Back in 1966 when I graduated from Long Beach State College and began my public health career at our local Health Department’s Division of Environmental Health, the very notion of a “global warming” crisis never crossed the minds of most Americans, myself included. Leaded gasoline was in our car’s gas tanks, smog levels and alerts in the Los Angeles basin were commonplace and I even recall how children on the playgrounds of our schools and parks would complain about “shortness of breath”, that is, a sort of asthma type burning when taking in a breath from our lungs reaction to so many airborne toxins circulating around our environment.
I don’t know about you, but this newfound national attention to pollution and global warming is long overdue. The temperature changes of our planet could very well be a natural phenomenon that is a cycle repeating itself over the course of our world’s geologic history. It’s a debate that is certainly worth the attention it deserves. However what is undeniable is that we are quickly moving toward a series of catastrophic events that if not corrected soon will be the bane of our generation and an environmental disaster for generations to come. Burning of fossil fuels isn’t the only culprit and climate change should not be the only hot topic grabbing the headlines. Today we have thousands of chemicals that have become part of our everyday life. Shoe dyes, household cleaners, pesticides, gardening compounds, solvents, and prescription drugs either flushed down our toilets or disposed of through our bodies are ending up in our underground water supplies, rivers, and oceans.
Denying that we need to roll up our sleeves and not aggressively starting to better understand what we are doing to our world is unacceptable. A national dialogue starting with all Americans, young and old, is long overdue. It is paramount that we initiate programs beginning first in our elementary schools and high schools learning about these matters. We have a moral responsibility to ask the right questions, to seek out accurate information and look toward a better understanding of what’s happening to us and how we can fix the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.
Personal accountability heads the list in making for a better world.
What we can do individually each and every day to contribute our share to helping our planet survive is every breathing individual’s responsibility. Without changing our abusive environmental behavior will determine how long we survive and thrive not only as a nation but also as humans inhabiting a place like no other in the universe.
The late Louis Armstrong recorded a very moving song called “It’s a Wonderful World”. He saw skies of blue and clouds of white. Let’s all hope we can continue to be so lucky.