Ecological Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves (The Bioneers Series)

In this pathfinding book, many of the world’s leading health visionaries show how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment. Drawn largely from presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, it focuses on pragmatic solutions growing at the fertile interface between environmental restoration and holistic healing. The Bioneers (“biological pioneers”) are a network of scientists, writers, economists, artists, and others with practical and visionary solutions for our most pressing environmental and social challenges. Advocates of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, improve human health. They call for prevention and precaution as the first line of action. They seek to heal the tragic split that conventional medicine made from nature, and to conjure nature’s own mysterious capacity for self-repair. They celebrate the virtues of ancient natural medicine but also embrace an integrative approach that blends the best of all healing practices—emphasizing the centrality of the human spirit in the healing process. Their inspiring work, described so compellingly in this book, is of critical relevance to everyone concerned about health and the environment. Drawn largely from luminous presentations given at the annual Bioneers Conference, this pathfinding book--the first in a new Bioneers Series published by Sierra Club Books--focuses on pragmatic solutions emerging at the fertile edges between the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing. In this kaleidoscopic collection, many of the world's leading health visionaries show us how human health is inescapably dependent on the health of our environment. The rich array of voices in this book reflects the collective intelligence of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine. Its advocates look to the strategic public health measures that first do no harm to the environment and, in turn, successfully improve human health. They call for prevention and precaution as the first line of action. They seek to heal the tragic split that conventional medicine made from nature and to conjure nature's own mysterious capacity for self-repair.^ They celebrate the virtues of ancient natural-medicine practices but also embrace an integrative medicine that uses the best of all approaches to healing--with special emphasis on the centrality of the human spirit in the healing process. Their inspiring work, described so compellingly in this book, is of critical relevance to everyone concerned about health and the environment. ABOUT THE BIONEERS BOOKS: Since 1990, the annual Bioneers Conference has gathered scientific and social innovators who have demonstrated model practices and practical models for restoring the Earth. The Bioneers come from many diverse cultures and perspectives, and from all walks of life. They are scientists and artists, gardeners and economists, activists and public servants, architects and ecologists, farmers and journalists, priests and shamans, policy makers and everyday people committed to preserving and supporting the future of life on Earth.^ Uniting nature, culture, and spirit, their visionary and practical solutions also embody a change of heart, a spiritual connection with the fullness of all life, grounded in social justice. Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Part I - Ecological Medicine 1 The Coming Age of Ecological Medicine 2 Personal Healing and Planetary Healing 3 Thinking Like a Girl Is Good Medicine 4 Redesigning Environmental Health 5 Generations at Risk Part II - The “Duh” Principle 6 The Precautionary Principle 7 Quantifying the Unknowable 8 Closing the Loophole of Uncertainty 9 Putting Precaution on the Street 10 But What Is the Alternative? Part III - Public Health, Cancer, and Prevention 11 Reconciling Human Rights, Public Health, and the Web of Life 12 Florence Nightingale 13 Reversing the Cancer Epidemic 14 Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime Part IV - Nature, Culture, and Medicine 15 Healing, Nature, and Modern Medicine 16 The Role of Herbs in Integrative Medicine 17 Community Herbalism in Modern Health Care 18 Relationships Are the Best Medicine 19 Mothering on the Front Lines Part V - Taking Action 20 Cycles of Continuous Creation 21 Just a Little Too Well Behaved 22 Why I Went to Jail to Protect My Daughter from Toxic Polluters 23 Not in My Front Yard, or in Anyone’s 24 Globalizing Indigenous Resistance 25 Overcoming Environmental Racism 26 The Global Politics of Precaution Part VI - Healing the Spirit 27 Think Globally, Act Non-locally 28 Reading the Mind of Nature 29 Stopping the War on Mother Earth 30 Green Medicine and Plant Spirit 31 Ecological Medicine Resources About Bioneers An overview of the emerging movement known as Ecological Medicine looks at the overlapping worlds of environmental restoration and holistic healing, and how human health is dependent on the health of the environment. Original.