Environmental Headlines: What does it take to get our attention?

January 15, 2010


Newspaper headlines attract my attention immediately. The headlines about Haiti and the plight of the nation and the people are heart wrenching. My business partner in Optimum Yield, our fledgling organic fertilizer company was to have gone to Haiti the evening of the earthquake. He has worked with the people there for 30 years, speaks their language, has many friends; including the former President Aristide. Parenthetically, my sister-in-law Elizabeth Kreitler, my brother Jay’s wife, is a leading FEMA search and rescue expert and she has been there with her dog Racker since Wednesday. (They were featured on CNN searching the collapsed UN building.) She is no stranger to the chaos following human made or natural disasters as she was on the scene at the Pentagon at 9/11, in New Orleans for Katrina, and Nairobi Kenya after the bombing of our embassy. This will be her most challenging and sad assignment ever; based on the Headlines we have all read. We are very proud of Elizabeth and her dogs (as well as the many search and rescue volunteers from around the globe) for their incredible service to our country, and most especially on behalf of the people trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings and crumbled lives.

Ironically, I was writing about headlines for today’s Epistle when the tragedy occurred - I continue my thoughts. It seems the bigger they are, The Headlines, the more likely we are to read them. In similar fashion, the more acute the medical report the greater the likelihood we pay attention to our personal well being. A heart attack is the biggest headline, but being told you have an incurable cancer ranks pretty high on the ‘get one’s attention’ list. In our interpersonal lives the headlines can also be dramatic such as ‘honey, I’ve filed for divorce.’ Headlines come at us all the time in life, and yet the 64,000 dollar question remains: What does it take to get us to pay attention?

Listening for a living for 40 years has necessitated reading for information and knowledge. I will never achieve the accumulated wisdom of my 30 year mentor Dr. John Seeley who died at 95, in part because he read every day, beginning at 4:30 am; heck that is usually about the time I make a nightly visit to the bathroom, but I will try and the headlines are always duly noted.

Here are a few headlines that have come across my desk in the past 3 years or so.

“13 Years to Turn Around Global Warming”
London Financial Times, May 5, 2007

“Global Crisis to Strike by 2030”
BBC News, March 20, 2009

“An Island Made by Global Warming”
The Independent, April 24, 2007

“Sea Level Rise Could Flood Many Cities”
Associated Press, September 22, 2007

And now for the bad news!

“Mass Extinction Looming Nearer” with the wonderful subtitle “Carbon Emissions Creating Acidic Oceans Not Seen Since Dinosaurs”
The Manchester Guardian, March 10, 2009

“We are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction”
Truthdig.com, author Chris hedges is a graduate of The Harvard Divinity School

I must admit I have been reticent to share the headlines during the past twenty years. Either branded as ‘chicken little’ crying out “the sky is falling” or simply trying to scare people, it has been a lose-lose situation trying to explain what I have been reading. Even when I share this ‘stuff’ with our well educated, well read daughter she exclaims:

“Dad, you are always seeing the glass half full.”

I can not blame her for this reaction as it mirrors the sentiments of many friends and acquaintances, yet going public with the environmental headlines can no longer be considered optional, but mandatory.

Read the above headlines from reputable sources and spend a moment inwardly digesting the meaning behind the words. Should every single human being be concerned, or should we continue to have the debate that the environmentalists are the fringe element of society? It is strange for me to accept denial as a criteria for letting the collapse of creation continue, but Thomas of Biblical fame doubted even when seeing the evidence – thus, I understand how even headlines are discounted on a regular basis by many.

I have decided to keep reading the headlines and redirecting my actions in accordance with the headlines as our nation, our relief agencies, and thousands of caring souls put down what they are doing and respond to the Headline that reads: The People of Haiti need our help; and respond we must.

The back story about Haiti is that their headlines for years have also read of abject poverty, environmental destruction of forests, soils, coastal eco-systems, and their nation falling into and remaining in 3rd world classification. What will it take to pay attention to the collapsing infrastructure around the globe? What will it take?