What is Your Super Power?

Dr. Sandra Steingraber

Sustainable Healthy Living, by Sheila Mullen – March 25, 2012

Clean Air Carolina hosted acclaimed ecologist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber at Providence Day School last week. Her talk was titled, "Why Care About the Air? The Untold Story of How Pollution Harms our Children".

It is rare to hear a speaker who can dive deep into the molecular structure of the earth’s bedrock, define the process and impact of fracking and discuss the chemical makeup of fertilizers while verbally painting a visual, sensory and emotional experience of how these complex concepts personally impact our health.

Did you know if you laid out your lungs flat, the surface area within them would be as big as a tennis court? That statement piqued my interest. Sadly, I then learned Charlotte is the 10th worst in the US for the number of high-ozone days,  according to the American Lung Association.

Air pollution harms everyone equally

What?! OK, now I am listening, as a health coach, a runner and a cyclist this hits home. The quality of the air we breathe is very important to everyone’s health. Air levels the economic and diversity playing field.  Think about it: When we are outside we share the same air. You can’t buy better quality air. The air we breathe is the air we ALL breathe.

Dr. Steingraber’s talk focused on what she believes is our ruinous dependency on fossil fuels and how we must invest and deploy renewable energy now.  The urgency and importance of this topic is a result of decisions currently being reviewed by NC politicians to lift a de facto moratorium on “fracking”. That is a process to harvest natural gas from bedrock by horizontal, high-pressure water drilling.

The detrimental impacts of fracking could be an entire article itself. Suffice it to say, fracking would be very bad for our air quality. For greater understanding of the environmental impacts of fracking, please review the additional information links provided below.

Months ago, I read Dr. Steingraber's latest book, “Raising Elijah”. The depth of environmental concerns she brought to light overwhelmed me.  Where does one start to address them? How do you have an impact? 

Overwhelmed by the problem's size?

I fell into what psychologists call “well-informed futility syndrome.” The paralysis caused me to take no action. Besides, I justified to myself, I have spent two years on myopic and intense research and on advocacy to piece together the various components of the harmful impacts of the food industry on our health.  When I thought about the environmental crisis presented in “Raising Elijah”, it seemed to be a form of mockery to only dip my toe into the significant environmental challenge of our day – what Dr. Steingraber calls an ecological holocaust. 

Then the importance of the broad, pervasive and complete storyline crystallized for me when a woman in the audience referred to what she called the anti-life cycle: Big Oil = Big Ag = Big Cancer (insert any disease) = Big Pharma.  That was the raw truth. Ugh, it was like a rock in my stomach. The truth is each aspect of the equation has resulted in things getting lined up with unintended consequences affecting every cell in our body. 

It is not about where or how much you contribute, but that you find a place of passion to contribute. Dr. Steingraber asked us to think of ourselves as heroes. What is your super power?

As a form of encouragement to find your place to make a big impact, I leave you with my favorite statement by Dr. Steingraber: “Failure of imagination and fear of the unknown is what stops us from making the changes we see before us."  Shake off the despair and get to it.  

Where to find additional information:

Rebroadcast of Mike Collin’s WFAE “Charlotte Talks” March 20, 2012, program: “Environmental Toxins and Children".

Website for Sandra Steingraber

New book, “Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis.”

Film trailer for “Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment.“ This documentary follows Sandra during one year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links.

About Sheila Mullen - The founder of Continuous Motion Consulting, Sheila is passionate about engaging friends, family and community in improving their lives and the lives of those around them. Sheila spent more than 20 years in technology sales, marketing and development. She also has a background in organizational development, innovation and executive wellness coaching.