November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

The Coming Age of Ecological Medicine

(Page 3 of 5)

May/June 2001
By Kenny Ausubel, Utne Reader 
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The first step toward a healthier future, I believe, lies in ecological medicine.Pioneered by a global movement of concerned scientists, doctors, and many others, ecological medicine is a loosely shared philosophy based on advancing public health by improving the environment. Its central idea is that industrial civilization has made a basic error in acting as if humans are apart from rather than a part of nature. Just as the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, human and environmental health are inseparable. And in a biosphere that is rampantly toxic and woefully depleted, a mounting number of our health problems can only be understood as part of a larger pattern. Ecological medicine could well emerge as a force for dramatic cultural change. It proposes to reshape how industrial civilization operates, in part by redefining the role that the public plays in making the decisions that affect all life on earth.

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Simply stated, improving human health is inextricably linked to ecological well-being. The interconnectedness of all life is a fundamental biological truth. What’s more, all life is under threat. There simply is no "elsewhere" to dump the hazardous by-products of industrial society. Eliminating them from our production systems is the only solution, and a well-informed public is crucial to realizing it. In the words of Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN), a "truly holistic medicine extends beyond the mind-body connection to the human-planet whole." Here are some basic tenets of ecological medicine:o The first goal of medicine is to establish the conditions for health and wholeness, thus preventing disease and illness. The second goal is to cure.o The earth is also the physician’s client. The patient under the physician’s care is one part of the earth.o Humans are part of a local eco-system. Following the ecopsychological insight that a disturbed ecosystem can make people mentally ill, a disturbed ecosystem can surely make people physically ill.o Medicine should not add to the illnesses of humans or the planet. Medical practices themselves should not damage other species or the ecosystem.The main tool for putting these ideals into practice, ecological healers say, is what they call the
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