A Prescription for World Survival

Emulating the U.S. President's annual State of the Union report to the American people, the United Nations this week issued its annual "state of the environment" report to the people of the world. Presented this year by Mostafa Kamal Tolba, an Egyptian microbiologist who is executive director of the U.N.'s Environment Program, the 15-page document acknowledges that there are some environmental success stories --in efforts to cut down oil pollution of the seas, clean up rivers, safeguard certain species of wildlife and prevent the misuse of pesticides. But the report focuses on four areas in which man's activities are proving hazardous to the environment and to life itself:

OZONE DESTRUCTION. The layer of ozone, a highly reactive form of oxygen, in the stratosphere absorbs much of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, protecting humans and other organisms from an overdose of these solar rays. But the layer is fragile, susceptible to a number of chemicals that convert ozone back into ordinary oxygen. According to the U.N. report, the widespread use of fluorocarbons as propellants for aerosol spray deodorants and other products may have already depleted the ozone layer by 1%, and could cut it by as much as 10% by the year 2050 unless the use of fluorocarbons is reduced.

The accelerating use of nitrogen fertilizers, which are converted by bacteria into nitrogen oxides that eventually rise into the stratosphere, could result in the destruction of as much as another 15% of the ozone layer. Most disastrous would be a large-scale nuclear war, which would blast enough nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere to reduce the ozone layer by as much as 70% for a period of from five to ten years. Even a slight increase in ultraviolet rays seems to cause a higher incidence of skin cancer, and a significant depletion of the ozone layer could cause far-reaching damage to plant and animal life and trigger drastic climatic changes.

CANCER. Some forms of cancer are caused by such natural factors as heredity and viruses. But many cancers are brought on--especially in the industrialized parts of the world--by environmental factors. As the U.N. report explains, the cancers "relate to the air people breathe or the water they drink, to the environment in which they work or live, to their personal diet or way of life." In industrialized societies, environmental factors have already been proved to be responsible for up to 40% of all human cancers; for example, doctors have found a high incidence of an otherwise rare form of lung cancer in workers exposed to asbestos, and are discovering another rare form of liver cancer among those who have worked with vinyl chloride. In 1958, a British physician named John Higginson was challenged by a skeptical scientific community when he suggested that 70% to 80% of all cancers are environmental in origin. Now many scientists suspect that the actual figure may be closer to 90%.

FIREWOOD SHORTAGES. While industrialized nations worry about dwindling oil supplies, a growing shortage of firewood is causing a "poor man's energy crisis" in the developing nations, where firewood is often the only available fuel. In India and in Africa south of the Sahara, firewood is in such short supply that villagers may travel up to 50 kilometers (more than 30 miles) to gather it and bring it home; in Niger, wood is so expensive that a laborer must spend nearly a quarter of his income on fuel. Elsewhere, the search for firewood is helping to create new deserts. Almost all the trees within 70 kilometers (44 miles) of Ouagadougou in Upper Volta have already been consumed as fuel by the city's inhabitants. Now the circle of naked land is expanding.

SOIL LOSS. The soil available for man to grow his crops is rapidly being frittered away by overcultivation, mismanagement and carelessness. Soil erosion may cost the world as much as 2.5 billion metric tons of soil a year, and has already reduced much of North Africa --once the Roman Empire's granary --to desert areas that must import most of their food. Improper irrigation, which can lead to salinization and waterlogging, is taking another 200,000 to 300,000 hectares (500,000 to 750,000 acres) of land out of production each year. As the world's population and demand for food rise, these soil losses become increasingly crucial.

The U.N. report notes that some countries have acted unilaterally to lessen the environmental ills that plague them. For example, it commends the U.S. for its actions to discourage use of fluorocarbons and to monitor workers' exposure to cancer-causing substances; it praises Pakistan for a massive reforestation program aimed at preventing soil erosion and the silting of dams and rivers. But it also warns that these unilateral moves are not enough to remove the threats to man's well-being and calls for international collaboration "on a scale not seen so far in the history of mankind" to save the environment from irreparable damage.

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