Surviving the Great Dying

by Michael Lerner


As the Earth's sixth spasm of extinctions continues, human health has not been spared. Around the world, people suffering from cancer, birth defects, developmental disorders, asthma, infertility, new and resurgent infectious diseases, and dozens of other environmentally related afflictions are coming to terms with an ancient wisdom--our health and the health of the Earth are inseperable.

In the future, the Legend of the Great Dying will be recited to the children of the Third Planet:

It happened thusly. First, there was the Great Explosion in human numbers and in technological prowess. In 200 Earth years, all the wild places were degraded or destroyed. Next, the chemicals and gases released by agriculture and industry impaired the health of the surviving species and changed the climate. The Great Heat then occurred, as did the Second Great Flood. Simultaneously, thousands of species of plants and animals were transported across natural barriers and became invasive species in their new surroundings; this was known as the Great Mixing. Near the end of that era, there were many new plagues—the Great Sickness—that ravaged the weakened, unprepared human beings and other species. →