Sassy Advice - Say it, Or Write it, Or frickin' pull it out by hand. Just don't Spray it.

As far as Day Jobs go, mine is pretty alright.

I work in a beautiful provincial park. I feel indebted to the foresight of environmentalists every time I drive to work here: as much as it can be while still being a tourist destination, this place is protected.

Unless there are weeds.

You see, the activities of us fun-loving humans have brought a few invasive species into this delicate mountain ecosystem. Some of them are classified as 'noxious weeds' throughout the province and are being aggressively sprayed with poisons recently shown in peer reviewed scientific literature to cause birth defects and cancers in mammals.

Like, you know, us humans.

Now, we thoughtful and good-looking humans who know a bit about ecosystems know that healthy ecosystems are far less susceptible to the advances of this invasive plants. Unfortunately, my particular place of work does not qualify as a healthy ecosystem. The accidental planting of weed-seed-contaminated, suited-to-warmer-climates grass as a landscape staple, and damage to the soil from ongoing construction have provided the perfect place for invasive dandelion and thistle.

So my boss has decided to spray herbicides. Here. In a supposedly protected provincial park.

The amount of thistle and dandelion is very minimal. It could be pulled by hand in a couple of days. Sure, it will likely come back. But guess what? It will come back if you spray it, too.

I've spoken with my boss about this twice now with no luck, and am waiting for a call back now that he has decided to go ahead in spite of my concerns... this Wednesday.

What are my concerns?

I'm glad you asked!

1. Herbicides hurt humans.

Most herbicides use glyphosate as their active ingredient. Glyphosate  causes birth defects in humans. It is associated with long term health problems including cancer, especially cancer in children.

Herbicides are also known to cause respiratory distress. Many of the people who come to my place of work have respiratory problems to begin with. If we claim to be an accessible facility to people with special needs, we have to include respiratory needs in that claim.

2. Herbicides hurt the environment.

Glyphosate also “causes birth defects in the embryos of laboratory animals” according to Lucia Graves of the Huffington Post. Even low doses are shown to cause abnormalities in rabbits, including dilation of the heart.

It promotes soil pathogens and inhibits plants’ immune systems.

We are located in an extremely important watershed. Scientific American reports that glyphosate leeches into water.

Perhaps glyphosate is not the chemical that will be used here. Perhaps it is aminocyclopyrachlore, another common herbicide claimed to be more environmentally friendly, which causes mass tree deaths, especially in conifers.

Perhaps it’s the popular atrazine, which is still present in ground water 15 years after its use, causes breast and prostate cancer, and reproductive defects in birds, fish and frogs.

Either way, I cannot fathom how something so harmful to flora and fauna can legally be applied in a supposedly protected area.

On top of all of that, my partner and I are going to be starting a family soon. How could I conscionably expose myself to chemicals that could cause birth defects and / or cancers in my babies? My workplace will be sprayed on Wednesday. I'm supposed to work on Friday.


The mostly-wild places of Kananaskis Country are under enough pressure from tourists, logging and damns without having poisons sprayed on them.


Re-posted from www.kathrynhogan.ca/writersblog where Sassy Advice is a fun and frequent feature.

Round-Up is Terrifying

Studies show that factory farms produce less food. Many of these farms are using Monsanto's Roundup Ready plants and of course, Roundup with them.

While I'm the first to admit that I'm no expert on the science of Roundup - no, I just have a blog about human ecology that someday, god willing, more than one other person will read - I did just find an article that explains part of why that is.

I do recommend the article, which has lots of links in it to other interesting articles, but if you're not in the mood to read it, the connection to lower crop productivity is this:

Glysophate (the main ingredient in Roundup) interacts with soil by damaging beneficial microbes in it. As I understand it, those microbes are pretty darn important for the health of anything growing in the soil. Like the healthy bacteria in our digestive tracts: if it's killed, then all sorts of nasty yeasts and angry bacteria get in there and just start chomping away. When that happens to a human, nutrient absorption goes down: you can eat and eat, but your body is unable to access the vitamins before they leave your system.

When Roundup kills beneficial microbes in the soil, the same thing happens to plants: nutrient uptake is 'interfered with' and nitrogen fixing is reduced. Nitrogen fixing is how some plants can grow in 'bad' soil (ie, everywhere): they dig up nutrients with their long roots and 'fix' them into the top soil, where successive generations of plants can benefit from them. As they said in the Lion King, it's the circle of life.

Which is of course stunted when Roundup is applied, resulting in "overall lower-than-expected plant productivity"