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April 28, 1970 POPULATION There is a disease that 1s affecting the entire world today. It is so vast that is has reached the eoidemic stages. The svmo~ toms ofthe disease are plentiful. To give ;i few: mass starvation, mass malnutrition, · wars, stress, tension, riots, clogged high- ways and unemployment. The disease is overpopulation, sometimes referred to as population. From the beginning of man to the year 1850, the population reached an all time total of 1 billion people. In the next 80 years, by 1930, the population doubled to 2 billion people. Then in an- 30 years, by 1960, the population had reached up to 3 billion people. Right now, in the past 10 years, the population has gone up ½ billion people, so there are now 3.5 billion people today. If we in- crease at our present rate, in the year 2000, there will be -7 hillirin p~qple. Every person alive today will have 300 million descendents in 1,000 years on the face of the earth. This will be virtually wall to wall people. In essence what we are doing by having more than 2 child- ren per family is exchanging quality for quantity. Nature controls other species. If an area becomes too heavily populated with a particular species of animal, nature corrects the problem. But nature has no control over man. He must take it upon himself to control his numbers. There is no easy solution to the problem. Dr. Walter E. Howard states one of the things that must happen in our society to correct the problem, "Mother- hood must become a less significant role for women. Compassionate relations, not .having children, must become the primary goal of marriage." We will have to voluntarily limit the size of our families to two children, or else it will be limited for us. In underdeveloped countries, death by disease and starvation limits the size of families, because only a small percentage of the children reach adulthood. In developed countries like America, riots, stress and war will get us, because we do have plenty of food. (If pollution doesn't get to us first). Many experts in this area feel that we will not limit our numbers voluntarily and that gi:wernment controls will be imposed. One of the most important things that all of us can do is to become aware of the prevailing situation. I strongly urge students and faculty to join Zero Pop- ulation Growth. Annual dues are ten dollars with special rates of 4 dollars for students. The address is: ZERO POPULATION GROWTH 367 STATE STREET LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA 94022 Dr. Paul Erlich author of Population Bomb sums it all 1up rather well, "What- ever your cause, it's a lost cause without population control." N D hn ancy o THE POLEMIC FORUM INSECTICIDES We are facing a real cns1s in our environment now from insecticides. The insecticides we now commonly use .are 2nd Generation Insecticides, most com- monly represented by DDT. When DDT was first discovered it was used in war time, but after World War II it was converted to peace time use. It was hailed as the greatest thing for bugs yet discovered, the scientists that worked on it were awarded the Noble Prize . It is just now that we are beginning to see the effects of 20 years of DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons. Insecticides are causing a decline in the bird population, polluting the whole world by being spread by air currents, water currents and animals. Research scientists have come up with an answer to this problem of destructive pesticides. The answer lies in the insects own body. chemistry it is the Juvinile Hormone which cor.itrols the number of molts an insect must go through to dev- elop into a sexually mature insect. This chemical is sprayed on a field or any area causing to many molts and in the end death. These new insecticides are far better than the insecticides we are currently using for several reasons. First they are restrictive in their action, each insect has a specific J.H. and it effects only that insect. It is undesirable to kill all the insects because only about .01 % of all insects are harmful to man. Second, be- cause it is a chemical that occurs in nature it will not pollute the environment as the insecticides we are using today will. We can not continue to destroy our environment as we are doing now, we must turn to these new insecticides. Chris Jensen PAGE 5 ECOLOGY Ecology is the science which deals with the interrelationships between dif- ferent organisms and their environments: pollution affects the ecological system. Because pollution introduces, for long periods of time, elements which either had not been present before in the system or which had been present only in small quantities up to that time. The addition of such elements causes subtle changes within the eco-system, which upsets the balance of organisms within the system. Ecologist Paul Ehrlich said, "It is the subtle, rather than the gross, destruction of ecological processes that poses the most lethal threat. Man is completely dependent on the natural ecological situations for all of his food and ultimately for his oxygen and the disposal of his waste." Pollutants are destroying the food chains which sustain our lives. These food chains don't start with the visible plants and animals but with the microscopic organisms. These microscopic organisms depend on the environment for their requirements. They are not only the basis of our food supply, though . They are also our major source of the oxygen we breath . At least 60% or more of our oxygen is released by the phytoplankton which live mainly in the· oceans. These .organisms will be affected by pollutants. Why? The reason is that most of our pollutants eventually end up in the oceans which cover vast amounts of our planet. Yet even the oceans can absorb only so much filth; many ecologists are worried about the effects on the phytoplankton. Other ecologists fear that the oceans will become so burdened with noxious wastes that they will lose their vast power of self-purifi- cation . As it stands now, we can still stop this polluting of the world. But the time is running out, when we will be able to reverse the damage already done to our environment, earth. Karen Myhre PICKETT'S PHARMACY for EXPERT - fAST EfflCIENT and PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICE : ATTENTION