Controlling Nature 2 5environment. The garden, begun in , was the creative outlet for
Herbert Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company.
Leaving the gardens, I travel south feeling the delight of the
wind against my face. Off to my left is Herbert Dow’s other legacy, the
second-largest chemical-production company in the world. The over-
cast skies silhouette the chemical-storage towers, metal buildings, and
endless miles of pipes of this ,-acre manufacturing facility abutting
the Tittabawassee River. Chemical operations started here two years
before Dow began his garden.
This is the site where over a thousand organic and inorganic chemicals
and by-products have been produced, including napalm and Agent
Orange, the latter leaving behind dioxins—highly toxic compounds that
can lead to cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, immune
system damage, and disrupted hormones. Dioxins were discharged
directly into the river and then built up in its banks and surrounding
floodplains. The contamination extended over fifty miles downstream
and into the Saginaw River that empties into Saginaw Bay and Lake
Huron, one of the five Great Lakes.
It may have been the contrast between the dull shades of industrial
gray and the rainbow of colors from the garden. Or the miles of tall
wire fencing encompassing small lakes and once-open wildlife areas no
longer habitable. Perhaps it was the risks to human and animal health
that will persist for centuries. But in any case, the juxtapositions of
beauty and ugliness I experienced that day in north-central Michigan
removed any lingering doubts of how we often compartmentalize the
environment to avert our eyes from life-threatening problems.
Just as we can believe in infinite amounts of finite resources, we
can also choose to believe that the environment will never fail us.
We can enjoy the beauty and diversity of a Dow Gardens without
acknowledging the purpose of a DowDuPont chemical plant just down
the street. We can ignore that neonicotinoids (nicotine-like insecticides)
are threatening bee populations; or the reasons behind a dead zone the
size of New Jersey where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf
of Mexico. Or how industrial farming is primarily responsible for toxic
algal blooms in Lake Erie. Or that the ocean is becoming acidic, coral
reefs are dying, methane and nitrous oxide are trapping heat in the
atmosphere, pests and weeds are increasingly resistant to pesticides.