November 28th, 1998

What's Extreme?
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

When people learn of my environmental activities, many will ask me what I think about the efforts of other environmental groups. "They are so extreme," someone said to me yesterday.

Clearcut (Photo by Jackie Giuliano)

I found it so interesting that the efforts of small bands of people who want to stop some defenseless animal from being killed or who want to end the destruction of the Earth's forests and oceans are considered extremists.

To me, the systematic destruction of the Earth's oceans, forests, and atmosphere, the killing of animals to obtain furs for the rich, and children who starve and die in the midst of vast abundance because profit for few is the top priority is extreme.

Think about your own reactions for a moment to the events listed below that have occurred in the last few months. What is your gut feeling? Do they seem extreme?

• The U.S. Army this week launched a massive effort to deliver 200,000 pounds of fish to starving sled dogs throughout Alaska http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/FRONT/t000108496.1.html
• Militant anti-vivisectionist Barry Horne is close to starving himself to death in a protest over cruelty to animals. He is currently serving an 18-year sentence for arson attacks on shops. http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/nov98/1998L-11-23-02.html
• A Greenpeace team of international climbers, representing Canada, the United States, Germany and Australia hung a 60 foot high banner over Niagara Falls protesting the destruction of ancient forests in North America. http://www.greenpeace.org/~forests/
• Julia Hill has spent nearly a year 180 feet about the ground in a redwood tree. She is calling for an end to the destruction of the old growth forests. http://www.lunatree.org/default.htm

Now look at the activities below that have occurred recently. What is your gut reaction to them? Do they seem extreme? Or do they seem to be just progress?

• The city of San Diego, California will be spending $40,000 to destroy a beach that has become the home to sleeping harbor seals. http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/ASECTION/t000108503.1.html
• Thousands of sea birds are dying from an oil spill in the North Sea. Animal welfare experts are warning that hundreds of thousands more are at risk. http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/nov98/1998L-11-23-04.html
• According to a 1997 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, almost half of marine fish in U.S. waters are overfished and globally, 70 percent of marine fish fully fished or overfished. http://www.nrdc.org/brie/fbintr.html
• All mining activities in the U.S. are governed by a law written in 1872! Mining companies extract about $2-3 billion worth of minerals from public lands every year, but they don't pay a penny in royalties under the 1872 law. In addition, the law allows companies to purchase public lands for no more than $5 an acre, a price based on 1872 land values. http://www.nrdc.org/brie/fbintr.html
• The Playa Vista development in Southern California will, when completed, have destroyed 1,000 acres of wetland, build 13,000 condos, added 6 million square feet of office space, and will generate an additional 10 tons of air pollution per DAY. http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7937/
• The Chevron refinery, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the Arco refinery are the largest industrial polluters in the Los Angeles area. http://www.nrdc.org/worldview/fwnews.html" target="_blank">http://www.nrdc.org/worldview/fwnews.html

Most of us would classify the activist actions in the first list as extreme while the second list just represents progress and the quest for a better life. This is not a natural, instinctive classification. It is one that has been carefully developed, even bred, in us for the last two hundred years in the U.S. by those who are interested only in short-term gain.

Extreme halibut fishing from the Swifter Guide Service

Could anyone interested in a humane, sustainable future with abundance for all support the second list? The fundamental assumptions that we grew up with and live with today may ALL need to be thrown out. We need new assumptions, values, and ethics.

The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language defines the word extreme to mean "extending far beyond the norm." It is shocking to me, especially as the time of year is at hand when we contemplate giving thanks, that we can define toxic pollution and the resulting suffering and cruelty to be the "norm."

Think about all the things we do each day that we call normal and routine. All the driving, consuming, wasting, and throwing away we do are just a part of just another day. Look at what a routine day in the U.S. brings:

• 200,000 tons of edible food is thrown out
  
• we use 313 million gallons of fuel - enough to drain 26 tractor-trailer trucks every minute
  
• 18 million tons of raw materials are taken from the Earth
  
• 6.8 billion gallons of drinking water is used to flush toilets
  
• 1 million bushels of litter is thrown out of car windows
  
• 10,000 minks are added to the closets and coat racks of the wealthy
  
• $200 million is spent on advertising
  
• $100 million board feet of wood is sawed
  
• 250,000 tons of steel is used
  
• 187,000 tons of paper is used

What if we all decide that, in the coming year, we will work hard to define a new "norm" for us all? What if a normal day became driving as little as we can, buying nothing other than what we need to survive, not watching TV, not throwing anything out, and doing something to help someone who has nothing?

Now that would be something to give thanks for.

To live content with small means,
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion,
to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich,
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart,
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions,
hurry never -
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.
-- William Ellery Channin

RESOURCES

Create a new bookmark file with links to sites that bring people together on issues you care about. Visit those sites once per week. Commit yourself to writing one letter, e-mail message, or making one phone call per week about an issue that is important to you. At the end of the next year, you will have written 52 letters! Build your activist bookmark file from some of the links below:

1. Keep an eye on what companies are being boycotted at the Boycott Action News at http://www.coopamerica.org/Boycotts/bancover.htm

2. Keep an eye on activism world wide at Macrocosm at http://www.macronet.org/

3. The Video Project has powerful, affordable videos for all ages on the social and environmental issues of the day. They also have a program where they give free videos to schools. Visit them at http://www.videoproject.org/videoproject/index.html

4. Visit the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/

5. Visit Zero Population Growth for info on the issues of population at http://www.zpg.org/

6. Keep track of the last stands of old growth forest from Earth First! at http://www.enviroweb.org/headwaters-ef/about_hw-ef.html

7. For a different angle on humane issues, visit Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at http://www.psyeta.org/

8. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting will help you stay ahead of the media at http://www.fair.org/

9. The Media Foundation and Adbusters magazine will help you reduce consumerism at http://www.adbusters.org./main/index.html

10. The Witness to the Future site at http://www.witnesstothefuture.com/main.html will involve you in activism.

11. The Nature Conservancy protects the world's lands by buying them! Support them at http://www.tnc.org/

12. The U.S. Army School of the Americas trains assassins and brutal world leaders. Learn about this at http://www.soaw.org/

13. Stay in touch with Project Underground for information on little known issues at http://www.moles.org/ProjectUnderground/index1.html

14. Learn about vegetarianism through the World Guide to Vegetarianism at http://www.veg.org/veg/Guide/USA/index.html

15. Track environmental health issues from Physicians for Social Responsibility at http://www.psr.org/index.html

16. Keep your eye on pesticide use through the Pesticide Action Network at http://www.panna.org/panna/

17. Support farm workers through http://www.ufw.org/

18. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Write them often about issues that matter to you. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

19. Learn about the issues. Seek out books on the subject. A good source for used (and new) books is Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon at http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/associate?assoc_id=212 where you will find a wonderful alternative to the massive chain bookstores taking over the market.