Cancer. The very word brings fear and dread. And it is now at epidemic proportions. I doubt that any of our readers have escaped having cancer touch your lives - either personally experiencing the disease - or suffering through the illness of a loved one - or both. Our environmental activist community is no exception. Many in our midst have had - or currently have cancer.
During 1996, Hans Burkhardt, father of the famous Mendocino County local forest rules, Eleanor Lewallen, stalwart ocean defender, and Judi Bari, Earth First! forest and labor activist, all contracted cancer. Hans has prostate cancer that metasticized to bone cancer; Eleanor has a malignant brain tumor, and Judi recently died from breast cancer that metasticized to her liver.
Needless to say, everyone who has worked closely with Hans, Eleanor and Judi - as well as those who only know of them and their incredible contributions toward achieving environmental justice, are traumatized. And, like many, I am at a loss for words. What does one say when there is everything and nothing to say all at the same time? The mixture of emotions and thoughts flooding through me and so many others is ovewhelming.
The fact that cancer is so rampant is horrifying; the experience of it attacking people we're close to - or oneself - is devastating. I find myself searching for the reasons cancer is escalating at such a rapid rate. Obviously, the causes of cancer are many, and cancer has been with us for a very long time. But I can't help but believe cancer's recent increase (and that of many other diseases, as well - AIDS, thyroid disorders, etc., ad infinitum) is attributable to many man-caused environmental factors, such as the virtual stew of toxic pollution we live in combined with global eco-system destruction, leaving us with weakened immune systems, genetic alterations, and impairment of many other organs.
My belief is - surprise - being substantiated by studies emanating from a multitude of sources; even the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, and the President's Cancer Panel - which are not exactly hotbeds of avant- garde radicalisim.
Devra Lee Davis, Senior Advisor to The Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Harold P. Freeman, Director of Surgery at the Harlem Hospital Center and Chair of the President's Cancer Panel, wrote an essay entitled "An Ounce of Prevention". As is to be expected from such august bodies in our society, their statements, in my opinion, are too timid and don't go far enough in attributing the escalation of cancer and other hideous diseases to environmental degradation and toxic pollutants. But even they point in that direction in their essay:
"A growing body of experimental and human evidence has identified a number of significant environmental risk factors as causes of cancer. They include past diagnostic and therapeutic radiation; diets high in some fats and low in fresh fruits and vegetables; workplace exposure to chemicals, dusts and fumes; pharmaceuticals; sunlight; and heavy alcohol drinking. Long-term low-level exposures to some environmental contaminants, such as small particulates, chlorination by-products in domestic water and organochlorine residues in animal and fish fat, appear to increase the risk of cancer in human populations, and extensive animal studies indicate a clear risk. Some compounds may function by altering hormones, whereas others may directly affect gene expression."
Other scientists, such as Theo Colburn, author of Our Stolen Future, are much bolder, and state strongly the links between disease escalation and environmental degradation.
We must escalate the battle against these attacks on the environment which are causing the demise of so many species, ours included. We must redouble our efforts, educate more people and take more assertive action. In the words of the famous poet, Dylan Thomas, we must:
Go not gently into
that good night
But rage, Rage! Against
the dying of the Light.
Thankfully, Hans seems to be successfully fighting his cancer. His treatment seems to be working and he looks great.
Eleanor is courageously going through radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and though weak, her spirit is very strong.
Tragically, we lost Judi. Her cancer advanced very rapidly. Mercifully, her extreme suffering was short lived. Lord knows even before the cancer struck, she'd endured far more suffering than any of us can comprehend from being bombed. True to her well-deserved reputation of being a warrior spirit, Judi was fighting the FBI with her brilliance and impish humor right to the end.
For these defenders of the Earth and for all species, we are impelled to strengthen our resolve and recruit more forces. We must act as if our lives depend on it, for, in fact, they do.
Hans, Eleanor, Judi - we love you. Your spirits, integrity, commitment, humor and effectiveness infuse us and give us the fire, strength and determination to continue. We will not let the light die.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited