Tamara Harbar
Going Green

Earthquakes. Erupting volcanoes that won’t quit. Underwater oil wells leaking non-stop. Disasters are popping up like PEZ from some cosmic dispenser.

Personal disasters are piling up in my circle of family and friends, too. Serious illnesses. Medical crises. Emergency calls.

But you can’t judge a book by its cover and maybe you can’t judge an environmental disaster or a personal crisis by appearances, either. From a big picture point of view, it’s possible things have to go wrong before they can go right.

A personal example. On April 22, my mom had a heart attack. She called 911, waited until a fireman came through her door, and then collapsed.

Things were going very wrong. They had been going wrong for a while. My mom had put up with steadily declining health as a part of aging, taking the minimal amount of medications and refusing to see a specialist.

But in hospital, my mom’s medications were adjusted. She gratefully received the expert care of a wonderful cardiologist. He set a new standard of health for her and cautioned her about extending herself past her limits.

My mom is now recuperating at home, accepting help and pacing herself. Her medical emergency opened her up to change and restructuring her life for her health’s sake in a way nothing else had done before.

It’s possible something positive could come out of the oil leak emergency, too. Maybe I’m seeing a connection just because that big world catastrophe happened around the same time as my little world emergency close to home. But if the oil spill isn’t a health issue, I don’t know what is.

The initial explosion killed 11 workers. The undersea geyser continues to put at risk the health of clean-up workers, of oceans and wildlife, of jobs, economies and food sources, as well as the health of people living within reach of the slimy slick heading their way.

Things have gone very wrong. They have been going wrong for a while. We have all put up with steadily declining environmental health as an inevitable part of life, applying the minimal amount of remedies and refusing to change our wasteful and polluting ways even when alternatives exist.

Will we adjust, set a new standard of health for our planet and take precautions against extending ourselves past our limits? Will we learn to pace ourselves and the rate at which we’re extracting resources from a finite planet?

This catastrophe could open us all up to change and restructuring for the sake of our health and the planet’s in a way nothing else has done before.

With blobs of oil washing up on Gulf Coast beaches, a shift may already be in the works. President Obama has issued a temporary moratorium against off-shore drilling. As efforts to stop the spill fail, recognition is growing that we are past the limits of our technology and our knowledge. The leak could also fuel faster development of safer, greener technologies.

For my mom post-heart attack and for all of us post-oil spill, things will never be the same. Given the way things were before and depending on the direction we take, that could be a good thing.

Web Peeks of the Week
See petitions against off-shore drilling at www.dogwoodinitiative.org/notankers/actions/gulf-petition and www.350.org/drilling-ban. Visit the facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/dontdrill.