SCOTUS Deals Multiple Death Blows to Birth-Givers and Life on Earth

            I’ve struggled tremendously to write this article. The very first words I submitted to the Trinity Journal were many and technical, but in that letter, I stated I was neither a politician nor a journalist, but a young woman with dreams of having children with my husband someday. After the dual rulings of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade and West Virginia v. EPA utterly eliminating policy tools for the EPA to regulate carbon emissions before they were even written into law, I find I am not functioning as a particularly gifted science communicator this week.

            Every draft I’ve failed to write words completely devoid of political context, and even more so, I’ve been at a loss trying to craft any type of unifying message of hope. I still have dreams of raising a family with my loving life partner, but to speak as a scientist: all the trend lines are bleak. I continue to fear for the health of our planet as well as the omnipresent specter of gun violence, personal threats for writing this article, and now, possibly dying of pregnancy complications or medical emergencies because I wasn’t able to access safe, legal reproductive healthcare when I’m most vulnerable.

I suppose, darkly, there’s something we can unite on regardless of our political leanings or reproductive organs: things are bad, everyone blames someone else, and we can all agree that they appear as though they’re going to get worse.

            Take inflation. We’re all feeling it. With few exceptions, we’re all stressed, squeezed, barely hanging on financially and otherwise. Inflation will inevitably worsen as the productive ecosystems upon which we depend for our survival collapse around us. Food supply will plummet, demand will increase with population, prices will sky-rocket.

How expensive will the final hamburger from the last cow be? The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it assisted with the disposal of 2,000 cattle carcasses resulting from the heat wave that ruthlessly baked over the center of the nation June 11th-14th, from Texas up to Minnesota (https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105482394/cattle-kansas-heat-wave). Private ranchers are not required to report losses and the deaths could be much higher. We’ve seen losses like this in previous heat waves, and climate change will make extreme heat waves more frequent and longer-lasting. Just like droughts and wildfires.

How valuable will the berries from the final fruiting shrub be? Our bird and mammalian pollinator populations have seen massive declines and are projected to continue declining toward extinction (https://www.iucn.org/content/pollinating-birds-and-mammals-declining-reveals-first-global-assessment-trends-status-pollinators). Likewise, our insect populations are plummeting in the same fashion (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118).

Our soils continue to erode. Aquifers are running dry. Please understand that from here on out, no matter who holds the reins of power, we’re in for lean, desperate times. Compassion over violence is what’s needed moving forward to maximize life and well-being.

            I’d like to applaud all people who have been good stewards of the land, implementing best management practices on their farms for many years. Growing local food is a great way to foster nutritional resilience and security. Jeffry England, Director of the Trinity Food Bank and Grand Marshal of the Fourth of July Parade deserves praise for his work in feeding hungry families. It is also fitting and fair to offer accolades to all Trinity County residents who hunt and fish, subsisting off the bounty their own backyards provide. Everyone has special skills, talents, and expertise to offer the community, but we’ll only make the most of what we have here if we work together.

            I was inspired and emboldened to see a reproductive freedom, equality, and choice float in the parade, and I was relieved that violence did not ensue. The trend lines for birth-givers and for life on Earth are indeed bleak, but we have an opportunity to appeal to each other’s better angels. We have a chance to value the best in each other. We can find some common ground, somewhere. Solutions exist, we just have to envision, enact, and implement them.

            You get more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes.

That is, until all the bees are extinct, the honey is gone, and the flies are dead.