The Human Body and the Environment

In Native American Literature class, we discussed an article titled "Rape of the Land" by Andrea Smith. In this article, Smith discusses the ties of women's bodies to the land and how the pollution and destruction of the land is also the destruction and pollution of the women's bodies. This idea is tough to get your head around and seemed very far fetched. However, I've taken the time to try and consider what Smith was talking about and have formed what this idea can mean to me.

In today's society, there is a great deal of waste, pollution, and expansion. The world is growing, the population rising above the limits of earth's resources. In response to this crisis, mankind has resolved to expand into the limits of nature, removing forests and natural lands to make way for cities and buildings, roads and lines of cloned houses. Chemicals are used to create the food we eat and are even put into our drinking water. Chemicals are used to create almost everything we use on a day to day basis and those items continue to release their own pollutants and chemicals into the atmosphere, such as hairspray and cars. All this chemical stress can only lead to destruction on multiple levels, one of those levels being the destruction of bodies--both the environment's and our own. And in response to this stress, the bodies begin to die or malfunction.

One of Smith's arguments is that a woman's body is affected by the same chemicals and pollution that the Earth is. When a land is bombarded with nuclear weapons, it isn't just the environment that is destroyed by the lingering chemicals, but the women as well. When a woman's body is affected by a chemical or pollutant, their womb, and then their babies, are also affected. The chances of giving birth to a child with a defect becomes increasingly higher when a woman's body has been invaded by chemicals. Cancer rates alone are an example of the negative affects of chemicals on our bodies. As our society becomes more and more dependent on artificial modes of living, the more our bodies respond negatively.

The idea that people and the environment are linked is not a new idea or a tough one to understand at that. It's the idea that we and the environment suffer the same that seems difficult to grasp. But really it's not such a stretch. In the past few years, the climate has shifted in such a way that people can finally notice it's change. As a result of overly harsh winters, the ground remains frozen too long, and the runoff from rain and snow melts becomes too extreme. Farmers are feeling the pinch of environmental change as crops continue to fail due to the lack of rain in the summer and the over exertion of winter, snow, and ice. The environment is unable to produce, or reproduce due to the negative affects of pollution. As the environment fails to reproduce, so do we. Babies born with birth defects, men and women who are rendered infertile, or people who die of starvation are examples that link us with the environment. For so long, people have thought themselves above the environment and in control of it's production and destruction. But in truth, we are all connected and all affected by the pollution that we are putting into the air and into the Earth. It's the idea that we need to realize our dependence on the Earth and stop holding our heads too high to see the facts. People like to believe that we are alone, that we are in control, and that we need only depend on our minds to think up the next great step of existence. But today we are at a turning point, a point where it is imperative to realize our interdependence with nature and the Earth. A point where our bodies and the Earth's body are tied in the same battle for health.