How 'Earth Day' could reinvent itself as... relevant

Friday, May 03, 2013 by: Michael A. Bedar, MA
Tags: Earth Day, humans, ecosystem

(NaturalNews) You know how the "Earth Day" story goes. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire. Wild birds were laying eggs so weak, they broke open before the chicks were ready to hatch. Acid rain was skewing the pH of lake, river, and coastal ecosystems. Choking smog blanketed the large cities, and with urban sprawl, paradise was rapidly being paved over for parking lots. It was imperative to bring what was happening to the forefront of consciousness.

Thus, Earth Day was born. However, the way it is "celebrated" today might be so far off the track toward any effectual goal that the whole holiday should be questioned, re-thought...and re-named.

Is it possible to cure ecological pollution while ignoring human biological pollution?

It may be physically impossible, quite literally, for a species to largely ignore its own biology, and yet preserve and regenerate its own ecology. Like a fish that is immersed in water and hardly recognizes the existence of water (let alone know how to keep the water clean), a human being whose body-brain is totally saturated in every manner of poison can hardly recognize what is natural (let alone know how to sustain nature).

Here is what humans consume regularly (yes, including many of the same humans who attend "Concerts to Save the Earth" on April 22):

1. Over-the-counter and prescription medications, polluting the human biological ecosystem to the extreme
2. Foods which heavily attack the human ecosystem
3. Cosmetic products that continue the toxic onslaught
4. Highly pesticide-sprayed cotton and other chemicals, which invade us through our clothing and bedding
5. Household products we absorb as we touch, sit on, and breathe their off-gassing
6. A mental diet a largely scripted media from official government press releases and education programs in the interests of a few
7. Pharmaceutical drugs (number 1, above) are likely the most acutely dangerous polluters of the human body; therefore, if were were conscious that humans have to clean up ourselves in order to clean up the planet, Earth Day might primarily emphasize dealing with number 1! But does it?

Do we see the spotlight focused on the number-one intensive polluters of the human body on Earth Day? Answer the question yourself - did you see speeches on biologically disrupting drugs headlining Earth Day events?

Perhaps the reason the answers is "no" lies with the corporate and government sponsors and other funding sources that get behind "Earth Day." They like the way it looks to support organizations that declare a "green mission for the global environment."

Yet would they support an Earth Day agenda that, hypothetically, included keeping the human being clean and pristine by stopping the over-medicating? An agenda of keeping us able to think and behave clearly with a well-functioning nervous system?

Doubtful, because being associated with a simple, feel-good green message doesn't hurt, and even helps the sponsors' bottom line. But spreading the message that drugs, junk foods, and other products that we mindlessly consume cause our bodies and brains to suffer from the cripplingly toxicicty?

That would cut into profits on sales of such products, and so the "Earth Day" agenda remains counter to a real ecological goal, which starts with cleaning up people so we can even see and prioritize the mess on Earth we are creating!

What if Earth Day were named "Humans Day"?

What if Earth Day had originally been called "Humans Day?" After all, it is humans who want clean rivers and lakes. Isn't it humans who want the air to be breathable? Isn't it humans who want to enjoy thriving verdant forests outside of their cities?

Of course, it would never have worked to call it Humans Day. Hardly any humans would have gotten it! The vast majority of people would not have had the big-picture view required to put nature's ecosystems into the same celebration of human beings, hypothetically called "Humans Day."

Yet looking at Earth Day as more of a Humans Day would make us conscious that, to restore ecology, it is essential to start with honoring the individual human being.

Earth Day Planners Alert: This realization would lead to a starkly different, and far healthier emphasis!

A Human Earth Day

We would start by noticing all the ways that the individual human's body (including that of many individuals who work for "global environmental solutions") has often become a cesspool of prescription antibiotics, neurotoxic mood enhancers, SSRIs, sedatives, prescriptions, antihistamines and vaccinations.

As the first order of "Humans on Earth Day," we would call an end to that! We would no longer stand for the human body being the biggest toxic waste dump, pollutants permeating our nervous system and impacting our thinking.

Remember the fish submersed in water doesn't even notice the water, and a person submersed in his own degeneration under toxic load doesn't even notice the degeneration of the planet as a problem.

Show me, somebody, an Earth Day in the world that emphasizes our chronic, toxic, human dysfunction first! Then we will have our biology functioning so we can wake up!

But instead, once again this year, we got a lot of peripherals.

It is time for a Humans-on-Earth Day.

Even the recent emphasis on food at Earth Day, which is an improvement, does not complete the center of the problem. We'll only shift the land use issues, extinctions, and myriad ecological trends that spell desertification in the long run if people's physiological bodies and brains get un-clouded from being a toxic laboratory.

One on hand, it is laudable that some Earth Days are taking notice of the incongruence that people fill their bodies with genetically modified ingredients, processed sweeteners and hydrogenated syrups, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, hormones.

Yet, many "Earth Day" festivals and their boozy music concerts with haze-inducing concession stands, still have vendors with conventional and processed foods. This is a sign of a meaningless celebration, and/or one whose mission has been co-opted.

We won't stop the streams being polluted until we stop polluting our bloodstream.

Of course, polluting our bloodstreams to addict our brains is where money is made. In a Humans-on-Earth Day, brands that pollute people's bloodstream will automatically be disqualified from being an sponsor. The survival instinct that inspired the first Earth Day must now make it imperative to stop toxifying the ecology of our own body through over-prescribing medication and cleverly, ubiquitously marketing over-the-counter drugs.

As long as our bodies are more chemically toxified than the average acreage of this planet, we will, like the fish swimming in water, never see what we are doing to the Earth.

Until Earth Day decides to see itself as Humans-on-Earth Day, we will be lost in space.

Sources for this article include:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River

3) http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

About the author:
Michael Bedar MA, BS, is a researcher, writer, and holistic wellness counselor. He is the associate producer with a founding role in the documentary, "Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days" and is the writer-director of "EcoParque." He now distributes approximately 50 film, ebook, and audio titles through YoelMedia.com. He manages a holistic health practice, facilitates local and online natural wellness and spiritual growth programs, and juices regularly. He helps people live in healthy homes, support their natural fertility, encourage their optimal nutrition, and come into their full presence. He is the Co-Director of Tree of Life - Bay Area, and he has an MA in Live-Food and Spiritual Nutrition from the Cousens School of Holistic Wellness. Bedar's BS from UCSD is an interdisciplinary concentration of Environmental Chemistry, Law and Society, and Design Anthropology.