Kim Konte certainly thought so. Kim was one of the organizers of Non Toxic Irvine which convinced the City of Irvine to adopt an organic-first policy in landscaping (http://www.nontoxicirvine.org/). “Baseball is my children’s life,” Komte said, “and we want to make sure every baseball player is able to slam into the dirt and roll around in the grass and not be exposed to carcinogenic chemicals.”

San Diego uses glyphosate, which is better known as Roundup on its playing fields. Are they using other toxic chemicals? Probably. Why are people concerned about these toxins? According to a pesticide Fact Sheet published by the US Environmental Protection Agency, children are more vulnerable than adults because their nervous, immune, digestive and other systems are still developing and are less capable of excreting them. This is because pound for pound, children take in more pesticides relative to body weight than adults. The typical playing field is deluged with a mixture of poisons designed to kill fungus, weeds, and insects. Children come in direct contact with grass, and have repeated and prolonged exposures. 

California has become the first state to declare glyphosate as a known human carcinogen. The listing was prompted by the World Health Organization’s finding that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. Dave Schubert at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego states, “There are a number of independent published manuscripts that clearly indicate the glyphosate can promote cancer and tumor growth… it should be banned” (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-herbicide/monsanto-seeks-retraction-for-report-linking-herbicide-to-cancer-idUSKBN0MK2GF20150324).

What are the people of San Diego to do? Kim Konte asked herself the same question. Her answer was to be part of a coalition called Non Toxic Irvine. The group began a movement to make Irvine as free from toxic pesticides as possible.

In February 2016 the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to move to organic pesticides. San Juan Capristano soon followed Irvine’s lead and just a few months ago Carlsbad’s City Council unanimously voted to move to organic pesticides. Other Southern California cities that have adopted similar measures include Encinitas, Burbank, and Thousand Oaks.

It is up to us to change San Diego City policy. Is there a “Non Toxic San Diego” waiting to emerge to inspire us all? I certainly hope so.

Earth’s ecosystems support all life, though collapsed ecosystems would be like stepping outside of the international space station not wearing a space suit. Pop! Bam! Gone!

A recent academic study about signals of ecosystem collapse throughout history fits the space suit analogy. Terrifying truth is exposed: The all-important biosphere is sending out warning signals of impending crises… worldwide. It does not seem possible that ecosystems collapse and life dies off. That’s too hard to believe… but, what if it does collapse?

The term Green Revolution refers to the introduction of high-yielding varieties of staple food crops, particularly wheat and rice, into Third World countries, starting in the 1960s. Initially Mexico, India and the Philippines were targeted. The stated aim was to increase food production to end hunger and prevent uprisings.

The Green Revolution did increase agricultural production, and no more successful revolutionary uprisings occurred, but it failed to reduce hunger and poverty, improve nutrition, or protect the environment. While some of these failures are now acknowledged by the proponents, the answer is that “there was no alternative”, and that for untouched areas of the world, particularly Africa, there is still no alternative. However, that alternative does exist: it is called agroecology. Science takes credit for successes but takes no responsibility for failures (Shiva 2001).