Since the movie “The Bucket List” was released a few years ago, the title has become very useful as a reference for all things we wish we could do before we “kick the bucket.” In our culture, choosing what is most important to us seems almost to have become a social imperative as we look toward our futures.
As an observer of, and sometimes a participant in, the fine arts of denial and procrastination, I’ve noticed that many of my greatest environmental concerns have wound up on an enviro bucket list. My inability to mark off these problems as solved, saved or safe does not come from a lack of trying or being faint of spirit and will, but more from the frustration of not knowing how any of these horrors can be corrected.
I take heart, however, from those that soldier on in spite of the great odds against fi nding solutions. For example, one of the most important environmental researchers in the world today, one who calls herself, “a rapidly aging grandmother,” spoke recently on a TEDx program about what is on “the very top” of her bucket list.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r2Rx8VRq48)
Dr. Theo Colborn has spent her life immersed in science, earning numerous degrees and awards for her work along the way.
At age 85, she still works daily analyzing research from diverse fi elds of study from around the world. She founded The Endocrine Disruption Exchange as a crossreferencing resource, and it is “the only environmental organization that focuses on the problems associated with endocrine disruption attributable to synthetic chemicals found in the general environment.”
Tens of thousands of manmade chemicals have entered our lives that have never been tested for their effects on reproductive age adults, on developing fetuses, or on children, the elderly, or anyone else. Colborn’s work as an environmental health analyst is centered on how body mechanisms are disrupted and changed from chemical exposure in low doses at different life stages, especially including eff ects on the fetus in the womb.
As she explained in her presentation, our endocrine system overarches and “integrates all our body’s glands - like the pancreas,thyroids, adrenals, sex organs, and segments of the brain, and now we know, even body fat, the stomach, and intestines, are all partof the endocrine system - and they all produce hormones and function under hormonal control.
Hormones regulate how we develop in the womb, and how our bodies function - they can aff ect our mood, our capacity for empathy, our sexuality, and our ability to process information so we can reach conclusions about what we are hearing and seeing and doing, and most important, our ability to look each other in the eye and socialize, and solve problems. In essence, hormones humanize us.”
The science is staggering when you stop and truly consider these implications for humans and animals.
Chemical disruption or destruction of physical, mental, intellectual and emotional capacities affects every aspect of society, health, education, economics, justice, and even war and/or peace.
Commenting on just a few of the health issues, Colborn said, “Think what the statistics tell us ... today, one out of every three babies will develop diabetes, and if you are African-American or among the other minorities, that will be every other baby. One out of every 88 babies born today willdevelop autism spectrum disorder and if you are a boy, that is one out of every 54. And in less than 10 years, 80 percent of the population will be overweight.”
In an open letter to the president and first lady, this aging grandmother scientist offers up a plea for the establishment of an Inner-Space Council dedicated solely to research of what is now happening inside us from synthetic chemicals that have come from outside us, and which are changing us. And her plea extends to every citizen that we contact the president and all our representatives urging them toward analysis of chemical exposure in our nation and the consequences of endocrine disruption.
Some of us dream of world travel, or winning an Oscar, or writing a bestseller, or building our dream home before we plant our feet in eternity. Colborn would just like to save the world for future generations. If we listen to her warnings, she might do just that.
FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 01/13/2013