A Call to Action

This is an abridged excerpt from an article by Teressa Kerry in "Healthy Choices Lives" by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Teresa Kerry is a co-author of "This Moment on Earth"

Just as we human beings must increasingly recognize that we are all internalized into the total environment, we need to understand, too, that the environment itself is internalized, for good and for bad, in us as humans.
What we as individuals do matters, and it matters a lot. I'm a strong believer in the importance of practical actions we each can take. And I believe, too, that we must not allow the pursuit of perfection to impede our commitment to progress.
We must appreciate that our actions may forever be based on incomplete knowledge of all there is to know about the potential effects of the thousands of potential chemical contaminants, and the thousands of various chemical combinations to which our bodies are unwilling hosts. Gertrude Stein cautioned us that "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." That's even truer today, and it's critical that we retain our common sense and good judgement.

Having said that, we must also appreciate that the so-called "command-and-control" era has peaked, perhaps even run its course. We simply no longer have the time or resources to expend on programs that in the end might do more than fatten lawyers' wallets than they do to reduce our own toxic exposures and risks.

In that context, our next era of sound environmentalism must be based, like other good public policy efforts, on increased collaboration, among a growing cadre of informed and enlightened interests. It clearly must be based also on prevention and not just after-the-exposure remedial efforts to control potentially harmful exposures.

A recent Business Week cover story tells us that we are "closer than you think" to a world in which "socially responsible and eco-friendly practices actually boost a company's bottom line." Those same practices will boost an entire society's bottom line, not only from a financial, but also from an overall perspective. In this sense, we as a society should move not from the "cradle-to-grave" philosophy that became popular in 1990's, but rather to a "cradle-to-cradle" approach that can lead to an infinite product life cycle of ongoing use and usefulness.

We must realize not only that we as citizens have a "right to know", but also that our governmental leaders have a profound responsibility to tell us more about the chemicals that pervade our society. Here, we must be careful consumers, with a healthy skepticism of what both government and manufacturers tell us. With our right to know comes our responsibility to understand.

Collaboration, again, is the key. There is much we can do together. But we dare not wait or procrastinate before also taking constructive individual actions to manage our own, and our families' adverse chemical exposures.

TASKS:
1. Write the three main ideas of this article
2. Why does the author believe in an individual action? Is it enough?
3. Explain the expressions: internalize, practical action, pursuit to perfection, commitment to progress, potential effects, unwilling hosts, common sense, good judgement, command-and-control, run its course, fatten lawyers' wallets, sound environmentalism, public policy, increased collaboration, enlightened interests, remedial efforts, socially responsible practices, eco-friendly practices, bottom line, cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-cradle, right to know, healthy skepticism,