Will One Lesson on Environmental Wisdom Cancel Out Another?

This afternoon before Javier and I went to see 12 Years a Slave, we watched the video of our friend Barry Allan, who's the Executive Director of the Watershed Council in Oak Creek Canyon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmSJ75741yM

After we got back from the movie, I wrote to Barry.

                Before Javier and I went to see 12 Years a Slave, we watched the video with you, and we were both impressed.  I always tell my students to give specific details, and you did well on that count—128 diapers, 11,000 people, 860 hours of education, 85 lbs of dog feces and with every gram containing 23,000,000 bacteria! 

                This past week my listening and speaking students heard my mini-lecture on bottled water, antibiotics in our meat, and wasted food in the USA.  The antibiotics in our meat, of course, come  from the factory-farmed animals whose torture includes being placed in too-close, unnatural and unsanitary conditions where they’re at risk of infection so that antibiotics are given as preventive medicine, later winding up in the meat of those who eat meat and causing the bacteria in their bodies to build resistance to antibiotics if they ever really need them.  Did you know that 80% of the antibiotics produced in the US are given to farm animals?  But here’s my dilemma:  After convincing my students that we in SF should drink tap water, not bottled water, I was conscious of describing the antibiotics and fecal matter that go into the water from factory farming.  Does your project making them aware of the dog feces cause people to buy more bottled water?  I hope that’s not what my students got from my lecture—especially since two of them went out immediately and bought stainless steel bottles for their tap water!

                Anyway, I appreciate your sharing the link with me.  You’re doing really fascinating things as you educate the people in Sedona and also in Phoenix and Flagstaff of the importance of not dumping in the water!  It’s great, too, that kids are getting involved.  What ages did Marie McCormick say they were?

                By the way, we enjoyed your video more than 12 Years a Slave, which is a good movie but with long hard-to-endure scenes of beating and other horrible acts.  When you get it on DVD you can fast-forward.  The worry I have is that some of those scenes go on so long and painfully that they might appeal to sadists—especially White Supremicist sadists!