Page 490 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

39 Ecodemocracy and School Science 465

Consider youth who die from cancer. Children are not supposed to leave this Earth
before their parents. Meet 6-year-old Elena (http://www.notesleftbehind.com/) who
left behind hundreds of notes for her younger sister and parents who love her
dearly, and for whom, she will forever inspire. She tucked notes away in bookcases,
briefcase pockets, dresser drawers, and the china cabinet. She wrote notes that read:
“I love you Mom and Dad,” and “Grace [her little sister] I love.… Grace Go Go!”
Her father writes these things in a book on Elena’s life and that her last days showed
a community how to love and live. Elena died of brain cancer. Genetic manipulation
could have been used to save her. But what is the “ecological violence” and double
standard of privileging cancerous humans over the Earth? Although Elena’s story
tugs at the heart, it is worth exploring these issues within ecodemocracy.

What Would the Eco- (or Environ) Mentalist Do?

Hard-core environmentalists often decry the 6.8 billion people who now live on our planet,
along with how and why we should limit the number of children that people are allowed
to birth. Ideas such as mandated birth – similar to what is enacted in countries such as
China – follow these rationales. Moreover, environmentalists who wage claims about the
ecological violence of population pressures, call for policies restricting the genetic modi-
fication of plants, animals, and humans. We probably know one of these environmentalists,
or we ARE one of these environmentalists, but a specific example is E.O. Wilson who
claims in The Future of Life (2002) that we should limit birthrates. Wilson is not alone.
Further, we might reduce the human population by shielding against disease, famine, and
other grounds for death such as environmental disasters that reduce human survival and
reproductive probability. But how many environmentalists want these things applied to
their own children or their lives? It would be interesting to find out! Very few studies have
been done to determine the ways in which environmentalists contradict their own opin-
ions, explanations, and appeals to the Earth. It is absurd to think that individuals living
today will want to shorten their own life for others’ (when that resolution logically begins
to decrease the human population). But for the sake of pondering the ideas mentioned, let
us consider some of the following remedies for environ mentalism:

1. Reduce research in the area of heart disease and prevention – a leading cause of
death
2. Reduce the hospitals dedicated to cancer research and the “pink” and “red”
promotion of products
3. Ban super-sized automobiles that provide vehicle safety for petite, fuel-efficient
vehicles
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease, cancer,
and vehicle accidents lead to more than one million deaths yearly (http://www.cdc.
gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm) and these deaths are a small measure of the ways in
which human deaths impact global populace. Withstanding few exceptions, how
did ecoenviron mentalism get this absurd, without much thought?