2000 Healing Our World Commentaries Archive

Use these articles and their resources in your efforts to reconnect to the natural world, to heal the separation that has been created by hundreds of years of an overdependence upon technology and a lack of appreciation of the web of life. Woven into these writings are many tools for you to use including ecofeminism, ecopsychology, deep ecology, spritual ecology and more.

NOTE: Some of the websites in the commentary Resource links may no longer exist, but most can still be found with the help of the Internet Archive. If you are unable to find a site, go to http://www.archive.org and enter the link address. The Archive keeps a copy of most files from the entire Internet from the last 4 or 5 years.

NOTE: The Environment News Service is in the process of migrating its files to another server. As a result, some of the commentaries below may not be available for a time. If that occurs, type the title of the article you are looking for into a search engine and you will likely find it posted at another site. Email me if you are having trouble finding anything.

December 22, 2000 - Warning Labels are Not Enough
The approach taken by government regulators and politicians to mitigate environmental and other health hazards is usually to identify the harmful material or practice in question and to post a warning label. .

Decmeber 8 , 2000 - Don't Wait for the EPA - or Anyone
It takes only a few years for a deadly pesticide to infiltrate the ecosystem, causing harm to our bodies and our world. However, it seems to take about 50 years for politicians to gather enough evidence in the form of deaths of children and horrible defects to take action.

November 24, 2000 - Can Life Survive Earth's Depleted Ozone Layer?
For the last 20 years, evidence has been mounting that we are dramatically affecting a vital attribute of our planet without which, nearly all life would perish.

November 10, 2000 - Change is Needed Now - But Let's Do the Math.
The new support that is evolving for the Green Party could be having an unexpected consequence - insuring a Republican rise to power for many years to come.

November 3, 2000 - How Do We Decide on a Leader?
It may be easier than you think to choose a leader. Their stand on the environment may be the pivotal issue.

October 27, 2000 - Doom and Gloom Forcasts: Anti-Environmental Distractions All the dire predictions of the collapse of the economy, widespread unemployment, and unprecedented corporate losses due to environmental preservation activities have never materialized.

October 22, 2000 - The New American Dream: Out of Salvaged Wood
Some creative entrepreneurs are finding unexpected, but obvious, sources for prime wood: old buildings. The wood salvage business could help slow the destruction of our remaining forests.

October 13, 2000 - Home Sweet - Toxic - Home
Depending upon the industry in which you work, you may be bringing home more than you thought - a wide array of potentially life threatening toxics.

October 2, 2000 - Extinction: NOT Just a Fact of Life
Plant and animal extinctions are not a necessary consequence of progress.

September 22, 2000 - Autumnal Equinox and Illusions of Olympic Gold

September 15, 2000 - The Fur is Still Flying

Millions of animals are brutally killed every year for their fur - still.

September 1, 2000 - The Migration Begins: The International Space Station
What will it mean to our values as we begin the first permanent human presence in outer space?

August 25, 2000 - Your Neighbors - Unwilling Victims of Pesticide Misuse
The choice to use pesticides affects everyone around you.

August 18, 2000 - Nuclear Submarines: Grim Reminder of a Dark Secret
The potential for environmental catastrophe from our readiness for war is as great as it has been at any time in our history.

August 11, 2000 - Wildlife Harassment in the Name of Research

July 31, 2000 - Toxic Bodies: Endocrine Disruption, Our Imperiled Future

July 21, 2000 - Such Intense Cruelty
In China today, thousands of bears are kept alive in the most horrifying conditions imaginable so that the bile from their gall bladders can be harvested!

July 14, 2000 - What's Important?
How will our disconnection from the natural world increase if we create beings that are not born connected to that which has connected life from the beginning of time - a mother’s womb?

July 3, 2000 - Reverence for Life . . . When?
Each day around the world, humans display supreme arrogance by ordering the death of other creatures for convenience, for progress or for sport. Should reverence for life be a priority in our lives?

June 23, 2000 - Burgers, Pain and Slaughter
Finally, video footage has been obtained from a worker in a Washington slaughterhouse showing fully conscious cows being skinned alive and having their legs cut off while struggling for freedom.

June 9, 2000- Time for Some Shelf Clearing?
What should we focus our attention on? What should our environmental priorities be? Should we choose clean air or clean water? Why do we have to choose?

May 20, 2000 - The People Want What? Who Cares!
On May 9, 2000, Washington Governor Gary Locke issued the order that allowed the Washington State Department of Agriculture to spray 775 acres with pesticide Btk on two Seattle communities over the objections of thousands of citizens.

May 2, 2000 - Still Lazy After All These Years - The Myth of Product Safety
Upon close examination, it becomes clear that when it comes to the approval of chemicals in the United States, the fox is truly guarding the hen house.

April 19, 2000 - Earth Day 2000: To March or To Shop?

March 19, 2000 - What Else Aren't We Hearing About?
Our oceans are quietly being destroyed by systematic large-scale pollution from routine marine activities that rarely make the headlines. Although large oil spills command extensive media coverage - for a few days anyway - they account for only about 10 percent of the oil and fuel that ends up in our waters each year.

February 27, 2000 - They Just Don't Seem To Get It.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), in a move that threatens public safety and continues archaic pest control practices, plans to spray three sites in the state with the insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk).

February 14, 2000 - It's Worse Than You Think
While most of us are aware that there are inaccuracies in the history we learned as children about the creation of the United States, few of us really know about the horrible truths that have shaped the values of our western culture.

February 5 , 2000- Cruise Ship Pollution - A Holiday of Toxins
On a ship carrying 3,000 passengers, as much as 7,500 kilograms a day (16,500 pounds) of waste is generated, much of which is dumped at sea into fragile marine ecosystems.

January 25, 2000 - More Than Just Your Food
It is likely that most of you reading this article have goods in your homes that have been irradiated. Hundreds of items are irradiated internationally in the more than 150 irradiation plants around the world.