Making Peace With Nature

AFTER THE TOXIC SPILLS: MAKING PEACE WITH NATURE. When the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig exploded in April of 2010 and set off the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, virtually everyone viewing the disruption - to wildlife and the lives of people in that region - was devastated. Here at Peace talks Radio, we guessed that the event probably set off an inner conflict in many about humans’ relationship with nature. Then there was the toxic sludge spill in Hungary. So we sought out some voices of people who have already placed that relationship with nature at the center of their lives to see how their experiences and thinking might help us all grapple with this conflict. A lot of the headlines during the three months when the oil gushed into the gulf framed the event as an attack or war on nature. How can we think and act to make peace with nature, especially in the wake of such environmental disasters? On this show we speak with Dr. Daniel Scwartz, a social ecology professor at the University of New Mexico. Also Kathy Sanchez, a Native American environmental policy activist, and John Francis,whose response to an oil spill in 1971 was to quit riding in motorized vehicles for 22 years, walk all across the country and, during 17 of those years, not to speak a word. Carol Boss is host. Read about it and hear it right now by clicking here.