FOUR MORE YEARS… FOUR MORE YEARS!

September 18 was the fourth anniversary of Occupy Wall St.

So, what's changed in four years?

Since approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day, that means about 1.2 million have died in the past four years.

Some 2,660 children are born into poverty each day in the USA. Over the course of four years, that adds up to roughly 3.8 million.

At a global level the United Nations estimates 29,158 children under the age of five die each day from preventable causes. Four years equals 42 million died from preventable causes since the first “mic check” echoed across Zuccotti Park.

324 tons of mercury were emitted into the atmosphere for global electric power generation; roughly 5 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, storm water, and industrial waste were discharged into U.S. waters; and the Mississippi River carried 6 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico (creating a dead zone the size of New Jersey).

Some 292 million acres of rain forest have been destroyed; 19 billion tons of toxic chemicals and 2 trillion tons of pesticides have been released across the globe; and at least a quarter-million plant and animal species have gone extinct.

And, since 800 trillion microbeads of plastic enter waste waters every single day - do the math yourself.

Let’s not forget over-fishing, deforestation, desertification, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, mountaintop mining, tar sands extraction, factory farming, off-shore drilling, topsoil erosion...  

None of our social media or sign waving and petition signing and drum banging got us any closer to the root causes and certainly nowhere near to creating sustainable social change.

 Just how so many Occupiers are now actively campaigning for a Democratic presidential candidate?

 Adapted from Mickey Z