Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/320391
I n spite of severe droughts, water shortage, torrential rains, devastating heat, forests being decimated by heat-thriving insects, and mountains of scientifi c proof, an incredible 60 percent of Americans are still skeptical that climate change is a dire issue. If only half of them would read Linda Marsa's well-re- searched book, we'd have a chance at saving the planet. Marsa lays out for us in well-organized painstaking detail the situation we have created and what it will mean for our health and survival. Going beyond simple weather changes, she addresses food and water shortages and a social system that is simply not equipped to handle more and more-dire di- sasters—regions that will become too hot to support life, hur- ricanes like Katrina and Sandy, wildfi res like the one that raged last month in San Diego, illness spread by insects surviving in widening ranges, and drought-driven-dust fungal spores that cause such illnesses as Valley Fever, or coccidioidomycosis, as serious a health hazard as traffi c and industrial air pollu- tion. On top of all this, dwin- dling resources are likely to cause civil unrest and wars for control. There is no question the situation is dire. Marsa com- mends specifi c actions being taken and ways they are helping, and encourages us to be actively engaged in addressing the problems, but for us to be truly effective and leave any kind of survivable legacy for our descendants, we're going to have to persuade at least some portion of the other 60 percent. Most of all, we have to jolt ourselves out of our own complacency that "someone else will fi x it." (Rodale) —Abigail Lewis By Ayn Cates Sullivan, Ph.D. Fevered Why a Hotter Planet Will Hurt Our Health—and How We Can Save Ourselves BOOKS FILM Directed and produced by Deborah Koons Garcia Symphony of the Soil I have to admit to some early impatience with the newest fi lm from Deborah Koons Garcia, who also produced The Future of Food. A huge fan of documentaries, I generally prefer that facts be presented via some kind of story line—that spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down. Symphony of the Soil can feel a bit didactic at times, loaded as it is with critical infor- mation, but ultimately it does tell a story—the story of life on earth, because without healthy soil there can be no life. Plants won't grow in sand, animals have no food, and even sea life is destroyed by the quality of the water and soil washing into it. Koons Garcia takes us back in the process of soil forma- tion to the melting glaciers, showing us how clay accumulates and life gradually forms. Through interviews with scientists, farmers, academics and researchers in several countries, she then brings us to the present sad state of much of our soil. Modern farming methods (including the plough), GMO seeds and 10,000 FDA-approved agrochemicals have not just robbed the soil, they've squeezed the life out of it. Formerly vital with nutrients, bacteria and fungi, it is now become dirt or sand, easily blown or washed away by the elements. Not only is this terrible for farming, the dry, blowing fungi can wreak havoc in human lungs. The solutions are doable and it's a grow- ing movement, but for the most part, industrial farmers, for a multitude of misguided reasons, aren't interested. Even backyard or patio gardeners (like this writer) who think they understand basic organ- ic gardening may be chagrined to discover what they don't know. Some of the remedies are more familiar—e.g. alternating plantings with a cover crop—but until you know precisely why, it's easy to rationalize skipping that step. And while one facile answer is to end grazing, properly farmed animals are part of a holistic system that returns nitrogen to the soil. The fi lm should be required viewing. Until we humans learn to correctly play our part in the Symphony of the Soil, as author and environmental activist Vandana Shiva says, "We are committing a species-level suicide." —AL june/july 2014 31 WLT-JUN-JULY-26.indd 31 5/26/14 2:10 PM