What Earth’s Tenants Have Done

“We have probed the earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, leveled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago.”​—Rose Bird, chief justice of the California Supreme Court.

Recent Headlines Pile Up the Evidence

A FLOOD OF HOT WASTE

“An ominous question: how to dispose of the rising flood of radioactive waste? . . . buried wastes will remain radioactive for thousands of years,” some “for a quarter of a million years.”

TOXIC WASTES ARE DAMAGING AMERICANS’ HEALTH

“More ‘Love Canals’ to come in an American future increasingly clouded by chemicals dangerous to public health.”

SOVIET CONSERVATION: A BEAR WITH NO CLAWS

“Nearly 10 per cent of the habitable territory of the Soviet Union has already been laid waste by environmental pollution.”

POLLUTION ENVELOPS MADRID

“In a single week, 700 persons with respiratory or cardiovascular ailments are believed to have died from the effects of the oppressive smog.”

POLLUTION STALKS THE MEDITERRANEAN

“The Mediterranean, in fact, is well on the way to becoming a vast open sewer.

DEFORESTATION AND DISASTER [IN BRAZIL]

“Many once plentiful plants and birds are gone, and human beings who live there are disfigured by skin cancer.”

GROWING DESERTS A THREAT TO MILLIONS

“Deserts are creeping outward in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas because of unsound use of land.”

NORWAY’S KILLER [ACID] RAIN

“The acid originates all over Europe, from as far west as Belfast and as far east as Moscow.”

TOXIC SMOKE CHOKES MEXICO CITY

“A recent report on Mexico’s air pollution said it was ‘an indirect cause in the death of 150,000 children each year’ and ‘seriously affects 175,000 adults each year.”’

DIOXIN TURNS UP IN THE GREAT LAKES

“A series of reports in Canada and in the United States is establishing the Great Lakes Basin as the most heavily polluted area in the Western world.”

FREE USE OF PESTICIDES IN GUATEMALA TAKES A DEADLY TOLL

During the 90-day cotton-growing period “we treat 30 or 40 people a day for pesticide poisoning.”

KARACHI FACES WATER POLLUTION CRISIS

“Drinking water in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and main port, is heavily polluted by untreated sewage and industrial waste.”

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE DANGERS OF LEAD POLLUTION

“Lead is responsible for subtle damage to children’s brains.”

SUPERBUGS

“Insects once decimated by pesticides have developed immunities enabling them to multiply at a fantastic pace.”

SPERM FOUND ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TO ENVIRONMENT

“Miscarriages, defects, infertility linked to damage by toxins.”

USE OF FOSSIL FUEL CALLED THREAT TO WORLD CLIMATE

“A carbon dioxide buildup over the next 200 years could lead to dramatic changes in the earth’s climate, . . . the floating Arctic ice pack would melt.”

NO OFFSHORE OIL SPILL HAS EVER BEEN CLEANED UP TO ANY SIGNIFICANT EXTENT

“Marine organisms . . . accumulate oil hydrocarbons in their tissues. These fish and shellfish pose a public health hazard because some of these hydrocarbons are carcinogenic.”

EXPOSURE TO NOISE FOUND TO POSE NEW HEALTH RISKS

“Linked not only to loss of hearing, but also to high blood pressure, nervous disorders, learning problems, insomnia, underweight newborn babies and perhaps even some forms of heart disease.”

POLLUTION OF OCEANS IS ENORMOUS THREAT

“But few people care; ‘business as usual,’ pending annihilation.”

REPORT URGES GLOBAL ACTION ON RESOURCES

“Time is running out for international action to prevent a starving, overcrowded, polluted, resource-poor world.”