(introduction...)

November/December 1992

Available in English, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian & Arabic

WIT's World Ecology Report
World Information Transfer, Inc.
(ISSN #1048-5902)

274 Madison Ave., Suite 601
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (212) 696-2037
Fax: (212) 532-1775

Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Chair
Peter Frost Sprague, Editor

Michelle Alexander, Ph.D.
Claudia Strauss, Ed.D.
Contributing Editors

Carolyn Comitta
Circulation Manager

Catherine Rush
Business Manager

Jeanie Lindsey
Art Director

Mohammed Ramadan
Igor Spiniov
Fanny Tarr
Language Editors

Johanna von Alten Blaskowitz
WIT Regional Director - Europe
Gallmayer Street, 13/IV
8000 Munchen 80, Germany
Tel: 48-75-62

Dr. Andriy O. Demydenko
WIT National Director - Ukraine
27 Chervonoarmiyska, Suite 22
25000 Kiev, Ukraine
Tel/Fax (044) 225-7634 or 552-5448

Dr. M. R. Khawlie
WIT Regional Director - Middle East
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
Tel: (350000) 865250 Ext. 2524

Dr. Rashmi Mayur
WIT Regional Director - India
73 A Mittal Tower, Nariman Point
Bombay, 40021, India
Tel: 204-1851-2

Adelisa Almario Raymundo
WIT Regional Director - Asia
Rm. 30 Fersal Condonimum II
130 Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman
Quezon City, Phillippines
Tel/Fax: (632) 922-6779

Dr. Anatolly A. Shevchouk
WIT Regional Director - Eastern Europe
Commonwealth of Independent States Embassy
Warsaw, Poland
Tel: (10482) 625-21-84

Victor Sone del Monte
WIT Regional Director - Latin America
El Millon Teatro Nacional # 152
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Tel: 809-567-1540

Electronic edition available on TBS Network Earth Forum, CompuServe and/or Econet,

SPECIAL FOCUS: The Deadly Winds of War

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world is not spending money alone. It is spending sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children... This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." General Dwight D. Eisenhower 34th President of USA

U.S. military analysts estimate that the world invests over 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) dollars annually to create and build weapons; to field armies, navies and air forces; and to finance conflicts.

In World War II over 35 million people were killed and since then there have been over 150 armed conflicts, mostly in the developing countries which have collectively claimed more than 20 million lives.

Despite talk of "new world orders", "peace dividends" and the like, the simple fact of the matter is that war remains a major human activity and one which has a profound impact on the environment... Yet despite this rather obvious connection, there has been relatively little coverage of the obvious relationship between human military activity and environmental destruction.

Environmental destruction from warfare has been with mankind from the dawn of time and was probably first chronicled when the ancient Romans devastated Carthaginian agriculture by salting their fields. In recent times, however, the destructive potential of military action has grown enormously and spread over vast areas. World War II, for example, resulted in an average 38 percent reduction in agricultural productivity in 10 nations, although this loss was ultimately recovered.

Chemical defoliants used by the U.S. in South Vietnam devastated crops, destroyed 1, 500 square kilometers of forest and damaged another 15, 000 square kilometers. People in areas exposed to such toxic herbicides have witnessed increasing incidences of cancer, spontaneous abortions and birth defects.

Photo

There is perhaps no better and no more recent example of the environmental damage caused by war than the extensive ecological destruction perpetrated in Kuwait by the Iraqi military. A report prepared for the Secretary - General by a special United Nations Mission in April of 1991 contained a section summarizing the extent of the ecological consequences of Iraq's invasion which is summarized below.

· 700 oil well fires that emitted massive dark clouds composed of particulate and gaseous pollutants believed to cause respiratory illnesses and possibly long-term carcinogenic and mutagenic effects.

· Crude oil gushing from sabotaged wells has led to the formation of oil lakes and to the extensive contamination of soil and water.

· Approximately 10 million barrels of oil were released by the Iraqi tankers directly into the waters of the Persian Gulf jeopardizing seagrass beds, fish, birds and crustaceans.

· Soil and plant damage was widespread resulting from the laying of numerous minefields; the extensive construction of stone and concrete fortifications; the tremendous movement of wheeled and tracked vehicles over fragile desert land; and the massive detonation of bombs, artillery shells and other ordnance. The result of such activity is that much of Kuwait's land is now highly susceptible to increased wind and water erosion.

While historic examples of the environmental consequences of conventional war abound, the most dreadful form of environmental destruction would occur in the event of a major nuclear exchange, a sample of which gleaned from Hiroshima.

While the end of the cold war has significantly diminished the threat of such a massive exchange, nuclear proliferation may be increasing the threat of more localized and smaller exchanges.

What would be the environmental impact of nuclear war? In a word, cataclysmic. Studies of the impact of a smaller, regional nuclear war are not available but any number of hypothetical studies have been conducted in an effort to predict the consequences of a major nuclear war.

The content of these studies are horrifying. At present the world has over 50,000 nuclear warheads, with a combined destructive potential of about 20,000 megatons, nearly 70 times the firepower needed to destroy all the world's largest and medium-sized cities. Estimates of the number of people that would be killed or injured by the combined effects of blast, fire and radiation arc in excess of 2 billion.

Rough Estimates of Additional Expenditures to Achieve Sustainable Development, 1990-2000

(billion dollars)

Year	Protecting Topsoil on Cropland	Reforesting the Earth	Slowing Population Growth	Raising Energy Efficiency	Developing Renewable Energy	Rearing Third World Debt	Total
1990	4	2	13	5	2	20	46
1991	9	3	18	10	5	30	75
1992	14	4	22	15	8	40	103
1993	18	5	26	20	10	50	129
1994	24	6	28	25	12	50	145
1995	24	6	30	30	15	40	145
1996	24	6	31	35	18	30	144
1997	24	6	32	40	21	20	143
1998	24	7	32	45	24	10	142
1999	24	7	32	50	27	10	150
2000	24	7	33	55	30	0	149

Source: Lester R, Brown and Edward C. Wolf, "Reclaiming the Future," in Lester R. Brown, et. al., State of the World 1988 (New York: Norton, 1988), p. 183.

If anything, the probable climatic effects of nuclear war are even more devastating. The ash and soot rising from burning cities following a nuclear holocaust would be carried into the atmosphere, blocking 80 percent or more of the sunlight reaching the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. This would result in an average temperature decrease of 5° to 20° Celsius within two weeks. The loss of solar energy would reduce rainfall over the temperate and tropical latitudes by up to 80 percent. The combination of cold temperature, dryness and lack of sunlight in this "nuclear winter" would cripple agricultural production in the Northern Hemisphere and destroy its ecosystems. Resultant food shortages could put a majority of the world's population at risk of starvation. It is also likely that the nitrogen oxides produced by a large-scale nuclear war would deplete the Earth's protective ozone layer by up to 50 percent, exposing the survivors of the war to damaging amounts of ultraviolet radiation.

It is clear that the global military budget which continues to increase by as much as 5 percent annually finances activities that are tremendously destructive to humans and to the environment in which we live. Some significant part of that spending is devoted to weapon systems that could literally destroy the human habitat. What is to be done if we are to avoid hanging from the "cross of iron" so frighteningly referred to by Former President Eisenhower?

The answer clearly lies in four areas. First, we must develop a preventative diplomatic approach to regional hot spots that have the potential to move to conflict. Second, we must aggressively support nuclear disarmament initiatives. Third, we must demand that all countries observe the non-proliferation treaty banning the transfer of nuclear-arms technology. Fourth, we must direct some part of the global military budget to sustainable developing efforts in six priority areas: protecting topsoil, reforestation, slowing population growth, raising energy efficiency, developing renewable energy, retiring debt for developing countries.

World watch Institute has proposed a budget that would allow us to achieve sustainable development by the year 2000 which is summarized in the chart on page 2.

It's interesting to note that if such a program and budget were implemented that there would still be $850,000,000,000 (850 billion) left annually for military purposes. As Worldwatch notes such a partial diversion of military spending to sustainable development programs is not without precedent. For example, in less than ten years, China has cut its military budget by 10 percent and substantially increased investments in food production, reforestation and family planning. These programs coupled with economic reforms has raised Chinese per capita food production by 50 percent while dramatically lowering China's birth rate.

Such a shift of global military spending would remove some of the reasons why nations go to war in the first place, while simultaneously reducing the terrible consequences of war on the human habitat.

"As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic of all misery." John Donne English cleric and poet, 1622

HIDDEN DAMAGE OF WORLD WAR II

Our Special Focus alluded to the ecological destruction caused by World War II. A recent report from Russia, however, suggests that we may still be continuing to pay an environmental price for the weaponry of that conflict.

The following story released this summer by the Los Angeles Times news services documents how Allied disposal of German chemical weapons is creating an ongoing ecological crisis in the Baltic Sea.

"Just 100 yards under the surface of the Baltic Sea, hundreds of thousands of German chemical weapons, hastily dumped by the Allies after World War II, are leaking deadly gasses into the water.

Russia's fledgling Green Party says that the toxic chemicals oozing out of corroded bombs and grenades could soon reach a fatal concentration, threatening not only the Baltic's marine and plant life, but also the 30 million people who live along the coastline.

By tossing 300,000 tons of ready-to-fire weapons into the shallow sea from 1945 to 1947, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union have nudged the Baltic to the brink of catastrophe, scientists say.

'The Baltic Sea is known as the chamber pot of Europe,' said Yevgeny Usov of Russia's Green Party, which raised the first alarms about the submerged chemicals two years ago. 'Already, there are strong poisons in the sea, eating at its ecology like a cancer. If you add to this the dispersion of toxic chemicals, you can surely expect the sea to perish altogether.'

"What we see today is not a return to the pattern of warfare in the fast. Outright military victory is far less likely today. Each new conflict is far more likely to create continuing disaster in terms of lives lost, people displaced and ecologies assaulted. Modem warfares has virtually eliminated the age-old distinction between combatant and non-combatant. The proportion of civilian casualties to military deaths has been 9 to 1 in some conflicts." Secretary General Boutros Boutrosl-Ghali

The Green Party predicts devastating deaths of marine life within the next three years as the Baltic's salt water completes its decades-long work of eating holes in the weapons' metal skins.

The events leading to the present crisis began almost half a century ago when the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union met in secret after World War II to decide the fate of Nazi Germany's enormous stockpile of unused chemical weapons, mainly nerve, skin and tear gasses.

Unwilling to pollute the air by incinerating them or to foul the ground by burying the poisonous stocks, the victorious powers decided to dump 500,000 tons of bombs, grenades and mines in the Atlantic.

Lacking enough ships to carry the toxic cargo to the Atlantic from storage sites in Eastern Germany, the Allies decided to toss most of the weapons in the waters closer to Europe, although a few loads did make it to the ocean. Britain and the United States concentrated their dumping in the English Channel and along the coasts of Denmark and Sweden, pitching bombs overboard almost haphazardly and keeping no detailed maps about their location.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Army, under Kremlin orders to complete dumping by January 1,1948, was working frantically during the last six months of 1947 to unload the weapons into the Baltic. Bad weather so tossed Soviet ships around that the chemical weapons ended up widely scattered.

Besides pitching explosives, boxes and even plastic sacks filled with chemicals, the Allies sank up to 100 German ships loaded with war gasses.

Already, the chemicals have caused hundreds of injuries and dozens of deaths, Russian and Swedish environmentalists say. Hundreds of fisherman have suffered serious blister burns after catching grenades coated with oil chemical fluid in their nets. Yellow, waxy nuggets of phosphorous have washed up on Baltic Sea beaches, poisoning strollers who mistook them for pieces of amber.

But aside from these individual reports, scientists say they have no information on the broad, long-term ecological effects of the dumping. That is because the problem only became public two years ago and no research has been carried out.

No one knows, the environmentalists say, just how rusted the weapons have become after 45 years underwater, or how much gas has already seeped into the Baltic. No one can predict how far the chemicals will spread, or how they will react in combination with one another and with salt water.

And, most critically, no one is sure how many fish have eaten the poisons, how many people have eaten carcinogenic fish, or what health problems will emerge over the next few decades.

Hoping to find some answers, Russia will finance a $350,000, two-month expedition. Commanders from Baltic Sea Fleet and the St. Petersburg Naval Base will lead a team of scientists and divers to examine the submerged weapons and perhaps bring some explosives to Russia for further research."

SOURCE: Los Angles Time New Service, July 19, 1992.

"If we examine defense expenditures around the world... and measure them realistically against the full spectrum of components that tend to promote order and stability within and among nations - it is clear that there is a mounting misallocation of resources." Former U.S. Defense Secretary and Former World Bank President Robert S. McNamara

POINT/COUNTERPOINT - Is The CO2 Build-Up Really A Crisis?

Many scientists believe our future shows rising temperatures and sea levels, spreading deserts and shrinking forests. Most popular coverage of global warming (including that of WIT's World Ecology Report) treats global warming as a present and future reality; one caused, in the main, by rapidly accelerating emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

A recent national Gallup survey of 400 atmospheric, climate and oceanographic scientists in the U.S. showed that while 60 percent of these scientists believed that average global temperatures have risen over the past century, fewer than one in five believe it was caused by humans.

There are, in fact, some scientists who believe that the CO₂ build-up could be a real boom to plant life.

Certain research suggests that CO₂ stimulates the growth of plants and crops. The Western Fuel Association, for example, has produced a half-hour video which makes a case that higher levels of CO₂ will lead to higher crop yields, more forests, less water usage by plants and greater resistance to flooding. And, in fact, some studies have shown 60 percent increases in cotton yields and 200 percent increases in wheat yields in areas with high levels of CO₂ emissions.

In what is an area of scientific research that is enormously complicated, the only certainty is that the issues relating to the causes and likely effects of CO₂ build-up will continue to be hotly debated.

For a provocative and comprehensive analysis of the ongoing debate we refer our readers to Investors Business Daily (June 3, 1992) which contains a front page feature on the issue.

SOURCE: Investors Business Daily, June 3, 1992.

DESERTIFICATION: The Sands of Change

Areas threatened by desertification.

SOURCE: The Sands of Change, United Nations Environment Programme

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that about 3500 million hectares of land... an area the size of North and South America combined are affected by desertification. Every year about 6 million hectares of land are irretrievably lost to desertification, and a further 21 million hectares are so degraded that crop production becomes uneconomic.

While the terms "desertification" and "land degradation" are only now coming into popular usage, the problem has afflicted mankind for centuries. Historians believe, for example, that desertification played a role in the downfall of the Sumerian, Babylonian, Harappan and Roman civilizations.

Today many parts of the world's arable land is in jeopardy as is shown in the map above identifying existing deserts and those areas at high and moderate risk of becoming degraded.

Many believe that drought brings on encroachment of deserts and while drought can accelerate desertification, it is rarely caused by it.

The causes of desertification are varied and complex but it's important to emphasize that desertification is caused largely by human action... or the lack of it. Overgrazing, deforestation, intensive cash cropping on marginal land, poor management of wells and drilling and the settling of previously nomadic peoples all play a role.

One of the commonest causes of desertification is the salinization of irrigated land. Today nearly as much land is currently being lost to water logging and salinization as is being newly irrigated. Unless new irrigation methods pay careful attention to drainage, many areas will ultimately suffer from salinity, just as was the case with many of the great civilizations of the past.

Since desertification is caused by human action it can be cured and controlled by human action. The solutions are not technically difficult.

The basic answer is improved forms of land use: better farming systems, an end to over grazing and over cropping, sand dune fixation, the erection of windbreaks and shelter belts, reforestation, and improved soil and water conservation.

"The deserts are not invading from without; the land is deteriorating from within." Andrew Goudie The Human Impact, 1981

These techniques, when implemented, have generated many successes in recent years in regions around the world. Green belts, for example, have been planted around some of the Sahel's capital cities, such as Duagadouqou and Niamey. Algeria has reforested more than 250,000 hectares. Ethiopia is terracing eroded land on 35 watersheds in the central highland plateau. Sudan is restocking its gum belt and Peru has an enormous reforestation program to save some of its Andean Sierra. China has been reforesting close to 1.5 million hectares annually. Similar land conservation programs are under way in Niger, Syria, Korea, India and Nepal.

Despite these successes the battle to save the Earth from deforestation is being lost. One reason is that the lack of money necessary to finance local initiatives has not been made available on the scale required. Second, many affected countries have failed to take the problem seriously enough to develop long-term national plans.

The price of waiting is high and is counted in declining productivity, erosion, famine and political instability. At present over 1 billion of the world's poorest people are threatened by the sands of change.

Figure

Chernobyl Update

We are often asked why we continue to devote so much editorial space to the Chernobyl nuclear accident which occurred in April of 1986. While the name "Chernobyl" will long be associated with the dangers associated with nuclear power, it is surprising how quickly the enormity of this event passed from public consciousness.

The importance of the Chernobyl accident, however, is well known to those professionals engaged in a continuing effort to study, mitigate and minimize what the UN General Assembly formally calls "the Chernobyl disaster."

The office of the UN Secretary General, for example, released a report this summer which called for an increased international effort to understand and respond to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The UN General Assembly, too, has passed a resolution (#46/150) designed to mobilize international efforts to address these consequences.

The Secretary General's Report on the subject is most instructive and highlights the enormity of what transpired at Chernobyl. We, for example, quote below from a section of this report.

"In the early hours of Saturday, 26 April 1986, an accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. A series of explosions blew the roof off the unit 4 reactor building, exposing the burning reactor core and thereby emitting into the environment the largest amount of radioactive material from a single source ever recorded. An estimated 50 million curies of radioactive isotopes were released and dispersed in the western portions of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), over Eastern and Western Europe and, in smaller amounts, throughout the entire northern hemisphere. It is estimated that 4 million people were exposed to enhanced levels of radiation and vast areas in Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation were contaminated to a greater or lesser extent by radionuclides. Whatever the precise figures, it is beyond dispute that the impact of the accident was immense.

The consequences encompass a wide spectrum - ecology, human settlement, human health, agriculture, social welfare, industry and economics. The impact on cultivated land and water supplies in the affected areas has been severe. Agricultural produce, including livestock, has been contaminated by radioactive fallout; industries situated in contaminated areas have been forced to shut down; and large numbers of people have suffered, both directly and indirectly, in numerous ways.

Apart from the immediate effects there is a possible longer-term impact on the health of the population that cannot be fully known for years to come. At a meeting in March, 1992 researchers in Belarus reported a steep rise in thyroid cancer among children in the areas most contaminated by radiation; a moderate increase in the condition has also been detected in contaminated areas in Ukraine. Thousands, uncertain as to their health and future, suffer from acute stress and anxiety."

While the Secretary General's Report focuses on the longer-term consequences of Chernobyl, other organizations are sounding alarms of a more immediate nature.

Geologists at the Ukrainian State Committee on Geology, for example, have recently issued a report voicing increasing concern about the stability of the foundation on which the crippled reactor stands. Seepage from an ill-conceived slurry-wall dam upgradient of the reactor coupled with the effects of a low magnitude earthquake are changing the subsurface geology below the plant and may ultimately cause the collapse of the entire structure. These same geologists also report increasing accumulation of radioactive cesium and strontium in the Kiev Reservoir and in the Pripat and Dnepr Rivers, the latter being one of Europe's largest with millions of people along its course.

The response of the United Nations' system to Chernobyl has been immediate and aggressive with many UN affiliated agencies like the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the United Nations Environment Programme playing active leadership roles.

Experts from these various agencies dispatched to deal with the disaster have developed 131 project proposals requiring outside funding estimated at $647 million. A "Pledging Conference" for member states was held at the UN headquarters in New York in September of 1991 and while virtually all member delegations pledged support, through July only some $9 million was actually pledged in the form of contributions and bilateral arrangements.

This pronounced lack of international financial support is rather shocking given humanity's actual and potential exposure. UNESCO, for example, at a conference this fall attended by the world's leading hydrologists reported that, "the radioactivity released in the accident continues to spread via ground and surface waters, effecting the ecosystems of large areas in Europe."

The Report of the Secretary General accorded a high priority to doing whatever is intellectually, financially and politically possible to properly address the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

"It has been said that a nuclear accident somewhere is a nuclear accident everywhere. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is international in its dimensions - not only because its insidious effects have transcended national boundaries but also because important lessons are to be learned from its aftermath by countries throughout the world. In spite of the fact that six years have passed since the accident occurred, all of the most serious consequences have not yet been addressed, some remain unclear and others will not fully be known for years."

It is for these urgent and compelling reasons that we shall continue to focus attention on Chernobyl and its aftermath in the hopes of averting another such disaster.

SOURCES: Report of the Secretary General, "Strengthening of International Cooperation and Coordination of Efforts to Study, Mitigate and Minimize the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster", July 15, 1992. UNESCO Conference, Paris, September, 1992. WIT Chapter, Kiev.

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT: The Cost of a Healthy Environment

Many continue to question the relationship between a degrading environment and public health problems despite continuing and increasing media coverage of this relationship. The following news reports, for example, each in their own way reference how specific environmental contamination is affecting our health.

STUDY SHOWS CHILDREN'S ASTHMA RATES ARE RISING DRAMATICALLY

A study from the prestigious Mayo Clinic and Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, and reported in the American Review of Respiratory Disease, demonstrates that asthma rates in children and adolescents tripled in some groups over a twenty year period.

The Mayo report tracks studies elsewhere that indicate that asthma became more common in children during the 1970s and 1980s. hospitalized more young children during the 1980s and caused more deaths. Simultaneously, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported in October that the national rate of asthma deaths rose to 46 percent during the 1980s.

Researchers believe that there are many contributors to these dramatic and troubling increases not the least of which are greater recognition of the disease; greater use of child care; more cigarette smoking by mothers; and the trend toward making more energy-efficient homes. That being said, however, these reports all implicate environmental contamination (air pollution, ground level ozone pollution, etc.) as being a major contribution to this disturbing increase in respiratory disorder among young children.

SOURCE: The Associated Press, October 9, 1992.

SILENT SPRING GOES UNHEEDED

Thirty years ago Silent Spring was published and it ultimately became the cornerstone of the modern environmental movement and led to the banning of DDT in the U.S. Despite the book's influence, it's clear that most of Rachel Carson's warnings have gone unheeded. Consider the following statistics:

1. Five times as many pesticides are manufactured for use in U.S. agriculture, forests, homes and for exports than were in 1962.

2. Today more than 440 insect species arc now resistant to insecticides.

3. In 1945, 7 percent of all crops were destroyed by insects. In 1990, the "insect damage" has risen to 13 percent of all crops.

4. Out of 129,249 employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture only two arc assigned to the development of organic agriculture.

5. Nearly fifty million pounds of DDT have been manufactured each year and exported to foreign countries. The chemical's use was suspended in the U.S. This DDT is then imported back on fruits and vegetables in what has been labelled " a circle of poison".

6. Fully forty percent of America's biotechnology research in agriculture is devoted to developing herbicide-tolerant plant lives... e.g., plants genetically modified to survive being sprayed with a herbicide.

How does pesticide use impact human health? Consider the following:

· The number of unintentional acute pesticide poisonings around the world are estimated at 2 million with an estimated 40,000 fatalities.

· Pesticide exposure has been clinically linked to cancer and in the U.S., the National Academy of Scientists estimates that 20,000 cases of cancer are caused annually by pesticides.

· The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has detected 74 different pesticides concentrated above safe levels in wellwater in 38 states.

SOURCES: Baltimore Sun, October 7, 1992; The Global Ecology Handbook

Figure

JJ. SMITH-MOORE/Los ANGELES TIMES

EPA: AIR BETTER, BUT NOT BY MUCH

The U.S. EPA has made steady progress toward cleaner air as is reflected in decreases during the last decade in smog levels, lead levels and particulates (dust, soot and dirt) levels in the air. That being said, the U.S. EPA acknowledges that over 86 million Americans continue to breath "unhealthy" air.

SOURCE: USA Today, October 20, 1992.

THE METALLIC EPIDEMIC

In 1980 close to 91 percent of all U.S. children had elevated blood-lead levels. Today, that number, thanks to the mandatory removal of lead from all paints and the phase-out of leaded gasoline, has dropped considerably.

Despite this progress, high blood levels persist largely because lead has infiltrated our water supplies. The problem, which tends to be concentrated among inner-city children, is particularly acute in America's largest cities. For example, 69.4 percent of the children in Boston have high lead levels in their blood; 55.5 percent in San Francisco; 51.2 percent in Miami Beach; and 62.0 percent in Philadelphia.

Lead exposure can cause a wide range of serious health problems in both children and adults from blood disorders to high blood pressure and even death.

But of most concern is the way lead exposure may be dimming the intelligence and impairing the health of a whole generation of children, experts say.

Even with low levels of lead in the blood, "we see decreased intelligence, hearing problems and smaller stature," says Sue Binder, chief of the lead poisoning prevention branch at the Centers for Disease Control.

That doesn't mean lead toxicity is turning the nation into imbeciles, but a large number of studies on the metal effects of lead exposure suggest that children with gifted intelligence may be rendered normal and children with normal intelligence may be headed for the bottom of the class.

Some historians see parallels with ancient Rome, noting that the fall of the Roman Empire may have been due to lead poisoning. Romans are known to have drunk from lead goblets and to have stored water in lead urns.

Could the health effects of lead have such serious social implications today?

"Some people ask the question 'what is the contribution that lead exposure is making to juvenile delinquency?'" says Binder.

Lead exposure is usually highest in the nation's inner cities. Binder says even moderate levels of exposure can interfere with the ability to pay attention and may play an important role in learning disorders and anti-social behavior.

SOURCE: USA Today, October 21, 1992.

Effects of lead poisoning

Source: Environmental Protection Agency; Centers for Disease Control

Figure

GOOD NEWS

· Research into "transmutation", the process by which long-lived nuclear waste is turned into short-lived isotopes, is now under way in the United States, Japan and the former Soviet Union. While transmutation research has been under consideration since the 1950s it previously was believed to be uneconomic because of the huge amounts of energy required. Scientists at the Japan Atomic Energy Institute and the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory believes that now accelerator technology makes transmutation look "promising".

SOURCE: Dr. Oscar Barbalat, European Laboratory/or Particle Physics, Geneva, Switzerland.

· Oil seed rape is an unusual plant since not only does it produce food oil but it can also produce fuel... bio-diesel which is believed to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from motor vehicles by 98 percent, soot particles by 50 percent, and emits only that carbon dioxide which was once absorbed by the growing rape plant. Bio-diesel fuel is already available to motorists in Austria which has been researching the alternative fuel since the oil crisis of the early 1970s and is now building its second refinery.

SOURCE: Nuclear Forum, July, 1992.

· McDonald's, in an outstanding example of corporate environmental leadership, has been working with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) for the last four years to reduce the company's solid waste. McDonald's innovative program is reducing the amount of packaging it uses; it is reducing the environmental damage caused by the manufacture of the packaging it must continue to use (e.g. reducing chlorine-bleached paper); and it is making rubbish more disposable by using plastics that are easier to recycle and other materials that can be composted. In 1990, 29 percent of McDonald's packaging was made with recycled materials and the company is working toward the goal of setting 80 percent of its remaining garbage disposed of through composting rather that the use of landfills.

SOURCE: The Economist, August 29, 1992.

Figure

· The Rwenzori Mountains National Park, established last year in Uganda, includes the now officially protected snow covered Rwenzori Mountains. Unsullied by roads, the park is known for its climate diversity, giant plants and rare species of wildlife. With funding from the World Wildlife Funds, park officials hope to open the park soon to tourists.

SOURCE: New Vision, October, 1992, Kampala, Uganda.

· Today, 95 percent of all Indonesian women know about modern contraceptive methods and more than 48 percent of eligible couples are using family planning. Government financed family planning programs in this predominantly Muslim country has led to a drop in the crude birth rate from 44 per 1,000 in 1969 to 28 per 1,000 in 1990. And none too soon. Indonesia, which is only three times the size Texas, has a population of 18 7 million making it the fourth most populous nation in the world.

SOURCE: Earth Summit Times, August 27, 1992.

A rural family in Indonesia.

· Experts believe that biomass, or plant matter could become a significant source of energy. In Germany, for example, it could provide up to 15 percent of the country's energy needs... more than nuclear power now contributes.

The Danes have pioneered this concept where botanists have been cultivating a fast-growing variant of China reed for nine years. The plant is used as raw material for paper production or dried and shredded and used as a replacement for coil or oil in power stations. Denmark currently has 57 straw-burning heating piano, that provide heat and, in some cases, electricity to small cities.

SOURCE: World Press Review, October, 1992.

· In order to enhance the quality and quantity of fish protein consumed in developing tropical countries, UNDP's Global and Interregional Programme will be providing $4.4 billion over the next 5 years to continue research into the Genetic Improvements of Farmed Tiliapas (GIFT). Aquaculture will play an increasingly important role in providing fish for consumption because so many traditional fishing grounds have been overfished and some fish are in danger of extinction. New methods of producing improved breeds of tiliapas and othe fine fish will be developed in this project.

SOURCE: UNDP Update, Volume 5, Number 17, August 24, 1992.

DID YOU KNOW?

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· Dr. Godwin Obasi of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at a recent WMO meeting in Madrid indicated that the reason there has not yet been a significant increase in world atmospheric temperatures is that until now, the oceans have absorbed the heat created by humans. Dr. Obasi warns, however, that there is a limit to how much heat the oceans can absorb and once that limit is reached -probably within the next decade - the Earth's temperature will rise very quickly, becoming 2 to 6 degrees warmer by the year 2100. This temperature increase will raise ocean levels by 8 to 45 inches submerging many of the world's islands and coastal areas.

SOURCE: El Pais, Madrid, September 20, 1992.

· Mauritius is the first nation to ratify the Climate Change Convention. The agreement, agreed by 156 nations at The Earth Summit in Rio last June must be ratified by a minimum of 50 nation states before it can enter into effect. Mauritius is a small, low-lying island nation in the Indian Ocean and likely to be one of the first countries to feel the impact of global warming. The low-lying areas of the world face the possibility of contamination of their fresh water sources by sea water as the oceans expand and flooding as sea levels rise.

SOURCE: UN Press Release, September 10, 1992.

· Quito, Ecuador and specifically its sprawling historic center with its vestige of the pre-Columbian, Colonial and Republican periods was declared part of the world's cultural heritage by UNESCO. Its monuments, churches, monasteries, collections, art treasures and iconography constitute a wealth of different styles and forms of artistic expression in a microcosm of unusual sociological diversity.

Unfortunately, urban development in and around Quito has sparked a range of problems which have made living conditions increasingly difficult and the conservation of its cultural wealth a constant struggle.

Quito's population has increased from 100,000 in 1939 to over 1 million today and the city today is congested, polluted and teeming with auto and pedestrian traffic. The walls of the city's historic buildings are covered with layers of greasy, acidic smog. The ancient streets have become depots for piles of rotting household garbage.

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SOURCE: UNESCO Sources, July/August, 1992.

· The massive volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines, in June 1991, may be contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer worldwide. This possibility is based on the hypothesis that volcanic eruptions intensify ozone loss by spewing forth sulfur-based aerosols which react in the stratosphere in a similar manner as chlorofluorocarbons.

SOURCE: Scientific American, March, 1992.

· In 1980, there were some 220 million contraceptive users in developing countries, or 38 to 40 percent of married women of reproductive age (MWRA), By 1990, there were 380 million users, or 51 percent of MWRA. (This progress in population control shows what can be done and what is being done.) Despite such progress, however, the press of population growth continues to threaten future generations. French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau put the population crisis in perspective at the recent Earth Summit when he said, "even if we found a way to feed this human tidal wave, it would be impossible to provide this multitude with decent living conditions. Surviving like rats is not what we should bequeath to our children and grandchildren."

SOURCE: Populi, July/August, 1992.

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SOURCE: Tingled/London Free Press/Ontario.

· Iran's current population of 5 7 million is expected to reach 130 million by the year 2010 and could possibly leap to 900 million by the year 2080. While birth control pills are readily available and inexpensive, women still need the benefit of a massive education program. For every literate woman in Iran there are two who remain illiterate.

SOURCE: The Middle East, July, 1992.

· Wind generates electricity at 5c per kilowatt-hour, which covers the initial cost plus operation and repair. An oil-burning plant pays that much for fuel alone.

SOURCE: Des Moines Register, October 18, 1922.

· The large remaining tract of primary forest in West Africa, the Tai National Park in the Cote d'Ivoire, is in serious danger. Cocoa and rice planters, poachers and gold diggers, who depend on the park's resources for their livelihood, are wreaking havoc on the flora and fauna of this supposedly "protected" biosphere reserve.

There are only 61 rangers for surveillance duties in this large forest... less than one ranger to patrol 8,000 hectares.

SOURCE: UNESCO Sources, July/August, 1992.

· Environmental analysts look to the history of island cultures because they tend to reveal how the environment and humans respond when burgeoning populations put stress on an isolated ecosystem.

Easter Island in the Pacific provides a cautionary example. When Europeans first landed there in 1722, they found 3,000 Polynesians living in extremely primitive conditions on the island amid the remnants of a once flourishing culture. The story of Easter Island is one of ecological collapse that began around the year 1600, when a swollen population of 7,000 stripped the island of trees, depriving inhabitants of building materials for fishing boats and housing. As the populace retreated to caves, various clans warred over resources, then enslaved and later cannibalized the vanquished. By the time Europeans arrived, the beleaguered survivors had forgotten the purpose of the great stone heads erected during Easter Island's glory days.

SOURCE: Time, Fall 1992.

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SOURCE: Time, Fall 1992.

Recycling gets a boost

Twenty-five U.S. companies have formed the Buy Recycled Business Alliance to encourage recycling. The rate materials are recycled in the USA:

SOURCE: U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

· Like the rest of the planet, Antarctica is being adversely affected by human activity.

Airborne pollutants originating in the Northern Hemisphere have been detected in increasing amounts in the Antarctic atmosphere which now shows significant concentrations of carbon dioxide, halocarbons, sulphur dioxide and various radioactive substances. Research on the Antarctic's ice cores shows levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increasing over the last century from about 260 parts per million (ppm) to over 345 ppm.

The appearance of a hole in the protective atmospheric ozone layer over the South Pole has also received wide attention. This year the hole has increased 15 percent, the size of the North American continent. The effect of ozone depletion on polar marine life may prove to be widespread if, for instance, increased radiation diminishes the production of plankton which forms the basis for the Antarctic food chain.

This fragile polar environment is especially vulnerable to human activity because biological processes occur slowly and on a small scale, thus making regeneration difficult. Scientific research stations disturb the natural habitat of plants and animals via construction, waste production and fuel spills. Stress from repeated visits of tourists and researchers has been specifically blamed for the reduction of penguins at the Cape Royds Adelie penguin rookery.

Agenda 21, the action plan adopted at The Earth Summit in Rio last June recognizes the need to preserve and protect the Antarctic environment which plays a critical role in the Earth's climatic equilibrium.

SOURCE: UN Focus: Environment.

Voices For The Planet

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber." Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Sector

The Military's Impact on the Environment?

At least 200,000 squared kilometers... 2 percent of total U.S. territory... is devoted to military purposes. Direct military land use in Western Europe is estimated at 1 to 3 percent of the total land mass.

The U.S. Department of Defense consumes 2 to 3 percent of total U.S. energy demand and 3 to 4 percent of oil demand. In 12 months the U.S. military consumes enough energy to run the entire U.S. urban mass transit system for almost 14 years.

During the 1980s the U.S. military generated, on average, about 450,000 tons of toxic waste annually, more than the top five U.S. chemical companies combined.

Since the 1940s the U.S. has spent close to $300 billion (in 1990 dollars) on designing, testing and manufacturing nuclear warheads. Over that time, approximately 60,000 warheads were produced in a complex of more than 100 facilities in 32 states, employing some 600,000 workers. About 100 tons of weapon grade plutonium and 500 tons of highly enriched uranium are either currently stored or assembled in weapons.

The Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences determined in 1989 that residents of Semipalatinsk, near the main former Soviet nuclear test bomb site in Kazakhstan, had experienced excess cancers, genetic diseases and child mortality because of radiation exposure from earlier atmospheric tests. In 1988 the Soviet medical researchers reported an incidence of cancer in the area that was 70 percent above the national average.

"The story of military spending is one of great tragedy." Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica

· Decade of Decision, a video narrated by renowned American broadcaster Walter Cronkite, examines the linkages between population and environmental problems. Produced by the United States-based Population Crisis Committee, it is intended for use by citizen activists. Running time, 12:50 minutes; priced at $15.00 US/$20.00 US overseas. Available in VHS format, and only in NTSC, from: Population Crisis Committee, Publications Dept., Suite 550, 1120 19th Street, N.W., Washington. D.C. 20036 USA.

· At a recent Global Environmental Investment Conference in New York, Prince Alfred von Liechtenstein, President of Center for the Study of the Future, emphasized the importance of local and regional economic development. He stressed the importance of developing local enterprises rather than relying on outside involvement as a guide for achieving sustainable development.

· World Information Transfer has opened the first Center for Environmental Sustainability Studies on 27 Chervonoarmiyska, Suite 22 in Kiev, Ukraine under the Direction of Dr. Andriy O. Demydenko, Chief of Environmental Education in the Ministry of Environment in Ukraine. The Center will focus on the study of the relationship between economic and political policy and the effect of these policies on all aspects of the environment. The Center will bring together leaders from government, business, education and the media to explore and discuss regional policy alternatives to achieve sustainable development. An aggressive program of information gathering and dissemination will be pursued through a comprehensive series of conferences, teleconferences and symposia, all of which will be focused on the search for solutions. WIT chose Eastern Europe as the first site for such a center because Eastern Europe has some unique characteristics which will make it an ideal "laboratory" for formulating environmentally sustainable policy, namely: Eastern European economies have elements of both free market economies and controlled economics; living standards are somewhere between those of the industrialized West and those of less developed countries; governmental institutions are evolving and hence offer unprecedented opportunities for innovative political and economic initiatives; finally, Eastern Europe represents, perhaps, the world's best example of what unregulated economic growth can do to damage a regional environment. The Center will function as a forum for dialogue on economic, social and political policies that support environmental Sustainability in future development programs.

· The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has begun a new initiative to promote private sector involvement in basic education for the developing world. For example, Rotary Club International started a program in Zimbabwe for primary and secondary school teachers who need training in English. In Argentina, employees of local business go into primary level classrooms to teach business concepts directly to children. Other examples of such endeavors can be sent to UNDP's Human Resources Group, Attn: Jafar Javan, One UN Plaza, DC1-2041, New York. NY 10017.

SOURCE: UNDP Update, Volume 5, Number 17, August 24, 1992.

WIT SPEAKERS BUREAU WIT has expert speakers who can address your company, club or organization on various aspects of the environment. Call or write the WIT office for information or reservations. HOW YOU CAN HELP WIT is a non-profit international, nongovernmental organization, recognized by the United Nations dedicated to the promotion of environmental literacy among opinion leaders and concerned citizens around the world. You can help us in our important work with donations of rime and money.

"International economic security is inconceivable unless related not only to the disarmament but also to the elimination of the threat to the world's environment." Mikhail Gorbachev

Point of View: The Psychic Origins of War

Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis, postulated that the human psyche is driven by two forces... the life force (Eros) and the death drive. Certainly, an examination of our society supports Freud's view that these psychic forces supersede all others in their power and significance.

The death drive expresses itself in acts of hostility, in hate, in cruel behavior and in violence committed on an individual and/or collective level. Eros, expresses itself in feelings of love, gratitude and appreciation and in acts of assistance, support and charity. Within individuals, and indeed within groups of individuals, these forces are always dynamically interacting with one another in ways that profoundly impact human behavior, and by extension, the conduct of nations.

The powerful desire to be loved represents the child's overwhelming and constant needs that can never be fully met. The loved child learns to tolerate small amounts of frustration which can be increased as the child grows. As the child learns to delay gratification and tolerate frustration while receiving unconditional love and support, the child grows into a mature, giving adult who can empathize with others. Thus, the child gives up the insatiable need for love that is the cornerstone of childhood narcissism.

Regrettably, few adults have been reared in this manner, so we see them continuously searching throughout their adult lives to fulfill the unmet needs of early childhood. These needs now deeply imbedded in the unconscious of the adult, drive behavior that results, directly and indirectly, in enormous human suffering as striving for power and conquest replace the unmet need for love. Jealousy and envy, hatred and prejudice, cruelty, violence and ultimately war are individual and collective results.

In their wish to satisfy these immature needs, people often devastate the world. These unmet and immature needs often manifest themselves in destructive behavior toward others, which in turn leads to acts of cruelty and violence. If a person's immature and insatiable need to be loved is sufficiently frustrated that individual may ultimately (driven by rage) turn to acts of wanton violence. If that person happens to rise to a position of power, he or she may ultimately enlist an entire nation to their "psychological crusade" and plunge that nation and other nations into war.

A recent example of this mechanism can be seen in the acts of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein which superficially appear irrational. A review, however, of Hussein's history will demonstrate that his adult behavior is merely an extension of a major unfulfilled need in his childhood, when he was brought up by a military uncle.

No better example of this mechanism exists, however, than in the life of Adolf Hilter, whose childhood and his emotional reaction to it, coupled with peculiar historical developments, plunged the entire world into war. This process has been exhaustively researched and convincingly presented in a book by Dr. Alice Miller which we would recommend to our readers: "For Your Own Good; Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and The Roots of Violence" (New American Library, New York, New York, 1983).

Hypothetically, if the human need for insatiable love is satisfied, the destructive force can be modified in its expression and a fusion of these two psychological forces can be achieved. Our cultural drive for self-determination and growth would then correspond with our biological drive for development toward independence and self reliance.

A moral society where each child would be assured of loving, caring and attentive parents during its first three or four years of live - unhampered by the needs of other siblings - may very well be the cornerstone that is needed to prevent a continuation of our heritage of war and conflict.

World Information Transfer, Inc.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed its the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead