Every day, Earth Day: We humans must stop acting like an invasive species

From outer space, Earth is a blue watery world. When we launch a space station into the sterile void of space, we supply it with self-sustaining energy sources fueled by the sun and by hydrogen and oxygen. We design all the components to be reclaimed and recycled with minimum waste. We refine all uses of air, water, equipment and surfaces to make sure no toxins accumulate.

From the perspective of the cosmos, Earth is just such a fragile floating space station, yet we assume its life-sustaining air, water and soil are a common repository of the accumulated toxins and wastes of all humanity. We assume Earth can infinitely absorb the byproducts of our human activities.

Some consider humans an invasive species. We see evidence of the excesses of our abuse all around us.

The Centers for Disease Control found biologically significant levels of man-made chemicals such as bisphenol-A in 93 percent of people tested nationwide.

A CDC test of newborn cord blood found 441 chemicals, 79 of which are known mutagens, carcinogens or toxic compounds.

Residues of DDT have been found in living tissue of people from Aukland to the Arctic.

We have succeeded in contaminating the entire biosphere.

Still, prevailing policy holds that unless a specific compound can be proven to cause a specific type of significant harm, its production cannot be curtailed or controlled. Our economic system does not reflect the true cost of absorbing toxic and non-biodegradable substances. We are squandering resources that can never be replaced. We obliterate the diversity of the natural world to serve our own short-term gratification, without regard for the needs of others in our own time or for the generations to come.

As we celebrate today the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, it is a good time to reflect on our choices.

We can continue to extract and exploit resources at will, ripping through raw materials and turning them into garbage. We can continue to act as if we have the right to use everything we can get our hands on until it's gone, assuming that technology will fix any problems that arise. Along this path lies a future almost certain to feature wars over resources, poverty, environmental degradation and increasing disease and want.

An alternative course is open to us. One which requires that we moderate our wants so that we all can meet our needs. One that allows us to live in harmony with our habitat and preserve the purity of our air, water and soil.

John Ehrenfeld wrote in "Sustainability by Design" that "sustainability is a state of being, not a state of having." Converting our consumption to "green" substitutes does little to slow the destruction of the world as we voraciously drive to create more Gross National Product. We must measure our quality of life, not by the quantity of stuff we have, but by the quality of our experience, by the extent to which we secure our future and leave behind for future generations a viable and flourishing world.

Approximately 27,000 species are lost each year. Every hour, 125 acres of prime farmland is lost in the United States alone and 450 children die for lack of clean water across the world.

We are creatures composed 95 percent of water, with a calcified frame. Our food supply, our energy resources, our very existence depends on having pure water, clean air and fertile soil. Every day must be Earth Day.