Overpopulation in 21st Century America: Systemic Chemicalization of Water and Food

Part 17: Pollution of our planet, chemicals, food

An astounding 42 percent of rivers, lakes and streams in the United States remain so polluted that humans cannot enjoy any contact activity with them.

“The industrial world treats its drinking water to get rid of the pathogens, but we are forced more and more to recycle it,” said Grant. “The idea of drinking processed sewage is initially a shock, but we are getting used to it as we press harder on the supply.”

Desperate for water in California:” The Orange County Water District is purifying wastewater into drinking water at a $481 million recycling plant. The plant uses microfiltration, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light, and hydrogen peroxide disinfection. Seventy million gallons of sewer water is treated a day in Orange County, California meeting the drinking needs of over 500,000 people, including visitors to Disneyland.” “Toilet to Tap” by Jennifer Lance.

One reader said, “Just the thought of drinking treated sewage water makes you cringe.”

As with most articles that attempt to describe ‘success’ by solving the problem, none of them connect the dots as to the core problem. In order to solve the root problem, we must come to terms population stabilization.

In his book, Too Many People, Lindsey Grant addresses our pollution predicament. You may find his book at www.sevenlockspress.com and . Grant is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Population Affairs.

“Male fish in rivers receiving sewage affluent produce the estrogenic compounds…in the low part per trillion range,” said Grant. “The presence of vitellogenin in male fish has been related to widespread intersexuality, the appearance of female characteristics and progressive disappearance of male characteristics.”

Grant writes, “These threats and dangers are imposed on the industrial world by the effort to overuse our water resources. Why do we insist on punishing ourselves and our fellow creatures like this?”

THE PROBLEM OF CHEMICALS ALL PERVASIVE

“Agriculture is hardly alone in transferring minerals from the lithosphere to the biosphere,” said Grant. “Mine tailings send downstream a witches’ brew of toxic substances such as thorium, heavy metals, nitrates, and chlorides. The EPA reports that the industry released 3.3 million metric tons of toxins into the United States in 1998. Mining and electric power are the biggest culprits, representing almost two thirds of the total.”

A whopping 75,000 chemicals work their way into our air, ground and water every day across the planet.

Last month, CBS’s Katie Couric reported that 20 years ago, 1 in 2,000 American children suffered Autism. Today, 1 in 110 children encounter Autism. The reporter said, “Scientists can’t figure out the cause, but they think it has to do with chemicals in the environment.”

Duh! We spray insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers on every garden and crop we grow. Those chemicals strangle and paralyze the insects. Is it any wonder that those chemicals transfer into our food chain and do the same thing to us?

The chemical company Monsanto offers synthetic sugars such as ‘aspartame’ that promise the user a ‘sugar free’ experience. They don’t tell the user about the side effects that include Multiple Sclerosis, fibromyalgia and systemic lupus. (Source: Nancy Markle, WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE AND THE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS FOUNDATION: FDA ISSUING FOR COLLUSION WITH MONSANTO)

ORGANOCHLORINES

“PVC plastics to dioxin: they are part of a group of chemicals known as organochlorines, formed when chlorine gas produced by the chemical industry comes in contact with organic matter in industrial processes,” said Grant. “There are 11,000 organochlorines produced commercially, and thousands more formed as byproducts.”

Joe Thornton, a biologist at Columbia University’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, said, “Everyone on Earth now eats, drinks and breathes a constantly changing and poorly characterized soup of organochlorines.”

Grant said, “Organochlorines have been linked to immune system suppression, falling sperm counts and infertility, as well as learning disabilities
in children.”

What Grant describes, I witnessed around the world. The U.S. still exports DDT around the world while we ban it in our country. How duplicistic and immoral is that?! Culprits? Answer: Montrose Chemical Corporation, Chris-Croft Industries, Aventis CropScience USA and Atkemix Thirty-Seven Incorporated.

“We can accept a trade-off of reduced productivity for a safer environment if we do not need the productivity to support growing populations,” said Grant. “The problems of commercial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides and toxic organochlorides may be just the prelude.”

Again, ask yourself if this civilization wants or needs or can support an added 100 million people. Can we? The evidence mounts that much danger arrives with added population.