Editor's note: Let’s Sign a Peace Treaty with Mother Nature

Walt Kelly, one of my favorite political cartoonists, coined the phrase "We have met the enemy, and he is us" on a poster for the first Earth Day in April 1970, and used the powerful message again in his POGO strip published on Earth Day, 1971. (see more about Walt Kelly)

Fifty-four years ago, Pogo's lament on the trashing and poisoning of his "forest primeval" went viral. Up to and well into the '60s, the cost of "progress" to human health and survival were well-concealed industrial secrets. However, by the 70s, the magnitude of decades of disposal cover-up became impossible to hide as trash washed up onto our beaches, piled up along roadsides, and in measurable levels, poisonous fumes and seepage leaked from our landfills, fouling our air and poisoning our drinking water. On August 1, 1978, land-site pollution burst into the public awareness with the NY Times[1]headlines announcing results from an EPA report [2] finding that the health issues affecting the small residential community of the Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY, were "Quite simply one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history." Children and adults alike were suffering horrific life-threatening illnesses from toxic chemicals.

Love Canal, then a virtually unknown upstate New York working-class community, was built on an industrial dump site owned and operated by Hooker Chemical Company until 1953. At this time, Hooker covered the site with earth and sold it to the city of Niagara Falls for one dollar. In the late 50s, the site was developed as working-class housing of approximately 100 units and one school. Love Canal went from a promise of affordable housing for working-class families to the poster child of the horrors of industrial waste management. President Carter forthrightly and swiftly responded to the Times and EPA reporting by declaring Love Canal a national disaster. Congress soon followed President Carter's lead by enacting in December of 1980 the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), aka the Superfund. Justice, to some extent, prevailed. Hooker Chemical Company settled out of court by making a ninety-eight-million-dollar settlement with the State of New York and a one hundred twenty-nine million dollar settlement with EPA. Applause goes to EPA's conscientious investigation, the reporting by the NY Times, President Carter's swift and decisive response, and Congress passing CERCLA. However, the heroes in this story are the Love Canal residents. Their organized, tenacious, and unrelenting pressure got the EPA's attention. Hooker Chemical lost and ended up paying a $98 million out-of-court settlement with New York State and a $129 million settlement with the US EPA. We have much to learn from the Love Canal, a story we must remember. (See more about Love Canal).

In 1996, another too similar scenario unraveled in the town of Hinckley, CA, when the town and the local law firm of Masry & Vitoe, energized by a never-quit clerk of movie fame, Erin Brockovich, brought a suit against Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).[3] The suit accused PG&E of knowingly poisoning the water of the town of Hinkley for years with hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen. In this legal battle between David and Goliath, David won! The town of Hinckley and the firm of Masry & Vitoe won. PG&E settled for $333 million, up to that time, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in the United States. An essential lesson in these cases is the decisive role well-organized local action can play in gaining governmental support and legislative remedy.

Industrial pollution has joined the related threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the weakening of our democratic institutions. All are mired in our seemingly persistent war against Mother Nature, to which Pago's lament precisely poses the question, Do we have to be the enemy? Love Canal and Hinckley are replete with lessons on how to make changes in specific cases in which we need to learn from. The Love Canal and Hinckley stories can tell us what to and not to do to avoid repeating the same mistakes. We need to know these. However, prevention cannot be achieved on a case-by-case basis that localizes effects as exceptions. Prevention seeks solutions at the original cause - the challenge is to source the cause. The confluence of climate change and industrial pollution, with all its associated health, environmental, and economic miseries, has put us on notice. The clock is ticking. Prudence dictates we consult with ancient wisdom on living in harmony with our planet, not just our neighborhood. The ticking clock is a hard truth. Accepted, however, it is a truth that opens opportunities for actions – actions we may find challenging, empowering, fun, and rewarding.

Being friends and good stewards is not a simple task but is doable. And, considering the alternative, it is necessary! We need to understand the confluence of history, politics, and consumerism that got us here and then prove our worth by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and changing our ways. Doing so will give us the courage, wisdom, science, and ingenuity to evolve. We will make mistakes, and it will take time, but by vision, determination, and celebrating small wins, we will get there.

In the way of introducing the work of teachers Lynne Taylor, River Valley Charter School, Newburyport, and Alicia Hennessey, science teacher, Lockview High School, Fall River, Nova Scotia, our science editor Jane Tucker provides a historical backdrop for early contacts between the colonists and Wabanaki Confederation (once occupying what we named the Gulf of Maine watershed). Lynne and Alicia are practitioners committed to having their students discover the secret that history is available for free anywhere you live. Knowing its lessons opens an understanding of how to manage today's environmental crisis. A learning bonus is they and their students experience the joy and relevance of bringing history into their lives.

Rachel Ameen, GOMI Editorial Board and a doctoral candidate in Environment Science at Syracuse University reviews Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's most recent book, WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? Dr Johnson's work brings to us, via interviews, a remarkable set of people who exemplify how to do it right. They are doing things.

Finally, and certainly not least, we have the insight and wisdom from our young contributors, Fiona Hughes, sophomore Pentucket Regional HS, West Newbury, MA, and Mathew Wieckowski, freshman Masconomet Regional HS, Boxford, MA, testifying how learning can and should be challenging, experiential, purposeful, and joyful.

Overall, this issue raises four fundamental questions:

1. How did the Wabanaki manage 12,000 years of sustainable relations with their land?

2. How did we manage to undo it in four hundred years and surrender the bounty to scarcity, pollution, and the ravages of development and climate change?          

3. What from 1 and 2 can be applied to pave our path to sustainability? 

4.Most importantly, how do we raise (educate) our children to be wise stewards and good neighbors?

Let's muster our humility and put on our thinking caps to tackle understanding what we do not yet know. We will learn and innovate from our successes and mistakes as we strive to reconcile our ways and become friends and partners with Nature for ourselves, our children, generations to come, and for Pogo and all his forest friends.    

GOMI is very grateful to Okefenokee Glee & Perloo, Inc. and especially Peter Kelly, President, for kindly granting permission to use Walt Kelly’s strip in this Editorial.   

For  more about this strip, please see https://library.osu.edu/site/40stories/2020/01/05/we-have-met-the-enemy and for any who may be unfamiliar with Kelly and Pogo, we recommend learning more!  A good place to start:

Learn more about Love Canal

Official Website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe... | #PoisonedGroundPBS

Notes

[1] NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1978/08/05/archives/time-bomb-in-love-canal.html

[2] Link to EPA Report on the Love Canal Tragedy, go to: https://www.epa.gov/archive/epa/aboutepa/love-canal-tragedy.html

[3] Hinckley V. Pacific Gas and Electric: https://www.cschs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2016-Writing-Competition3-Baker.pdf

John founded the Gulf of Maine Institute in 1999. John was Editor-in-Chief, CYD (Community Youth Development) Journal from Aug. 1994 to Nov. 2002. John has broad teaching and administrative experience at the university level including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1969-1984, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, 1985-1992, and Union College, Schenectady, NY, 1964-1969. John received national recognition in 2006 when selected as Civic Ventures,’ Lead with Experience Program 2006 Purpose Prize Fellows. He is also a 2008 recipient of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Visionary Award.