilton’s planning committee recently heard from Mike Nickerson, the author of Life, Money and Illusion: Living on Earth As If We Want to Stay. Excerpts from his presentation are reproduced below. The full transcription is on the CATCH website.

“…The really fundamental change between human beings and the earth has been well illustrated by the east coast fishery, because when Europeans came to North America you could drop a bucket into the ocean and pull up codfish. They were so dense in the water they couldn’t escape from a basket. And for 400 years, they were the foundation of the maritime economy. Anybody could go fishing and make a living.

“If somebody was ambitious, they fished a little more than they needed to for their immediate needs, they make some extra money and they could invest that in their boat or their net and catch more fish, and make more money. And that more money – more fish – more money – more fish process went on for 4 centuries. It just got better, and better and better and better and then it collapsed. And there’s something about better and better and better that doesn’t naturally need to collapse.

“There is something important going on that wasn’t being paid attention to. And that was the fish stock. And the reason it wasn’t being paid attention to is that for four centuries there was nobody that could even imagine that we would dent this incredible volume of fish let alone bring them to the status of endangered species. But because of the expansion of the number of fish and people fishing and particularly because of the power of the equipment we were using for fishing, you could no longer support yourself fishing cod on the east coast.

“And what we did with the fish we’re doing with the forests. We’re doing it with fossil fuels; we’re doing it in some places with fresh water, with soil fertility; with the ability of the environment to absorb our waste. These are all wake-up calls to the human family. They’re all telling us one thing. They’re saying we’re grown up now. We’re no longer a young offender; we’re fully responsible for the laws of nature, and we will be tried in the court of natural selection.

“There are only two laws in nature that we have to obey. One is the law of the minimum. How much resources do we need compared to what the planet offers – which is what the fish and the fossil fuels is about. And the other is the law of tolerance. How much of our waste can we tolerate - can the environment which supports us tolerate?

Slow death by rubber duck

Earlier this year I heard a talk by Bruce Lowrie, co-author of Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health. It was really alarming to find out that all kinds of things in my home like hand soap, shower curtains, microwave popcorn bags, and even my son's squishy rubber duck are poisoning me and my family.

Here's an ad from 1946 about DDT, which was later banned in the US in 1972 because of it's harmful effects on the environment and human health. Most of us don't think twice about the products we use, but the reality is we don't know the effects from most of the chemicals they contain. Don't assume they are safe.. get educated.

When you go shopping for cosmetics or personal care products, read the labels and try to avoid these 7 ingredients:

Fragrance/Parfum - often contain phthalates, a group of man-made chemicals that disrupt hormones and can cause birth defects of male reproductive organs

Triclosan – an antimicrobial/antibacterial agent that can weaken the immune system, disrupt the hormonal system, bioaccumulate, and convert to chemicals known to cause cancer when being used

Sodium lauryl sulfate - a lathering agent in cleaners that is a known skin irritant and suspected liver toxin

DEA (Diethanolamine) - suspected of causing cancer and being toxic to the respiratory and nervous systems

Cyclomethicone and ingredients that include the word “siloxane” (e.g., cyclopentasiloxane) – these chemicals stick around in the environment for a long time, have the potential to accumulate in organisms up the food chain, and may cause cancer and reproductive toxicity

Ingredients that include the word “paraben” (e.g., methylparaben) – can cause skin irritation, may cause cancer and disrupt hormones

Ingredients that include the letter-combo “-eth-” (e.g., polyethylene glycol) – means that the product likely contains 1,4-dioxane, a chemical that may cause cancer and is a suspected kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant and respiratory toxicant

See the Guide to Less Toxic Products and Skin Deep for more information about toxicants in your products. The Environmental Working Group is a reliable source of information.

Going Car-Free

From Asphalt Nation....

"As we enter the twenty-first century, it is clear that we are not only a car-driven but a car-ridden population. The vehicle that was out rescuer is arguably our ruination, certifiably, the root of many of our ills. Yet for all our automotive follies--for all the costs, the inconveniences, the destruction--the motor vehicle remains entrenched. The reason is obvious: it is a prerequisite for mobility in America. We cannot see our personal and global dilemma or perceive an escape from it. Our lives and landscape have been fashioned to the automobile's dictates for three-quarters of a century. A rescue movement is in order." p285

"From the fight to "just say no" to highways, to the battle to create codes to release us from bondage of bad land practices, to traffic calming and the depaving of the kingdom of the car, to the proper pricing of our mobility and the political fight to install mass transit, the struggle engages a new constituency. The process is as participatory as democracy itself. The smallest householder and the largest corporation, the humblest local government maneuver and the grandest federal program must figure in the sea change for a new century."p287

Then the car came along...

"The 250,000 miles of railroad lines that defined the continent's architecture of settlement beginning from the mid-nineteenth century, was the envy of the world. The second, the sturdy interurban, meshed city and city, city and countryside over many miles. The lightest, the electric streetcar, the city's artery, connected downtown and neighborhoods, the dwelling and working places of America. The efficiency of this triad of railed movement set the outlines that produced the finest streetscapes and architecture in America."
Taken from Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back, by Jane Holtz Kay

Cars a step backward in spiritual civilization

"I'm not sure about automobiles.... With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization - that is, in spiritual civilization. It may be that they will not add to the beauty of the world, nor to the life of men's souls. I am not sure. But automobiles have come, and they bring a greater change in our life than most of us suspect. They are here, and almost all outward things are going to be different because of what they bring. They are going to alter war, and they are going to alter peace. I think men's minds are going to be changed in subtle ways because of automobiles; just how, though, I could hardly guess. But you can't have the immense outward changes that they will cause without some inward ones, and it may be that... the spiritual alteration will be bad for us. Perhaps, ten or twenty years from now, if we can see the inward change in men by that time, I shouldn't be able to defend the gasoline engine, but would have to agree...that automobiles 'had no business to be invented."

From Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, 1918

Progress?

This blog exists to inspire change--to become more in harmony with nature in order to improve the quality of life for this and future generations.

"But the day soon came when the mountains began to leave them. It started with roads. Engineers in sola topis arrived with their sinister instruments and charted their designs on reams of paper. These were to be modern roads, they promised, roads that would hum with the swift passage of modern traffic. Roads, wide and heavy-duty, to replace scenic mountain paths too narrow for the broad vision of nation-builders and World Bank officials.

…Progress was slow at first, so slow that Mr. Kohlah and all the inhabitants of the hills harboured an irrational hope: the work would never be completed, their little haven would remain unscathed... But the road continued to inch upwards, swallowing everything in its path. The sides of their beautiful hills were becoming gashed and scarred...

Then the promised rewards began rolling up the road into the mountains. Lorries big as houses transported goods from the cities and fouled the air with their exhaust. Service stations and eating places sprouted along the routes to provide for the machines and their men. And developers began to build luxury hotels."

Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (1995), selections from pp. 259-61