Watching the World
“Last War”?
◆ After stating that the Vietnam war was in the process of ending, President Nixon said: “In fact, I seriously doubt if we will ever have another war. This is probably the very last one.” Long ago another American President, Woodrow Wilson, said that World War I was “a war to end war.”
More Madness
◆ After a bomb blasted part of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., columnist Stewart Alsop commented: “One begins to wonder if even the end of the [Vietnam] war will end the epidemic of irrationality in this country. The mad, like the poor, we have always had with us, but there seems to be more of them today than ever before, and their madness seems to be a disease that feeds upon itself.”
Technology Alienating Mankind
◆ Modern society, with its emphasis on technological progress and making money, is alienating people from one another, said Dr. Wilson Head, Canadian social science professor. He stated that in spite of affluence, people are not happy, and added: “We’re directionless, rudderless and not sure where we’re going.”
Land Ruined
◆ The Atomic Energy Commission said that nineteen years of nuclear explosions at its Nevada test site have rendered an area of 1,350 square miles unfit for public use in the foreseeable future.
Nuclear Waste Increasing
◆ Atomic power plants generate dangerous radioactive wastes, which are stored in underground tanks. But some tanks are expected to corrode in about twenty to thirty years, though the wastes within them can remain deadly for centuries. Already tank failures and accidents have released hundreds of gallons of such waste into the ground. Arthur Tamplin of the AEC stated: “We really don’t know what to do with wastes today. We haven’t devised the systems. And we’re starting to produce wastes at an ever-increasing rate.”
Clam Beds Polluted
◆ At present, federal pollution-control laws apply within a three-mile limit along the east coast of the United States. But much sewage from large cities is taken by barge beyond that and dumped in relatively shallow water. In one area twelve miles off New Jersey, this has caused such pollution that the government forbids clams to be taken in a twelve-mile circle of ocean there.
Orbiting Trash
◆ About 2,000 man-made objects are orbiting the earth. These are artificial satellites, or pieces of them, launched mainly by the United States and the Soviet Union. One United States missile launched in 1965 exploded and shattered into 426 pieces, of which 130 have rained back into the atmosphere. One piece of a Russian Cosmos satellite that fell in Oklahoma during 1970 weighed 240 pounds.
The “Judas Medicine”
◆ A New York Times editorial in February stated: “Blood becomes a Judas medicine when it contains the hepatitis virus that can sicken or even kill the patient it is supposed to help. The menace has become greater recently with the spread of drug addiction since the use of unsterile needles by groups of drug addicts makes them particularly liable to hepatitis, . . . The commercial blood bank which buys blood from impoverished donors—among whom narcotics addicts are likely to be numerous—is the channel through which most of this Judas medicine becomes available for use in unsuspecting patients.”
Penicillin Risk
◆ Hailed as a ‘wonder drug’ for years, penicillin is now known to be a killer also. It is estimated that in the United States about 600 persons a year die from allergic reactions to it. American Academy of Allergy researchers believe they have found a test that can predetermine who is allergic.
Smoking Kills
◆ The president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Lord Rosenheim, stated flatly: “The stark truth is that cigarette smokers are twice as likely to die in middle age as non-smokers.”
Cigarette Production Rises
◆ In 1970 the number of cigarettes produced in the United States increased by 17.4 thousand million over 1969. That brought the total produced during the year to 575 thousand million.
Heart Disease Toll
◆ Medical authorities in Toronto labeled heart disease Canada’s biggest killer, taking 75,000 lives a year and disabling many times that number. It was said that persons who are overfed, who get little or no exercise, who tend toward being emotionally upset, as well as those who smoke, are more prone toward heart ailments.
Life Begins at 40?
◆ In Africa the average life expectancy is only 35 years. In Asia, it is from 40 to 50 in several developing countries, as it is in Latin America. A United Nations report noted that in Gabon, on Africa’s west coast, the life-span of males averages only 25 years.
More Marriages Breaking Up
◆ All over the world, divorce rates are going up. Ten years ago the rate in the United States was one out of every four marriages. Now it is one out of three. The last two years have seen a 25-percent increase. Thus, family breakdown gathers speed.
Runaway Wives
◆ After World War II, about four American wives ran away from home compared to 100 husbands who did the same. Today, the percentage of wives leaving home has tripled. Most are mothers between the ages of 35 and 50, bored with marriage and housekeeping. However, about half of all runaway wives return home, showing that disappointment with their new ‘freedom’ is even greater.
School Vandalism Growing
◆ Authorities in Canada are alarmed at the swiftly rising tide of school vandalism. Five years ago, it cost $10,000 to repair damage caused by vandals to Toronto’s 136 schools. Last year, the cost jumped to $200,000, an increase of almost 2,000 percent. Of the frenzied destruction caused in one case a police officer said: “It was like the set of a bombed-out building, straight out of a war movie.” Most vandals were boys between the ages of 10 and 15, many from ‘respectable’ middle-class families.