People can get used to almost anything. Psychologists use the term, “habituation”
to describe the process of screening out the background noise that dominates our
daily lives. So most of the time we are not consciously aware of the hum of the
refrigerator, the roar of highway traffic, or the smell of tailpipe emissions
as we step out our front door.
What was once obnoxious has become normal and, to some, comforting. Groomed
and watered sports fields seem more normal than the dark and scary woods. One
year, the 8-to-11-year olds in my Safe Hiking class were reluctant to sit down
in the redwood duff because it was dirty and unfamiliar.
The glittering lights of Las Vegas (and the local mall) are seen as more beautiful
than the glittering lights of the stars in the open desert. We are used to pesticides
in our food and debate the acceptable level rather than ask why any level is acceptable.
We expect to see animals in game parks rather than in their natural settings.
When William Manley came to California in 1849-50, he encountered antelope in
Merced and grizzly bears in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
In the winter of 1979 I could still see the snow-capped Sierra from my neighborhood
in Sacramento. Today, Sacramento is among the 5 worst cities in the U.S. for air
quality.
In the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax, the reclusive plundering industrialist sits
alone in the ruins of his factory amidst the clearcut forest and the smog-filled
air. As he tells his sad tale, he says to the young listener:
“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Back in the 1960s when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, I used to
soak our lettuce in a weak bleach solution to kill bacteria and parasites. My
then husband, Jim, got used to the taste. After we got back to the States and
I served him a salad, he looked at me accusingly. “What’s wrong with
this salad?” he demanded. “I didn’t add the Clorox,” I
responded.
The Clorox is all around us. Try not to get used to it. It may get a lot worse,
UNLESS ....
