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drinkiog water, because the many lakes
are shallow and subject to rapid
eutrophication as a result of discharge
of domestic and industrial waste matter.
Helsinki is supplied with drinking
water from a lake
160
miles away.
According to one Italian official, "a
lot of Italian rivers have been changed
into putrid reservoirs of sewage and
industrial waste. T heir waters can no
looger be used even for irrigation."
Throughout Italy, household and
industrial liquid waste is dumped into
waters with virtually no treatment. In
the whole of Italy there are only thirty–
two purification plants - one plant for
every thousand communities. Even the
paltry few that exist are for the most
part small and inefficient.
A
Dutd1 report shows tbe far-reach–
ing international effects of water pollu–
tion in Europe.
Seventy percent of the water in the
Dutch river network comes from other
countries and is thus already heavily
polluted. The waters of the Rhine, for
example, now show such an increase in
chlorides that they are unsuitable for
desalting
tbe
polders - making Dutch
land reclamation efforts extremely diffi–
cult. Such chlorides are of mineral ori–
gin and are dumped into the river in
German coal -mining areas where saline
water is pumpcd from the mines.
Europe's Future " Lake Eries"
Water pollution doesn't end when
Europe's fi lthy rivers reach the sea.
The Mediterranean and the Baltic
Seas receive a good share of Europe's
washed-in pollution. Parts of the two
vütually landlocked inland seas, says
one British official, could become as
polluted as the eastern part of Lake
Erie, where many feet of mucky sedi–
ment have accumulated.
A F rench specialist in marine polln–
tion warns of unlimited construction
and industrial expansion along France's
Mediterranean shore. Unless firm mea–
sures are taken, he says, the continental
shelf of France could become one sterile
stretch of black muck from the Spanish
to the Italian border.
Some fish species have already dis–
appeared from accustomed grounds
The
PLAIN TRUTH
along the French Ri viera. And along
the coasts of Versilia, southern Tuscany,
and Latium in ltaly, marine pollution is
killing coastal pines. Long adapted to
saltwater spray, the pines there now are
dying where the polluted spray hits
them.
What toDo?
At the end of the Strasbourg confer–
ence, delegates endorsed a resolution
calling for an urgent European min–
isterial meeting to coordinate existing
interoational environmental projects.
Jt was proposed that such a high–
level meeting seriously consider the
establishment of a European political
authoríty to supervise the management
of the continent's environment.
But giant obstacles líe in the path of
the establishment of such a supra–
national body with enough politícal
muscle to act.
First, the experience in the United
States proves the
f
rustrating difficulty
of coordinating efforts among states,
counties and muoicipalities, to do battle
with commonly shared poltution prob–
lems. In Europe, the problem is com–
pounded by the existence of completely
sovereign nations, each with its own
goals and aims, guite often in conflict
with neighboring states.
West Germany, for exarnple, is not
likely to sacrifice its industrial growth
rate to solve Europe's environmental
problerns unless France, Italy and every
other industrial competitor in Europe
does likewise.
And the problem is compounded still
further. Europe as a whole is not likely
to sacrifice its industrial growth - indus–
trial might means international power
and prestige - unless its two chief
world competitors, the United States
and the Soviet Union, do likewise.
A British delegate warned that there
was a danger of upsetting the structure
of international industrial competition
if industry in one country took anti-pol–
lution measures which put up prices for
its goods.
World Control Needed
Most of All
Pollution is worldwide. The United
$tates contributes a big share. So does
Europe - both Western Europe and
April-May, 1970
the Communist bloc in its haste for
industrial expansion.
Pollution control must be tackled not
on a national or continental front but
on a world basis.
Yet, there is no single coordinated
attack.
lnstead there is a proliferation of
various international bod ies and orga–
nizations, each studying the enviren–
mental crisis, each recommending courses
of action - with often contradictory
conclusions - yet all with pitifully
weak power to act.
The Common Market is investigating
pollution in Europe. So is UNESCO. So
is
N
ATO - formerly restricted to
defense matters. So is the Council of
Europe.
What is really needed now is a world
government. A govcrnment that stands
above the conflicting selflsh interests and
wasteful pursuits of men and nations.
And a government, furthermore, that
shows man the right way to live and
how to get in harmony with "immutable
laws" - to use Prince Albert's phrase–
ology. There are both spiritual laws
governing human relationships and
phys.ical laws governing nature and the
earth's life systems. But man- though
reaping the penalty of breaking these
laws - is woefully ignorant of them.
The
PLAIN
TRUTH is not alone in
recognizing this compelling need for a
world government. Norman Cousins,
editor of
Srttm·day Retliew
receotly put
it this way:
"Humanity needs a world order. The
fully sovereign nation
is
incapable of
dealing with the poisoning of
tbe
envi–
ronment. Worse than that, the national
governments are an important pact of
the problem. They create anarchy on the
very level where responsiblc centers
and interrelationships are
most
needed.
... The nations in thei r externa! roles
become irresponsible engines of spoilage
and destruction.
"The management of the planet,
therefore, whether
we
are
talking
about
the need to prevent war or the need
te prevent ultimate damage to the
conditions of life, requi res a world
government."
The need was never more urgent.
o