October 25th, 1997
NUMB-ERS
By Jackie Giuliano
We have so few tools that enable us to deal with our environmental dilemmas. We are
continually barraged by lists of acres, species, or habitats lost and how many pounds of
one pollutant or another we place into the atmosphere.
Many are moved to alter their behaviors after seeing such numbers, but for how long? Sure,
such lists may encourage more recycling for a while, but do they have much affect on
long-term lifestyle and behavior patterns? Like the habitual dieter, moving from one fad
diet to another, desperate to lose weight, we try recycling or water conservation. But
like the dieter, who is doomed to failure unless she or he develops a relationship with
the body he or she is trying to alter, we are doomed to failure unless we develop a
relationship with the world around us.
I am convinced that it is not possible to care, really care, for someone or something
without first developing a relationship with that person or thing. Not seeing ourselves as
having a constant, never-ending, dynamic relationship with the natural world around us may
be our greatest obstacle. Nowhere have I seen as dramatic set of effects of this
disconnection from the natural world as I have in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I was there this past weekend because my sister's wedding was there. She has lived in Las
Vegas for a number of years, and I have been there many times. The city is an amazing
example of the technological and financial power of our civilization. It is also a
powerful example of our massive disconnection from the natural world and its consequences.
It is a place that can be a clear lesson for us all about the effects of rampant growth
and greed, all disguised as a "growing community."
Las Vegas is the fastest growing urban area in the United States. More and more people are
flocking to the city. The once expansive desert landscape is now strewn with townhome
developments, all looking the same. The amount of construction going on is amazing -
bulldozers and other earth moving giants are churning up tons of dirt and toxic
particulates daily, with a noticeable effect on the air quality and overall environmental
health of the community.
While I visited this past weekend, I entered the Luxor Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas
Strip. This amazing edifice is constructed in the shape and size of the great Egyptian
pyramid. Here are some staggering statistics about the Luxor from a placemat in the buffet
restaurant.
- It is the world's 2nd largest hotel - nearly 3,000 rooms!
- Estimated construction cost: $650 million (The Los Angeles Mission just sent me a
solicitation for a Thanksgiving donation: $7.85 provides 5 meals and care for the hungry.)
- It is 350 feet tall, 2.45 million square feet, and 9 Boeing 747 planes can fit
comfortably in the atrium.
- The arcade has 220 video games.
- It takes 260,000 gallons of water to fill the indoor pools.
- It takes a specially designed window washing device 64 hours to clean the sides of the
pyramid.
The extravagant use of resources and expenditures are not only fully
revealed, but they are used to attract tourists. Yet there is a price to pay for this
extravagance and for the unchecked construction now takiing place in the city. Many forms
of pollution are generated by such abusive use of resources. The poisoning of the air may
be the most deadly.
Our thin atmospheric shell is so finite. We think of the air as never-ending, yet all life
on the Earth is maintained by a band of precious atmosphere just 12 kilometers (7.2 miles)
deep. Ninety five percent of the mass of the Earth's atmosphere is contained in this layer
known as the troposphere.
Most of this consists of nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Above that is the stratosphere,
35 kilometers (21 miles) thick, which includes small amounts of gaseous ozone, the
protective ozone layer, that filters out 99% of the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the
Sun. Higher still are more layers, and the atmosphere gradually turns into the airless
vacuum of space at 500 kilometers (300 miles) above the surface of the Earth.
That's it. Every human, mammal, and bird, every sound we hear and every gentle breeze we
feel is as a result of that thin shell of air whose thickness is about the same as the
distance from Los Angeles to Yosemite National Park.
Yet it is so easy to take this precious resource, this vital part of our lives, for
granted. We assume that there will always be air for us to breathe. It is probably the
most ignored part of our bodies - and yet the air is so much a part of each of us.
There have been natural sources of air pollution since the beginning of time: volcanoes,
forest fires, outgassing from sediment and soil. But human-induced air pollution is a
modern problem, right? No. Humans have been causing air pollution since the first cave
person learned to start a fire. Imagine what the indoor air quality must have been in
caves of prehistoric people who were burning fires to keep warm!
In 1273 A.D., King Edward I of England banned the burning of coal in order to reduce air
pollution. In 1911, at least 1,150 Londoners died from the effects of coal smoke in the
air. The word smog was used for the first time then (a hybrid word of smoke plus fog). In
1952, 4,000 more people died in London from the effects of air pollution.
The first known air pollution disaster in the U.S. came in 1948. Sulfur dioxide vapor and
other particulate matter hung over Donora, Pennsylvania, the result of coal burning. Six
thousand of the town's fourteen thousand inhabitants fell ill and 20 people died. In 1963,
three hundred people died in New York City as a result of air pollution.
In our time, every year, nearly 64,000 people die prematurely from ailments linked to air
pollution according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Lives are shortened by one
to two years in the most polluted cities. Los Angeles is at the top of the list with an
average of 5,873 deaths per year attributed to this cause.
Over 1.1 million people now live in the Las Vegas Valley. About 4,000 people per month
move there. The reason for the city's huge growth rate is simple - Nevada has the lowest
tax rate of any state in the nation. It has no state income, inheritance, gift, or estate
tax and no franchise, inventory or corporate taxes are levied. There is no personal income
tax. Nevada's freeport law exempts from taxation all materials or goods stored in the
state for later shipment.
There are approximately 846 daily flights arriving and departing McCarran International
Airport in Las Vegas. It is the ninth busiest airport in North America in terms of
passengers and the 12th busiest in the world. In terms of airport operations, it is the
sixth busiest in the world. Nearly 30 million tourists and 3 million convention delegates
per year visit the city. Las Vegas has more churches per capita than most major cities.
Currently there are 586 houses of worship representing 63 faiths. Gambling is a $5.5
billion a year business.
Las Vegas is the eighth cheapest city in the country to live in - and it ranks eighth in
the nation for premature deaths due to particulate air pollution. Ironically, most of the
growth in population is seniors, retired folk who are attracted by the low cost of living.
But these are the same people who are the most sensitive to toxic exposure from the
particulates suspended in the air from the incomplete burning of fossil fuels.
Four hundred and fifty miles away from Las Vegas is a 10 million-ton uranium waste pile
near Moab, Utah. The Colorado River, which is rising due to larger than normal snowmelts,
could flood the base of this toxic pile, sending this radioactive waste towards the Las
Vegas drinking water supply in Lake Mead.
So what do we do? It is so important that we watch places like Las Vegas, which allow us
to see so easily the folly of viewing our precious gifts of air, earth, and water as
unlimited resources put there for the highest bidder to plunder.
We must challenge the assumptions that are part of the fabric of our lives, assumptions
that lull us into complacency. We cannot wait for legislation to change the state of
affairs. The change must first occur in our hearts, in our desires, in our expectations.
Always remember that the corporate environmental and social actions going on are in direct
response to our consumer-based lifestyle. As long as 30 million people per year go to Las
Vegas, the city will keep building. As long as we keep buying the products of the
factories that are polluting, they will continue to expand.
As Thanksgiving approaches in November, we have another opportunity to reflect on what we
have and what we need to sustain life. It is an opportunity to regain the power so many of
us feel we have lost. Begin by exercising your power as a consumer. Plan now to mindfully
participate in the Media Foundation's annual "Buy Nothing Day" on Friday,
November 28, 1997 - the biggest shopping day of the year.
And go outside and breathe the precious air. Look up and visualize the thin shell of our
atmosphere and the delicate balances that are being compromised every day. Then, with a
smile on your face, go back in and send a letter to an elected official, telling that man
or woman to work harder to clean up the air by ending the use of fossil fuels. But don't
rely on someone else to clean up our problem. Get directly involved by deciding not to
drive today. As always, you and I are the only ones who can affect real change.
We have forgotten who we are,
we have lost our sense of wonder and connectedness,
we have degraded the Earth and our fellow creatures,
and we have nowhere else to go.
if we lose the sweetness of the waters,
we lose the life of the land,
if we lose the life of the land,
we lose the majesty of the forest,
if we lose the majesty of the forest,
we lose the purity of the air,
if we lose the purity of the air,
we lose the creatures of the Earth,
not just for ourselves,
but for our children,
both now and in the future.
-- Earth Charter
I pray to the birds.
I pray to the birds because I believe
they will carry the messages of my heart upward.
I pray to them because I believe in their existence,
the way their songs begin and end each day
--the invocations and benedictions of earth.
I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love
rather than what I fear.
And at the end of my prayers,
they teach me how to listen.
-- Terry Tempest Williams
RESOURCES
1. Visit the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce at http://www.lvchamber.com/Visitors_Guide/visitor.html
2. Visit the National Resources Defense Council for sobering statistics on air pollution
at http://www.nrdc.org/nrdc/nrdcpro/nrdcpro/bt/tableGu.html
3. See an image of our fragile home planet at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/earth/apollo17_earth.jpg
4. Download a copy of Adbusters Magazine's "Buy Nothing Day" poster at http://www.adbusters.org./main.html
5. Read about Las Vegas in their newspaper, the Review-Journal at http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1997/Mar-16-Sun-1997/opinion/5015398.html
6. Contact your elected representatives at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
{Jackie Giuliano can be found breathing the air (cautiously) in Venice, California. He
is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, the
University of Phoenix, and the Union Institute College of Undergraduate Studies. He is
also the Educational Outreach Manager for the Ice and Fire Preprojects, a NASA program at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send space probes to Jupiter's moon Europa, the planet
Pluto, and the Sun. Please send your comments, ideas, and visions to him at jackieg@jps.net} |
