The Cragmor Newsletter V1, N12 (April 22, 1970
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c s : I tARTH DAY Volume I, Edition 12 EARTH DAY l\pril 22, 1970 OOR RACE FOR SURVIVAL How ironic! We are in a race agaInst extinction. And we are our own worst enemies. "The great question of the '70s is: Shall we surrender to our surroundings or shall we make our peace with nature and begtn to make r~parations for the damage ,we have . done to our air, to our land and to our water?" President Nixon stated in his State of the Union Mess~ge last January. WHAT IS THE PROBLEH? About 400 million years ago plant life began ~nriching the atmosphere with a life 8upport1ng mixture of 20% oxygen plus nitrogen, 3rgon, carbon dioxide and water vapor This mixture has sin~e been maintained by plants, animals and bacteria, which use ·and return the gases at equal rates, resulti.ng in a closed balanced system in which not tiing is wasted and everything counts. This system supports the biosphere, an extra ordinarily thin global envelope that sustains life.' Only if the biosphere survives can man survive. This lifegiving system is governed by definite la",s -of life and balance. Man has violated these laws and endangered nature as well ,as himself. By adding just one alien component to this delicate balance, man can trigger a series of changco dangerous to this life giVing system~ Another present danger to this delicate balance is overpopulation. By curbing disease'and death, medicine ~as e~3rted a surge of overpopulation that threatens to overwhelm the earth's resources in a very short perioG. of time. Stanford Populati.on Biologist Paul Ehrlich grimly warns that the biosphere cannot sustain many more people. He states, "There can only be death, war, pestilence and famine to reduce the number. Current projections of world population, which now stands at 3.5 billion, place the figure in 30 years at 7 billion people, twice what it is today. IS THERE A SOLUTION? Barry Commoner, a microbiologist from Washington University in St. Louis, has b~~ome toe nation's spokesman for ecology. In both his' speeches and his articles his n,~ss age is the same: the price of pollution could be the death of man. He could be callt an alarmist, but in every respect it is an alarming situation. In one of his gloomiel moments, Commoner stated, "Once you understand the problem, you find 'that 'it's worse' than you ever exp~cted." More optimistic though, he says, "We are in a period of grace. We have the time - perhaps a generation - in which to save the environmc,nt from the final effects of the violence we have don.- to" it. It On the following pages we've examined some of the problems, some'of the solutions, and also some concerned people's views and emotions on the subje~t. BACKGROUND ON EARtH DAY POPULATION GROWTH COHPAm:D 1'0 CANCER GROWTH BY STANFORD'S DR. PAUL EHRLICH Since last summer it has been apparent that c~puses and communities are in Runaway hu~an population growth is, in many creasingly determined to do something ways, analogous to the runaway growth of about environmental problems. There cell populations which we call (·ancer. Toda) have been symposia, new courses. and attention remains focused on the sy.nptom's new organizations at colleges and high of the world's cancer -- food shortage, schools across the country, ~md demon environmental deterioration, and, to some strations and legal actions in many com extent, pestilence and war. This focus must munities. In September. Senator Gaylord be shifted so that we do not waste time l~elson proposed a national day of envir treating symptoms while the disease rages onmental action, and the following month unchecked. The cancer must be excised. The he and Congressman Paul McClosky sug operation may seem brutal and callous, and ges·te4 Aprtl 22'. fhe paIn may be intense: -.13ut, the disease is now so far -advanced'" that only with radica Since then April 22 has developed a mom s~rgery does the patient h~ve a chance. entum of its own, as groups around the (from New Scientist, Dec. 14, 1967, by country have begun develpping plans. Co faul·Ehrlich, Sta~£ord.) ordination has been taken-over by a stu dent-run national J office in,Washington LEGISLATIVE NEASURES TO EASE POPULATION D. C. EnvironmentarTeach-ln Inc. has PROBLE~tS PRO~OSED BY S~~ATORS been granted tax-exempt status. .It is entirely dependent on foundations and in Senator Robert Pa~k~oo~' (Rep. - Oregon) has dividual contributors tor financial aid. introduced two bills designed to deal with problems resulting from the population explc FACTS A~ID PREDICTIONS sion. The first would liinit to three the number of children per family that could be present 'world population, 3 •.5 billion., ,cla.imed .as tax exemptions. The second bin •• 3.7 babies born every se~ond ~ •.! would legalize abortion in Washington D.C. world population in 30 years, 6 bill.ion _ . ••• -140 billion ,tons of carbon mo~oxide, 'The tax measure will enter Senator Russell soot, other contaminants added to air Long' sFin~.nce ,Committee. The abortion each year • ~ • 8.2 million pounds of . measure will be exa~ined by Senator Tyding's carbon mo~oxide·'released by automobiles Distric.t of Columb!.. Committee. in New York·~ity each day ••• pollutants from' fossU fuel use exp~ctedto double. Although hearings. have ·not ,been scheduled, by 1980 ••• property,damage from air you can help by calling or writing ~enators pollution in this country.estimate4 at Long and. Tydings 8'od voie ing your support $13 billion a year ••• 7.00,000,000. lbs~ of the$e measures. of pesticides used each year ••• black, Californians, in one study, have twice as DR. BARRY CO~10NER SOUNDS W~UtNING NOTE OF much DDT in their bod~es as ~ites ••• THE CRISIS FOR SURVIVAL FOR :it\NKIND DDT content .10 to .30 parts per million in milk of nursing mothers, 2 to 6 times "The world is now confronted by a vast crisi the amount allowed in commercial sales of of survival generated 'by the reckless way it milk ••• 500 million pounds of solid which mankind has used the power of technol, w-.stes. pO\l,ring intQ U.~. waterways 'each· The task of averting this' cris"is is the most day. "• by one estin,ate 400 acres of grave issue tn human history,t1 as 'statvd by California land P4ved.....ver each day. Dr. Barry Commoner in a paper presented at j . the 13th National Conference sponsored by People picketing a smoke-belching utility the U..5. National Ccnunission for UNESCO, in the Northeast were greet~d by'an exec San·Francisco, November 24, 1969. utive proud of h.is company's meager effott to combat air pollution. He handed the group a sheaf of supporting documents. One picketer handed back the cardboard cover. "Look, man, that t s 'excess packaging. That's -- 2 -- trees!" Once upon a time But some of the children There was a wild, virgin maid grew strong and smart clothed in deep blue and covetous, of oceans, and took from her Fringed with white laced ,foam the blue of her oceans and the rich green and the green of her grasses of grasses and foliage. and foliage; Strong mountains she had, they sm~shed her mountains with the white of snow, a.ld n;uddied her streams. and ribbons of clear, So sick they made the earth ~urling, laughing streams; who mothered them, and ber breath was fresh and sweet that her breath became fouled once upon a time. and the nourishment she gave was poisone( And ~nen, in final fury, The maid became mother she died, to many children, she took them with her, and let them take from he~ And none were le~t to worry that which they ueede a.t the enormity or wanted of the destruction. for nourish..-nent, protection, Or 1s that not the cnding, and adornment. and shall the story be: But some of the children And each t fme cherished her gifts as the children became older and grew wise and grew teeth th~t bit too hard in their desire to hold them, the breast at which they fed, and in a, mighty wish ahe thrust them away; for others who might and, no longer in her favor, one day bear their blcod Jnany languished and died. -- and know the ~armth and beauty, they forged a new knowledge, ·and learned a riew reStrair,t. But all he* did was spread room And the earth Of our enacting out the doo~ who mothered them Of being in each other's way was gratef4J J And so put off the weary day and paused When we would have to put our mind in the path On how to crowd but still be kind... to death, •••Robert Fros t and blossomed again• *Columbus Juliet Lowenthal 1969 A wonderful bird is the pelican; BE A TRANSFOfu~~R •• His mouth holds more than his bellican He takes in his beak" build a bird feeder Enough food for a week, walk whenv~r possible But I'm damned if I see how theh~llican. boycott Sunday newspapers adopt c.h ildren The next pelican you see may be the wrlte "protest" letters last one you will ever see. Join'the join an 'e~ology' group fight to ban the DDT type pesticidj:ls use les$ electricity which threaten extinction. refuse paper bags alert others of the crisis organize a cleao-up festival.