Page 70 - 1970S

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should be madc more and more aware of
the personal convictions of potential
política! candidatcs concerning con–
scrvation and pollutíon. Further, the
public should cMefu lly appraise the past
oc present industrial connections of such
prospective officials. Human survival is
at stake in all this - not just pctty
politics.
2) Establish crash cducational pro–
grams on ecology and the preservation
- and improverncnt of our environ–
ment. Children should learn from thcir
earliest school years the hazards of cnvi–
ronment pollution. Ecology is a woc–
fully neglected subject in our school
currículum.
3) Extend environmental education
to the entire adult population. the deci–
sion makers of today, who decree what
sort of world their children and grand–
children will be living in. It's tragic, but
most people still view pollution as sim–
ply annoying, not as a threat to all life
on this planet. There remains a com–
pelling neeJ to communicate clearly,
continuously and candidly the shocking
facts about our degrading world. The
public, especially in a democracy, must
be aroused. Only then will politicians
who too oftcn side wilh powerful
interest groups - act.
At the San forancisco conference, Mi–
chael Scriven of the University of Cali–
fornia said this:
"We are not about to survive the
problems of atmosphere and water sup–
ply contamination ... thc problems of
natural resourcc exhaustion, and all the
other problcms to ' ' hich the ecologist
has made us sensitive, by getting one
pcrcent of thc populatíon halfway
familiar with thc situation. We havc got
to gct every, and that means every, citi–
zen educated."
4) Prepare right now for a ''no–
growth" ecooomy. And along with it a
no-growth population, no-growth states,
and no-growth cities until the problcm
of pollution is solvcd. This, of coursc,
runs counter to the usual Chamber-of–
Commerce attitudc. But the time has
come for us to realize that growth for
the sake of growth results in nothing
but cancer of the environment.
"Growth of populations, of the
tax base, of real estate values, and
Tbe PLAIN TRUTH
of the Gross National Product JS
... accompanied by growth of wastc,
of pollution, of consumption of re–
sources, of ccological deterioration, and
of conflict" (Prcston Cloud, Professor
of Biogeology, University of California,
Santa Barbara) .
Industry and the utiJities need to rcal–
ize, for cxamplc, that not every power–
draining (thercfore pollution contrib–
uting) devicc capable of being drcamed
up should be produced. \Y/e did quite
well befare the age of the electric knife
and the electric can opener, to use two
extreme cases.
Technology, newer technology, and
more dever technology is not thc solu–
tion to pollution as long as the GNP
continues its upward surge.
People must come to realizc this fun–
damental fact: you simply c:tnnot
have a continually expanding economy
within a finitc system- Earth. Thc eter–
na( worship of an infinitely expanding
Gross National Product rnust cease - if
lt'e are l o Jllrt•iz•e.
Tt is obvious, in this coote>..1:, that
there need to be incentives for cities to
limit their growth. The "freeing up" of
cities, the careful p lanning of "greco
belts" around urban centers, and the
creation of "industrial parks" should be
encouraged.
Hotels havc a limited numbcr of
rooms. Jt has been proved our whole
cnvironment has limits, just as nations
have limits. And so have statcs, coun–
ties, and cities. So LIVE within those
limi/J. If a city is obviously "f11ll." legal
means should be adopted to makc it
impossiblc for such a city to continue to
expand at a rate controlled only by the
whimsical notions or economic dcsires
of people.
Unless sorne urgent measures are
taken, the ugly "mcg:tlopolises" strip
cities such as thc American "Bosn} wash,
San-San, ancl Chipitts"- will be mon–
strous realitics bcfore anolher decade
ends.
5) Beginning now - a concertcd
effort shoulcl he made to degla11orize
the automobile and bcgin to complctdy
phase out th~ intcmal combusti >n
engine.
The time has arri\'ed hr thc l'r,>Juc-–
tion of a few h1gh qu.li.1 ty and wdl built
February, 1970
automobiles, specifically designed to
minimizc pollution. The lust for the
"cubic inch" measure of automobile
engines has to cease.
Beginning now, we need to seriously
question whether there should not be a
policy of no new cars unless an old one
is turned in. Beginning now, we need to
stop and think seriously beforc more
greco acres are ripped up for highway
construction. Beginning now, we should
gi're serious thought to the concept of
wartimc-style gas rationing and implant
the question in the public mínd - IS
THIS TRIP NECESSARY?
Obviously these changcs involve
wholesalc rethinking of our industr ial
system and cven the advertising profes–
síon.
8111 Í! !he JllnÍI'al of man li'Orth il?
6) Make fightíng pollution "popu–
lar." Incentives should be cstablished
for those actively engagcd in thc pollu–
tion battle. The man who is working on
a smog-free automobile or a new pro–
cess to rcmove industrial wastes before
they reach the water supply shouJd be
made as popular as- and paid more
than - the well-pnblicized "superstar"
athletes of today.
7) Begin to Acr, not just talk.
Talk ís fine, but it too can becomc just
another form of pollution word
pollution.
It is now time to act on the abun–
dance of documented evidcnce already
available. Enough facts are known. But
is governmenl, is industry, is the aver–
age man-on-the-street, willing to be
committcd lOO% to the pollutíon battle
- even when self-interest throws al!
manner o( obstacles in the way?
We would hope so. But the histor ical
record of human reason is not encourag–
ing. There is still a little time for self–
decci\'ed and unínformed scoffers to say,
"It's not all th(t/ bad."
This precious allotment of time, how–
ever, is fast running out. Thc survival
of man is at stake.
for additional information on the
pollution crisis, write for our free
booklet Om· Poll11ted Pltmet, published
and distributed in the public intcrt::st by
Ambassador College.