There are two things I can't live without. I have what is called "environmental illness." My immune system and my respiratory system have been so damaged by environmental toxins that I am unable to live without supplemental oxygen and filtered, climate-controlled air.

The same stuff that has damaged the ozone has damaged me. Me and Mother Earth suffer as one and are we not all one with our Mother? How could we not be? 

Now I live in the ultimate paradox. I am in Florida. They say the particularly ferocious hurricanes that lash this peninsula are caused by global warming which is caused by holes in the ozone. For me to survive I need air conditioning, which is supplied by electricity, the generation of which is the direct cause of the holes in the ozone that cause the warming that pumps up the storms - that threaten to sweep through here and cause, at the very least, power outages which would seriously threaten my existence. Wait a minute - the thing I need to survive is the same thing that caused the threat to my survival in the first place? I smell a rat. 

Let me see. I was okay when I was born. Then somebody had the bright idea of putting all this crap in the environment and people like me got sick. So now I have to pay for clean air and oxygen which is owned by the same people who messed it up in the first place.  

Have I got this right? What's wrong with this picture? Me and my Mother would like to know.

Rebecca Swan

Reprinted from The Bear Deluxe Magazine