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Great article
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 5:52 pm
by R00k
This guy swam the Columbia River for 165 days, from Canada to the Pacific. He swam through pesticides, sewage, bacteria, neurotoxins, radiation and everything else along the way, wearing nothing but a wetsuit. Until he finished, he was still buying McDonalds and commercially-grown foods. The trip down the river made it a lot more personal, and ultimately was the only thing that could make him change his buying habits and spend the extra couple of dollars in the grocery store, to buy things that were raised without anti-biotics and steroids and pesticides.
It's not long, and it brings the issue to a very personal level.
http://alternet.org/envirohealth/21908/
There was no barrier that could protect my nervous system from the neurotoxic pesticides that washed into the river from the fruit orchards and dry wheat farms that decorate the Columbia River Valley. There was no technology that could get the PCBs out of my fat cells. And there was no protection from the nuclear waste that spiked the waters of the Columbia River's Hanford Reach. (The idea of my swimming past the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in a lead suit was funny, but a nonstarter nonetheless. I swam through the most radioactive piece of land in the Western hemisphere with nothing but a five-millimeter wetsuit between me and the strontium-90, technetium-99, uranium and plutonium that plied the same waters I did.)
All of this begs the question, why would I risk my life by swimming the Columbia River? The answer was that I loved the river, and I swam in search of a way to help her. And I swam with the knowledge that I was part of the problem. The copper and asbestos dust that shaved off from the brake pads of my SUV sifted into storm drains and fouled salmon-spawning streams. The lights I left on sustained a demand for ecosystem-unfriendly hydropower. And when I flushed my toilet at the height of Portland's rainy winter season, it poured straight into the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 6:12 pm
by seremtan
And yet all the corporations cry tears about the amount of regulation they have to deal with, including environmental regulation. And now, thanks to NAFTA, they can blackmail government into letting them pollute by threatening to move to Mexico otherwise.
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:08 pm
by Canidae
Raw capitalism will probably consume us all and move onto the those who aspire to be its next victims in the developing third world.
I wonder how long it will be before we all require enviromental suits 24 hours a day to stay healthy?
I'm sure some entrepreneur out there is thinking of cashing in on that idea, as we speak.
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 10:33 pm
by Massive Quasars
You're full of surpises PH. I thought you were a capitalist?
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 10:53 pm
by Canidae
You must be confusing me with stereotypes.
I send care packages to friends in Iraq fighting for oil-politics and work for an eco-friendly company, albiet a government one.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 2:37 am
by Massive Quasars
All news to me.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 2:56 am
by feedback
It's too bad the pacific northwest is going to shit, nice place to live.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 3:02 am
by +JuggerNaut+
feedback wrote:It's too bad the pacific northwest is going to shit, nice place to live.
i miss it.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:24 am
by Grudge
feedback wrote:It's too bad the US is going to shit, nice place to live.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:41 am
by feedback
I'd give anything to leave this country. I'd sell it out to the terrorists for a fucking penny.
Juggernaut: you moved? why and where?
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:44 am
by +JuggerNaut+
yeah man, i was in Eugene for a couple of years. been down in Phx for 5 years now man.
p.s. job related.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:45 am
by +JuggerNaut+
and Southern Oregon Coast for quite a few years before Eugene.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:46 am
by +JuggerNaut+
feedback wrote:I'd give anything to leave this country.
if it weren't for my family, i'd have been long gone too.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:47 am
by feedback
That's too bad, Phoenix is fucking shit and the water is like iced tea. I only spent 15 minutes there, 4 years ago, but I never want to spend another minute there unless I have to. It's the first place I'll have the terrorists hit, after I sell out this country (for a penny).
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:48 am
by feedback
+JuggerNaut+ wrote:and Southern Oregon Coast for quite a few years before Eugene.
That's cool, the coast here is one of the best things about oregon.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:48 am
by +JuggerNaut+
I would have to agree, although i do like the weather, just not the lack of any culture here. a few hours North though, and i'm in mini Oregon (Flagstaff).
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:52 am
by +JuggerNaut+
feedback wrote:+JuggerNaut+ wrote:and Southern Oregon Coast for quite a few years before Eugene.
That's cool, the coast here is one of the best things about oregon.
yeah, it's too bad alot of people have no idea about it. we lived about 3 miles from Bastendorff beach. was a great place to grow up.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 8:04 am
by [xeno]Julios
thx - that was a great read
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 8:42 am
by mjrpes
feedback wrote:It's too bad the pacific northwest is going to shit, nice place to live.
you're in much better condition than your friends in the south. i discovered that LA is the bastion of hell.
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 8:58 am
by MKJ
mjrpes wrote:feedback wrote:It's too bad the pacific northwest is going to shit, nice place to live.
you're in much better condition than your friends in the south. i discovered that LA is the bastion of hell.
wheres yer icon, sir
Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 9:55 am
by mjrpes
fell into a ravine. pity, really.