THE STORY SO FAR: PART 13

I heard on the radio recently that a significant percentage of male fish caught in Puget Sound have been identified as having female characteristics.

To use an old phrase: “There is something in the water.” Specifically, the hormones, and hormone mimicking chemicals, that we are flushing away, are ending up poisoning our habitat; and us.

Keep that word ‘us’ in your mind. It doesn’t just mean other people. It includes you too; and feminized fish are only one symptom of a much larger problem – chemical pollution as a whole. The fact that so many Americans suffer from a medical condition is not an accident. Apart from debasing the food chain to the degree we have, this country is seriously polluted in a myriad of other ways to the vast detriment of the nation’s health. Senior Citizens may be living slightly longer, but, in contrast with other countries, we are growing older sicker.  And, yes, I have facts to back that up. And, unless very rich, we are also being outlived by most of our peers in the developed nations. In short, we are aging sicker and dying sooner. What does that say about the American Way Of Life.

I first wrote about all this in Titanic Nation after reading that fish from Washington DC’s Potomac River were similarly deformed; and that such chemicals were not being filtered from our water supply.

It would be nice to think that a journey of approaching 3,000 miles to the North-West  would have left one far away from such hazards, but evidently not.

Comedian and Talk Show Host Bill Maher regularly comments that Americans are poisoning themselves, and I think he is absolutely right.

Yet I note that at a time of Presidential Election frenzy, such a vital issue is receiving no attention at all. On the one hand, we are scared stiff of terrorists; and, on the other hand, Fortune 500 companies are killing us off in droves every year. At best we are talking hundreds of thousands, and it is more likely we are talking millions. If you think about it, that equates to roughly one Holocaust ever single decade.

Could it be that the U.S. Business Model needs some tweaking?

Congress deserves its lousy ratings; and so do we for being so complacent, fatalistic, and just plain ignorant.

But, of course I’m joking. I have to be. America is the richest country in the world.

Check the data. Therein lies the shame of it all.