VOL. 50, No. 2 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, FEBRUARY 1969

Man in the Balance of Nature

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO disturbed about pollution of airand water ? It is not simply because they have becomemore refined and aesthetic, but because they begin torealize that we have reached a critical point in humanhabitation of the earth.

As far back as 1947 the question before a conferenceat Princeton University was "the fate of man".Would he go the way of the dodo and the dinosaur ?Or would he take his destiny in his own hands andmake a better creature of himself? Opinion wasdivided.

There was no split of opinion at the UNESCOheadquarters in Paris last year when more than twohundred experts from fifty countries met in con-ference. Within twenty years, they decided, life on ourplanet will be showing the first signs of succumbingto pollution: the atmosphere will become unbreathablefor men and animals; life will cease in rivers and lakes;plants will wither from poisoning.

This opinion was made public following the Inter-Governmental Conference of Experts on the ScientificBases for the Rational Utilisation and Conservationof Biospheric Resources.

The biosphere is the part of the earth and itsatmosphere which contains living things. In this layer,only a few miles thick, man is creating far-reachingimbalances. He threatens the stability of his ownecology by destroying resources and burdening hisenvironment with the waste products of his ownactivities.

The biosphere is so immensely complicated that itsworkings are imperfectly understood, but it is knownthat any interaction of factors, however insignificant,can produce repercussions whose chains often spancontinents or even girdle the earth.

After commenting on the damage done by swiftdepletion of minerals and forests, the report of theUNESCO Conference in the Manchester Guardiangoes on: "As cities spread in monstrous fashion theproblem of refuse inherent in urban life attains thesize of an insoluble problem. Carbon dioxide and all

the host of air-borne industrial wastes are fouling theatmosphere and poisoning fresh water. In the lasttwenty years the whole process has been acceleratingat a crazy speed."

What shall we do ?

We must be willing to ask such questions as "Whatis the meaning of life? What is our relationship witheverything around us ? What shall we do in the shortstretch between birth and death to preserve andimprove our inheritance?" We need the courage toask such questions--as the UNESCO Conferencedid -- with respect and seriousness, and the gumptionto do what the answers tell us to do.

There is no better way of giving our lives thedimension of depth than by identifying ourselves asimportant factors in the balance of nature and puttingour weight on the side of conserving what is good,correcting what is wrong, and progressing to some-thing higher in the scale. We were put upon Earth,according to the Book of Genesis, "to dress it and tokeep it."

But man has become a prober and a meddler. Fire,the axe, the plow, fire-arms and the bulldozer havebeen the fundamental tools of our modern culture.We have spurned the fact that Nature is a total of theconditions and principles which influence the existenceof living things. Her laws were so contrived thatland, water, plants and animals should, and undernatural conditions do, exist in harmony and inter-dependence for perpetual productiveness.

Nature has been at work for a great many millionsof years to get things as they are. Cause and effectare tied together like stones in a well-built wall.Without careful investigation you never can tellwhich is a keystone, the removal of which will bringdown a large section of the structure in ruin.

Man is only a comparatively small element in thismassive system. As Anthony Tucker put it in hisreport of the UNESCO Conference: "The systemdeveloped without him, determined his evolution,and shaped his dependence on life cycles which in

turn were already dependent upon complex livingand chemical relationships in a relatively stableenvironment." It is imperative to his survival thatman should recognize his animal nature and livewithin the boundaries set by his organic world.

Throughout history one species after another ofanimal and plant has disappeared from the earth, andone culture after another has passed to oblivion, be-cause of inability to adjust to environmental change.

Nature’s laws

We are, then, an integral part of our environment."Nature" embraces all existing things -- fields, oceans,mountains, forests, deserts, the wild creatures.., andhuman beings. We are part of it, and we must live inconcert with it.

Our discovery of nature’s laws does not meanentering a state of slavery. On the contrary, once weknow what they are we can learn to co-operate withthem, and by so co-operating increase our ownfreedom within them. Take fire as an example: welearned far back in our aboriginal state that fire burnsyou if you touch it, not to punish you, but becausethat is the natural law of fire. From there we went onto use fire for our useful purposes within the boundsof its law.

Ecology is the science concerned with the relation ofliving things to their environment, and with thefactors which influence that environment. It is anexpression of the realization that man must give overtrying to mould the rest of the natural world to hiswishes without adequate understanding of the lawsthat govern it.

What are some of the things needful to know? Thesubject is so vast that no human mind has everfathomed all its secrets, but the basic principles arebecoming known. First and foremost is the lesson sohard to learn: that Nature is the expression of adefinite order with which nothing interferes success-fully, and that the chief business of men is to learnthat order and govern themselves accordingly.

Consider our disregard for plant life. The green leafpigment, called chlorophyll, is the sole link betweenthe sun and life: it is the conduit of energy to our frailorganisms. Every plant, even the most humble, evenalgae, the simplest form in the vegetable kingdom, is aspecialist, adapted by its habit of growth and itsspecial requirement for light and moisture, to growbest in its preferred environment, and there to fulfil itsdestiny in serving Nature’s purpose.

Let disaster strike the microscopic plants upon whichthe tier of life is built, and whole organizations willcome tumbling down. The forces we set in motion tocarry out our great projects move out to affect thelives of other creatures, and come back to act upon us.

Our worst conservation problems owe their existencelargely to our short-sighted preoccupation with ourimmediate affairs, our personal lives, our ignorance ofour place in the balance of nature. A person who has

once perceived the greatness of nature’s smallestcreature or flower, can no longer be happy if heallows himself to be petty, self-seeking, and greedy inhis dealings with Nature.

Because there are men and women who have notreceived this vision, it is necessary to have man-madelaws to enforce the laws of nature.

Why should anti-pollution regulations raise ob-jections? Do they restrict our freedom, that word socherished in democracies ? So do traffic laws and sig-nals, which limit the freedom of action of the driverof the automobile. None the less, intelligent driversgladly obey the regulations, even when there is nopoliceman at the corner to enforce them, because theyknow that in the absence of such organization oftraffic their freedom to move in a chosen directionwould be enormously more impeded by traffic jamsand accidents.

On a higher scale than enforcement by law is theself-regulation taught to Boy Scouts: always leave thecamping ground better than you find it. There areunwritten laws observed by woodsmen and mountainclimbers: not to kill a porcupine or a fool hen unlessthere is no other food to be had, always replenish thewood-pile at a shelter hut to at least the size it waswhen you took shelter there.

Something about meddling

Meddling with small parts of a related wholeproduces evil consequences. Whatever we do inaltering nature must be done in full awareness ofNature’s reactions to and on ourselves.

For lack of adequate knowledge, much of ourmanipulation is based on technological criteria with-out thought of its over-all biological results. Some ofthis tampering starts a chain of events that upsets thebalance of nature with destructive effects.

Consider the undisputed facts of life in the soil.These facts were studied by the UNESCO Conferenceand reported by Mr. Tucker. Something like fortybillion tons of vegetable material are made anddestroyed on the earth every year. The mass of landanimals and smaller organisms amounts to less thanone per cent of the vegetation. Of this tiny "zoomass"(which includes man) some 95 per cent consists invertebrate organisms with crucial roles in thedecomposition processes of the life cycle. Since theyform an essential part of the natural capital it isutterly profligate to bring about their mass destructionthrough indiscriminate use of such things as non-selective pesticides.

Irresponsible chemical eradication of weed andinsect pests presents not only a serious threat to wild-life conservation but holds out the danger of con-tamination to human beings. A pesticide, possiblyused to kill rats in a wheat field, was blamed for thedeath of seventeen children in Mexico. Alfalfa thathad been sprayed with DDT was fed to cows by

scientists. The cream was churned to butter, the butterwas fed to rats, and the still toxic DDT was found intheir body fat in substantial amounts.

Our poisoned water

What use is it to make a fetish of cleanliness of thebody, of hair, of teeth, if we continue to pour sewageinto rivers, thence to be carried inside our bodies ?

In one midwestern city in the United States, asJohn H. Storer tells us in The Web of Life, tests ofthe city’s water showed that during the period of lowwater in the winter it was one-half straight sewage.

Water, the most important natural resource, can bethe medium for the transmission of germs and toxicsubstances. The World Health Organization reportsthat about five million children die every year fromintestinal diseases caused by water.

There is a point at which the rivers themselves rebel.The load of poisons from city sewers, factories,slaughter-houses and farm lands becomes unsupport-able. These kill the cleansing plants, use up the puri-fying oxygen in the water, and clog up the filteringgravel.

Once the mass of pollution exceeds a certain amount,animal and vegetable life disappears; the river dies.

To clean up our lakes and rivers we must deal withmany types of man-made pollutants: detergents,fertilizers, insecticides, weed-killers, sewage, industrialwaste, and hundreds of other products. This clean-updoes not involve primarily treatment, but prevention,and some movement is being made in that directionby municipalities and industries.

Our lakes are dying. The United States publichealth service has warned shippers in Lake Erie thatwater within five miles of the shoreline should not beused for drinking or cooking. This stretch of near-shore water is so polluted that even boiling or chlorina-tion will not remove the contamination. Farther out,pollution has stimulated the growth of vegetation,using up oxygen, so that a large expanse of dead waterhas developed.

In 1965, Dr. G. B. Langford, F.R.S.C., Director ofthe Great Lakes Institute, University of Toronto,concluded a report The Great Lakes and TheirProblems in this way: "Governments in the UnitedStates are facing up to the situation much morerealistically than are those in Canada. The insignificantsupport of research in the Great Lakes by the govern-ments of Canada stands in sharp contrast to what ourneighbours are doing. An unbiased observer wouldwonder if we actually share these lakes, for we do notshare the responsibility of saving them from thepending disaster."

Our polluted air

Hamlet put it this way: "This most excellent canopy,the air, this brave o’erhanging firmament.., appeareth

nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregationof vapours."

Today we seem to look upon smog and air pollutionas incidents of urban life, until a public health disastersuch as the death of 4,000 people in London’s smog in1952 calls our attention to the fact that this can be akilling negligence.

At least a hundred air pollutants have been identi-fied, and their interaction produces others.

The cost of air pollution in Canada has beenestimated at from $20 to $65 per person, depending onwhere he lives. This is for laundering, painting,cleaning of buildings, filtering of air, and doctors’ bills.

But cost and loss in dollars and cents do not tell thewhole story. Air pollution constitutes a serious hazardto health. Atmosphere pollution has been found tolower resistance to disease, to reduce vitality, and toincrease sickness. Relatively low levels of air pollutionmay be involved in the development of chronicdegenerative diseases, including skin and lung cancer,heart and vascular disorders, and chronic bronchitis.Paul Kotin, of the University of California, hasestablished that several of the organic compoundsproduced by the combustion of gasoline and dieseloil are carcinogenic.

The best means of preventing combustion-causedpollution is simple: use better combustion equipment.This improvement should be insisted upon by thosewho have the responsibility for community welfareand hold the legal power to enforce it.

Restoring the balance

Some people who have not thought seriously aboutthe matter shy away from the word "conservation"under the misapprehension that it means "stop using".Resource conservation is fundamentally nothing morethan wise use of our resources in accordance with thelaws of nature.

Personal conscience is the beginning of any effectiveconservation effort. A Washington State SupremeCourt decision reads: "An unwritten compact betweenthe dead, the living, and the unborn requires that weleave the unborn something more than debts anddepleted natural resources."

Nature maintained her balance for millions of years,but she is now up against something new. All otherparticipants in nature live by habit and instinct butmen try to manage things, to force things into newways. Their conceited and arrogant interference hasbrought about the deterioration in living conditionswhich alarms us, the extinction of many animals andplants, and the defilement of air and water.

Now that their continued existence is shown to beat stake men are called upon to rethink many things,to relearn lessons long forgotten, and to get back onthe right road.

Our research and its findings and the lessons itteaches give hope to a world as yet largely unconscious

of the gravity of its situation. Scientists and researchpeople do not make laws, but discover them. The lawsof nature are there, and scientists find them so thatwe may obey them.

This involves a new duty: communication. Thefacts of the balance of nature and man’s part in itmust be presented to the people of all countries inunderstandable terms¯ By this means scientists canplace the decision about these grave issues in theproper hands¯

No municipal, provincial or national effort topreserve the balance of nature can be effective unlessit is pressed for and adequately supported by informedpublic opinion. Every citizen need not be an expert inthis or that branch of science, but he should knowwhat the scientists are talking about, what the tech-nicians are doing, and what his elected governmentsshould be doing.

What could be a higher ideal than that of an intelli-gent informed citizenry with an attitude towardnature that is based upon an understanding andknowledge of man’s dependence on his total environ-ment? An effective programme with this end in viewis being carried out by the 4-H Clubs in Canada. Byintelligent and sympathetic guidance, these youngpeople are learning conservation as a way of life.

Redemption

We have disregarded our place in the balance ofnature for long enough, and we are face to face withour man-made conflict between the principle of free-dom to use up and the principle of husbandry to usewisely and replenish. We can imagine the trees andthe wild creatures and the earth itself watching andlistening, alive and aware, holding their breaths inanticipation of what their human neighbours will dowith their common heritage.

We face the hard task of putting natural forces towork in restoration and redemption. We need to dealwith the necessary steps one at a time and withreasonable judgment.

Government programmes are being established, butat a snail’s pace. They cannot succeed until they areenlarged to match the size of the problems, and untilcitizens are ready to pay the huge bill which we havealready incurred by our assaults on the quality of ourenvironment.

Political and geographical boundaries must not beallowed to impede the national effort. The first con-servation duty of a city is to clean itself, and fastidiouscitizens will see that it does so. Then it must workhand-in-hand with adjoining municipalities, for howcan people close their minds to the fact that much ofthe water flowing from their kitchen taps has alreadypassed through other people’s drains? Counties andtownships and provinces are interlinked in any honestattempt to restore the balance of nature.

All of these divisions need to give attention toanother aspect of nature. Our country-side is becoming

Authorized as second class mall by the Post Office Department,Ottawa, and for payment for postage in cash.

wearied with the constant encroachment of factoriesand housing developments. Men pleading speciousneeds violate parks, forests and wildernesses. Theyruin for all time what the time of man on earth cannotreplace.

We need people rich enough in understanding andimagination, and strong enough in fibre, to insist thatadequate forests and outdoor space be left to beadmired, not destroyed. Unless natural outdoor spacesremain, young people are denied their instinctivewanderings. Trapped in city corridors, enmeshed insprawling suburbs, empty of heart, mind and hand,cheated of experiences that are by nature necessary tothem, they will turn their energies to protest and toevil.

When a young person goes for a stroll or paddleshis canoe in a nature park he realizes that he is notmerely an observer of nature, but a part of nature.His troubles grow petty, not because they are unreal,but because they dissolve within the larger plan.

A value judgment

Man, part of nature, has become enticed into anearly fatal illusion: that his skills in science andtechnology make him independent of the laws ofnature.

He spread insecticides without examining intowhether they would be fatal to birds and beneficialinsects and might kill people. He poured millions ofpounds of detergents into rivers before learning thatthey polluted the water¯ He allowed lakes to die ofoxygen starvation. He contributed to the deadlinessof smog by floating noxious substances into the air.

What is required is a value judgment which com-pares the known risks with the anticipated benefits.This is where conscience and intelligence enter thescene. Said Barry Commoner in his powerful articleentitled "Pollution: Time to Face the Consequences"in the mid-summer 1968 Think: "No scientific pro-cedure can tell us how many defective births fromfallout radiation we ought to tolerate for the sake ofa new nuclear weapon .... No scientific principle cantell us how to make the choice--which may beforced upon us by the insecticide problem- betweenthe shade of the elm tree and the song of the robin¯¯ . . The necessary judgments are therefore the re-sponsibility, not of scientists and technologists alone,but of all citizens."

Man emerged on this space ship Earth and is biolog-ically bound to it for ever. The message from theUNESCO Conference to world governments andpeople is that either they keep the space ship healthyor we die with it.

What is the paramount thing? To come to naturewith clean hands, unsoiled by spoilage, destructionand waste. This involves a great deal of governmentalwisdom, a lot of scientific research, and a lot ofengineering ingenuity. Behind all these must be thepressure of public demand.

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