By Mavis Dixon

Looking around at the profusion of yoga studios and juice bars, environmental organizations and outdoor recreation, it is tempting to think of Vancouver as a place straight out of an illustrated guidebook to healthy living.

On any given warm, sunny day it seems like the beaches and cafes are overflowing with people who are "the picture of health." But like the portrait of Dorian Grey, are we missing a darker side?

Imagine this picture, taken at my house. In it, I’m re-reading some ecology books. Beside me, my kids play quietly with Lego, munching a healthy snack of raw strawberries. Sounds like a PC-perfect family portrait. But delving deeper it shows comfort for my family - but at what price?

Let’s start with the books. While good for the mind and soul, the thick tomes, 2,000 pages of white cotton and cellulose paper, are tremendously resource intensive. I don’t know the source of the trees, but have to assume the hole they left wasn’t pretty. The bleaching of the pulp would have flooded rivers downstream from the mill with carcinogenic dioxin. Almost all cotton comes from pesticide-saturated crops, irrigated by rapidly depleting ground water sources.

The healthy snack so rich in bioflavinoids and vitamin C? Conventionally grown strawberries top the list of our most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Just growing them used eight calories of fossil fuel for each food calorie, never mind the fuel used to bring them here.

We may love Lego but it’s plastic nonetheless. In our plastic society, we have created a chemical soup of probable carcinogens containing thousands of untested chemicals. It’s taking over landfills and oceans. In parts of the Pacific Ocean, there are six kilograms of plastic for every kilo of plankton. (1)

So my happy little picture looks bleaker now. And the temptation is to throw up my hands in hopelessness. But there is another option here. Let’s call it positive convergence. Put simply, what is good for the person is good for the planet.

Forty-two years ago, the publication of the book Silent Spring taught us this lesson all over again: what is good for the bug, is good for the bird, is good for the person, is good for the planet.

"I may not like what I see, but it does no good to ignore it." Rachel Carson, spoke these words shortly before her death in 1964. Carson was a mild-mannered biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. But after the publication of her pivotal book she became an unlikely hero. She was moved by her own observations of birds to research and write about the deadly effects of DDT and other pesticides on birds and other animals at the top of the food chain. Animals like us. After the publication of her book she was vilified by former friends and attacked by health agencies like the American Medical Association. A fact made more cruel because she chose not to trumpet her own losing battle with breast cancer.

Rachel Carson’s message lives on in the research carried on in her name at www.rachel.org. A mountain of evidence has accumulated showing that environmental exposures are a significant cause of declining health status in North America, and much of the industrialized world.

So, if we look at health on a global scale, what is the big picture? Taking a look at the world through some basic measures of health reminds us that much of our personal health is the result of personal choice, lifestyle or circumstance. The World Health Organization sums things up pretty simply this way: "overabundant consumption accounts for 46 percent of (world) mortality, lack of resources accounts for 23 percent." For example, in the year 2000, 55 million people died in the world: 16.7 million died of cardiovascular illnesses like heart disease and stroke, 14.4 million died from infectious diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis and 6.9 million died of cancers. But those deaths are not equal: it is the young, poor, violence-afflicted and malnourished who suffer disproportionately from infectious disease, revealing a tragic loss of human potential, and a stinging injustice.

In our culture, perhaps it’s right to focus on the big number of cardio-vascular deaths from our over-consumptive lifestyle. And there are shelves and shelves of books in any bookstore or library that expound on the basic recipe for cardio-vascular health: eat right, exercise regularly in moderation, get plenty of sleep and reduce stress in your life. In most cases, we know what we should do, but doing it is a different matter.

Living a healthy life does not necessarily make for a healthy planet. In fact, any northerner who eats a healthy diet of imported, colourful fruits and vegetables in winter is eating at the Earth’s expense. And a refreshing visit to the yoga studio may work wonders for my health, but what about the short trips in the car, or worse, SUV, we may take to get there? Let’s ask ourselves what we can do to reduce these contradictions.

We can take six steps to becoming healthier people in a healthier world: 1) Change how we eat. 2) Change how we move. 3) Improve where we live. 4) Think critically about our health. 5) Say no to everyday chemical nasties. 6) Act positively for global change.

Let’s change how we eat. Recently there have been many well-researched analyses of how the North American food industry is destroying both our environment and health. We need to stop eating farmed animals, including fish, because the animal-farming situation in North American has become a tyranny of factory production, epic contamination, overuse of antibiotics and out-of-control animal abuse. We’d eat organic because the legacy of conventional farming is decimating virtually every eco-system, and fostering unknown evils through the genetic manipulation of foods. We’d protect, not eat, endangered fish stocks. We’d eat what can be raised locally. We’d stay low on the food chain, because doing so requires the least amount of waste. And, perhaps most importantly, as a society we’d eat less.

Let’s change how we move. There are an estimated 500 million cars and light trucks on the road in North America today; more than one for every man, woman and child. And of those, we’re choosing to drive bigger and heavier vehicles "for our safety." We’re all entitled to be safe, a point Ralph Nader drilled home 30 years ago. But when I was nearly hit by a pickup truck, because the commuter couldn’t see me on my bike over his hood, I was reminded of the proverb that goes "Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose." So rank your options for local transportation and you’ll see that what’s best for the person is healthiest for the planet: Walking, then skateboarding and cycling with the double benefit of exercise. Next is public transit, then car-pooling. Finally, taking a compact car, followed last of all by taking an SUV or truck. Let’s get out of our minivans and walk our kids to school, or let them walk. Even as childhood obesity skyrockets, many Vancouver kids are being driven just a few blocks to school, every school day.

We need to improve where we live. Canadians use more energy per capita than citizens of any other country. Sure it’s cold in Canada, but we’re too wasteful. The homes we live in create 50 percent of all of our personal greenhouse gas emissions. It’s time to seek out help from EnerGuide for Houses to get a handle on energy bills and earn federal grants at the same time. Contrary to what some espouse, an energy efficient home is healthier to live in, with improved air quality. We can also choose to live closer to where we work or work from home.

Outside of our homes, watering a grass monoculture wastes 30 percent of our domestic water supply and denies urban wildlife habitat. But programs such as Evergreen’s Home Grounds and NatureScape BC help homeowners change the urban landscape to make it healthier and more efficient. Add a composter to your backyard or apartment balcony and you’ll reduce your garbage by up to 70 percent by weight. If you go one step further and put in a garden, you can grow your own food and complete a satisfying cycle.

Think critically about health. Dr Samuel Epstein, author of The Politics of Cancer points out that the degraded environment is the biggest factor in the increased rates of cancer, and yet the least acknowledged by major cancer agencies and the manufacturers who sponsor most cancer research. His analysis of how we’re lulled into denial of this comes from industry tactics to 1) minimize risk by downplaying the role chemicals play; 2) use diversionary tactics, like calling for more studies; 3) propagandize the public, sponsoring actions that promote finding cures not causes; 4) blame the victim, putting all the emphasis on lifestyle choices like diet and smoking; 5) control the information, by funding most research, and distorting or suppressing results; 6) influencing policy, for example, even if a substance is proven carcinogenic, it may take a dozen years for regulations, controls or bans to be implemented; 7) exhaust regulating agencies by drowning them in legal paperwork, where the burden of proof is placed on the regulating agencies; 8) move unacceptable practices to localities without regulation. Rising cancers rates, particularly in those for children, can no longer be denied or simply attributed to lifestyle choices.

Say no to the nasties. The nasties are the everyday chemicals we shower ourselves, and our planet in. Go green instead of choosing mainstream house-cleaning products. Conventional products to strike from your list include air fresheners, fabric softener sheets, antibacterial cleaners, carpet shampoo, car waxes, chlorine bleach, drain cleaners, flea powder, floor cleaners and waxes, aerosol furniture polishes, mold and mildew cleaners, oven cleaners and toilet bowl washes. Buy washable clothes or spot clean instead of dry cleaning. Rethink that trip to the furniture store if it means bringing more particleboard into your life. The formaldehyde glues just aren’t worth it. Not for you, your family or the planet.

Act positively for global change. Embrace the phrase "Think globally, act locally" for your own health and that of the planet. Read environmental information directly from activists and independent media like Common Ground.

On the activity-packed weekend following Earth Day, step out and join the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides or Streamkeepers for a local cleanup, or join the folks from Evergreen and Public Dreams in Everett Crowley Park in Vancouver, April 24, planting trees.

But don’t forget the rest of the year. Think about purchasing more local food. Sign up for community supported agriculture, or choose to shop with local organic food suppliers such as Small Potatoes Urban Delivery, that make a point of using local growers. Or better yet, think about growing food organically in your own backyard.

Remember the three Rs; reduce, reuse, recycle; the first and most important being reduce. Take a pass on big chains that support sweatshops. Buy from more reliable global fair trade suppliers, like Ten Thousand Villages. Buy used, or shop Canadian. Fix broken items instead of replacing them. Or better yet, if you don’t really need it, don’t buy it at all.

Links

www.rachel.org

www.cityfarmer.org

www.earthday.ca

www.energuideforhouses.gc.ca

www.homeperformance.com

www.evergreen.ca

www.hctf.ca/nature.htm

www.spud.ca/index.cfm

www.earthday.ca/EDy2k/Home/homefrm1.html

www.tenthousandvillages.com

www.secretlantern.org

www.sqweez.com

(1) Charles Moore, Natural History v. 112, n. 9, Nov. ‘03: "In 2001, in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, we published the results of our survey and the analysis we had made of the debris, reporting, among other things, that there is six pounds of plastic floating in the North Pacific subtropical gyre for every pound of naturally occurring zooplankton."

www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

Mavis Dixon writes on environmental issues, and is an energy efficiency advocate for www.homeperformance.com. She co-chairs Vancouver's Earth Day celebration.

Celebrate Earth Day in Vancouver at Everett Crowley Park on April 24 from 11 am to 3 pm. Evergreen is organizing this day long family event that will feature planting and stewardship activities in Vancouver’s fourth largest park, as well as entertainment and refreshments. Artistic workshops, a children’s nature scavenger hunt and guided nature tours will be happening throughout the day. Visit www.evergreen.ca to volunteer for April 24, to find out about what Evergreen does and for volunteer opportunities across the country.