Finally, it feels like the fever dream may be breaking. In the wake of the historic repudiation of Donald Trump and his despicable lackeys, I have been thinking about the myriad actions we still must take to save our country.
I think part of the reason Democrats won so many elections is the effort to re-establish moral high ground — dare I say even, virtue, trust, and honesty. A lot of the voter response was revulsion at evil, decadent waste: waging heedless wars that kill children elsewhere while poisoning our own children at home; indenturing our children’s futures to oligarchs and billionaires; building evermore data centers that pollute air, land, water, soil, and people, when the infrastructure builds we really need are solar panels and windmills. James Talarico, in the face of incessant name-calling and ugliness, urged Americans to “love thy neighbor”: “Hate is predictable and boring. Hate can’t build a future. But what hate can’t do, love can,” he said in his acceptance speech.
Some of the Democrats who won explicitly linked the political corruption of America’s soul to the corruption of the natural world and the poisoning of our children. I want to give a shout out to Jon Ossoff and his acceptance speech in particular.
You report the black mold to your landlord who doesn’t fix the leak, and the ambulance for your toddler’s asthma attack is followed by a $3,000 bill. For too many, homeownership’s a fantasy. Family farms face ruin.
And while health care’s never cost more, plastics invade our bodies, blood, and breast milk; toxic forever chemicals taint half the country’s drinking water; and polluters have been granted fresh license to poison our air….
I refuse to accept that Eva and Lila will grow up with artificial friends and teachers in a society where the sick die not because there’s no cure, but because they have no money. Where we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a thousandfold, but we refuse to guarantee health care for every citizen. On a poisoned planet, rearming for world war, where human life is cheap, and might makes right.
After working on my new book forthcoming from Johns Hopkins UP for more than a decade, enduring rejection after rejection, I am thrilled that finally, its title, Poisoning Our Children, may land. For a long time, I sensed that people were not yet willing to hear its tough message, despite ground laid by Silent Spring, Living Downstream, Our Stolen Future, and others. I am gratified that many are recognizing what has seemed so obvious for so long to those of us facing these hard truths daily: that while we say we love our children, we are poisoning them — and everyone — along with the living planet upon which all life depends.
There is no reason why humans, cooperating together and electing good and moral leaders who reject the power of harmful industries, cannot choose to do better. There is no reason why we cannot choose healthy children, flourishing communities, and an ecosphere that gradually heals.
The book I have worked towards for more than 20 years, Poisoning Our Children, is now available for pre-order at https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54124/poisoning-our-children
Pre-orders are hugely important, as they affect whether bookstores stock the book, how algorithms surface it, and how seriously publishers take authors. Your support matters more than you know. All author proceeds will be donated to Environmental Health non-profits.
