What Are We Doing To Ourselves ?

We watched Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures on PBS last night and we came away from that wondering what are we as a world doing to ourselves. It was a bit frightening to see how long some of the toxic chemicals stay in our bodies just simply by consuming meats and fish that have been in contact with them. Recently I saw where the beluga whales are coming down with breast cancer and that traces of chemicals banned in the 1970's are showing up in their bodies....it made me wonder why on earth are we not all being tested to see what chemicals are in our blood and is there a connection to what is in our blood and what diseases we come down with. Last night, Jean-Michel Cousteau and several others had their blood tested and I think they were all a bit surprised to see how much of two certain chemicals, one was toxic flame retardant, was in their systems. Long ago, when my girls were babies, I did everything in my power to have them sleep in pajama's that had no flame retardant in them, but the chemical is in so many things, furniture, carpets and more. To this day I refuse to buy clothing that has any chemical in it to fight stains etc. We even opted to not have scotch guard on our furniture.

Time Magazine asked Jean-Michel Cousteau this question...."What do you want people to walk away from having watched this documentary with?"
His reply....."The message is the fact that we are using the ocean as a garbage can by dumping things we don't see — such as chemicals and heavy metals — into the environment. Orcas are having problems coping with these toxins, and it all comes back to harm us — including in the food that we harvest from the ocean. So in the end, let's be very selfish. It's not the issue of saving fish and marine mammals, it's about saving ourselves."

Its time to be thinking about the way we live, the way we consume, and the way we dump all the junk we use.

I think we all need to step back a bit, live on less stuff, and yes, I have been saying that on this blog for over 3 years now, long before we hit this economic nightmare. We need to consider better ways to package foods and other consumable items. Take the cloth bag to the market with you instead of using those plastic bags. Recycle. Use less, grow a garden, even if its just a window box one. Melanie has onions growing in a window box, peas growing in a hanging basket, tomatoes in pots on her front porch. Every little bit helps. She doesn't have time for a big garden right now, so she is doing her part as best she can. Melissa is considering a new apartment and the first thing she said to me is, "mom, it has a porch that would be great for container gardening". No matter how busy or how limited your space you can small things to improve the way we are living on this planet.

You would be surprised at just how easy it is to give up certain aspects of a lifestyle when you feel committed to the reasons behind the changes.

Just take a look at the pictures from Wednesdays Oprah Show on the trash in the ocean and in our landfills and how much of it there is and perhaps you will want to change some of the things you do and cut down on the amount of trash you have.

We have one trash bag a week for the two of us and I would like to cut that down to half a bag of trash a week. I want to make some fun cloth grocery bags for myself to use in addition to the ones I use already, make it fun and memorable so I don't forget the bags in the car and end up having to use the plastic ones. Several countries have now out-lawed the use of those bags and some places are charging for them which of course cuts down on the use dramatically.

Quality of life is something I want to facilitate for the future generations, and I sure want to do what I can to live a long and healthy life. I suspect we all know in our hearts that we don't need all the stuff we buy and that our lives are overflowing with things that have not made us happier in the long run, maybe for the moment right after we purchase them, but look folks, a lot of this stuff all ends up in a landfill somewhere after we decide, we didn't need it anyway. Take a piece of paper and a pen and write down all the things you have purchased in the last two years that you have since given away or thrown away, deciding you just didn't need it. Now add up how much money you spent on that and then think about all the packaging and chemicals it took to make what you didn't really need after all. It's sobering. How we live effects so much more than just our own little circle.