“We get richer and richer in filthier and filthier communities, until we reach a final state of affluent misery​—[rich king] Croesus on a garbage heap,” is the way former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare John W. Gardner expressed it.

Not only in the United States, but around the world the cry is going up that​—like a bird that has fouled its own nest—​man is fouling the only home he has, the earth. Prominent ecologist Barry Commoner stated: “We have the time​—perhaps a generation—​in which to save the environment from the final effects of the violence we have done to it.”

Is There Really a Choice?

Certain other scientists would allow even less time. Some hold that the “point of no return” may already have been reached.

Does the Problem Affect You?

DOES the pollution problem really affect you? Well, do you breathe air, drink water and eat food? Do you care about the quality of your life?

Then it is already affecting you whether you realize it or not. This is so no matter where you live. True, the situation in the cities is worse than in rural areas. But the problem is now so widespread that all areas are affected to some degree.

What makes pollution such a worldwide problem is that it respects no national boundaries; it easily crosses frontiers. The air we breathe today may have been in use in another country a week or a month ago. Water flows from rivers and lakes into oceans where it is circulated to far-flung areas.

The American Medical Association says there is “overwhelming evidence that man-made water, air and noise pollution as well as maldistribution of solid wastes, insecticides, preservatives and other toxic materials are rapidly approaching the point where human and many other forms of life are threatened.”

Ecologist Dr. Barry Commoner echoes these words by saying: “We have come to a turning point in the human habitation of the earth. . . . I believe that continued pollution of the earth, if unchecked, will eventually destroy the fitness of this planet as a place for human life.”

How Soon?

Are such persons referring to something that may take place centuries from now? How many years are they talking about?

The Canadian Magazine of April 4, 1970, says: “Beautiful Canada will be dead in 10 years. Unless we start to save it today.”

England’s Guardian declares: “Within the next two decades, life on our planet will be showing the first signs of succumbing to industrial pollution. The atmosphere will become unbreathable for men and animals; all life will cease in rivers and lakes; plants will wither from poisoning.” And former U.S. presidential adviser Daniel Moynihan estimates that man may have less than a fifty-fifty chance of surviving until 1980.

Are these people ‘calamity howlers’? Not at all. Many of them were optimistic years ago. In fact, as recently as 1962 much of the press and scientific community ridiculed Rachel Carson when she wrote her book Silent Spring, in which she predicted dire consequences from man’s constant pollution.

They no longer ridicule. Most of her predictions have come true. The cold, hard facts have forced scientists and the press to recognize the truth about what is happening. Man is indeed taking a course that could lead to his extinction.