It's all killing us

Have you ever noticed that almost everything we produce nowadays and the way we live actually harm us, are making us sick! – There are toxins in cosmetics, toxins in electronics, pesticides & herbicides in foods, greenhouse gases in the air from the use of fossil fuels, antibiotics and heavy metals in water, ... we produce tons and tons of waste and it's wrong how it's dealt with … the list is endless. Most of these things are somehow connected to human greediness and corporate profit-seeking, to people losing contact with nature and to the loss of community spirit.  Marketing, glossy magazines and TV shows suggest we better go shopping frequently, indicate what we must have, who we are when we own or not own this or that item, wear this or that brand, and so on. They reinforce thinking in status symbols, too. For our own sanity and the functioning of this planet we have to get away from that!

I’m afraid my child will be an outsider at school because I don’t take her to junk food restaurants, I don’t let her watch TV and play for hours in the internet, I buy her clothes at Value Village, I don't drive her everywhere … Do I want to do this to my child or will I have to give up on my values and give in to all the consumer frenzy that causes more damage than benefits? 

The green rule of consumption, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, is not going to work until we get back to basics and remember what we really need to be happy in live. Uhm, we might have to become one big bunch of hippies - without the drugs, please.  Love's a nice thing, if not the greatest thing ever.

Unfortunately the environment as an argument does not seem to cause much change in the behaviour of our society so I think that we have to argue with “your health is at stake” in order to make people rethink their actions. It's not even a lie! I am afraid though that some people have a bigger problem to believe this argument than to believe what marketing tells them and what politicians tell them. One solution would be to introduce a school subject called "Ecology" or "Environmental thinking" and brainwash kids right from the start. They would grow up to be the healthiest generation ever.