Six Feet Under

For various reasons I have been thinking about how man exploits the earth and how our body of knowledge (our book of knowledge) is becoming every more complete and, consequently, we are becoming more and more confused and living in a more and more complicated world. Two simple reasons for the thought. Vermiculite and oil.

We are in the process of purchasing a house. It turns out that the house may contain asbestos. This came about because one of the previous owners used a naturally occurring substance called vermiculite as an insulator. That in itself is not a problem as vermiculite - as far as our current book of knowledge tells us - is safe. The issue is that the mine that 80% of the vermiculite in North America came from was contaminated with asbestos veins. So....a known carcinogenic may be present.

When I was a child we used to drive up to my aunt's place in the Laurentians, north of Montreal. One of my childhood memories is of the smell and look of the dirt roads that led to her cottage by the lake. The earth was stained brown and it smelled sweet. The reason is that in those days they would spray the earthen roads with oil to keep the dust down. I guess in those days the book of knowledge didn't think it such a bad idea. Of course as the earth eventually dried up and the oil evaporated (into our nostrils and into the atmosphere) the dust would fly and we would, again, breathe in the dust...but this time nicely coated with oil.

So....man exploits the earth. We dig deep below the earth. We scrape its surface. We explore and try out different things with our discoveries. We combine asbestos with cement. We use it in tiles. We take the oil and make plastics, oils and operate our cars. I can't help but wonder whether things that are under the ground should stay right there - under the ground.

Oil and asbestos....two naturally occurring substances that should have been left untouched. It may have prevented many of us from being thrown into our six foot deep graves a few years too early.

Luckily we are updating our book of knowledge. I hope people read it and pay attention.

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

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