JANUARY 15, 2006
Oh
no, do not say it is so! Scientists went looking for pure mothers milk somewhere on the planet. They traveled as far from the modern world as possible only to discover a shocking fact of life, and a disturbing fact of an
indicator culture. The Inuit Eskimo mothers milk is the most contaminated they had ever found in their studies.
Eskimos have always eaten a meat diet of whale, seal, polar bear and other arctic mammals and fish. That makes sense and it is tough growing vegetables at the North Pole. Contaminants and pollutants accumulate in the fatty tissue of sea creatures and sea creatures eat smaller creatures and they have become laced with toxins from other parts of the world. With complete naiveté and trust in the natural order of things, Eskimos diet has sustained them for centuries and now it many rendered them impotent and on the endangered list very rapidly.
As Thomas Berry reminded us our chemical age has altered the planet forever. Now even a distant indicator culture is experiencing the unintended consequences of our often unregulated distribution of chemicals into the environment.
Perhaps we will heed the signs and reverse course, most likely not.
If I thought my grand kids had it tough on the East Coast having to watch the amount of bluefish they eat because of the concentration of PCBs in the dark meat, Eskimo children will not have a chance escaping the ravages of toxins in their systems. If mothers milk is impure what are we creating on this planet? The closest bond between humans is the mother and child at the nursing phase of development. Take that away and what you are losing is incalculable. Contaminate breast milk and we have the horrible truth of a nursing mother compromising the immune system of her own baby.
This is a story that will not go away.
Chemical contamination of our dolphins in the seas to the children in the tundra of Alaska is a modern day truth. Is this the kind of legacy we are proud to leave?
--Peter