Word: biologist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...through his sheer numbers. From an estimated 5,000,000 people 8,000 years ago, the world population rose to 1 billion by 1850, 2 billion about 1930, and now stands at 3.5 billion. Current projections run to 7 billion by the year 2000. Neo-Malthusians like Stanford Population Biologist Paul Ehrlich grimly warn that the biosphere cannot sustain that many people. As Ehrlich puts it: "There can only be death, war, pestilence and famine to reduce the number...
...famed French marine biologist, Alain Bombard, says that the sea can handle human sewage. "But," he adds, "this process of purification is easily and seriously disrupted by the introduction of the chemical byproducts of civilization." Near Marseille, a pair of big aluminum refineries each day discharge 6,000 tons of a red sediment into the Mediterranean. Though 80% of it funnels into a deep submarine trench, the remainder settles elsewhere on the bottom. "The problem," says Bombard, "is that this waste, though not toxic in itself, blankets and kills all living things. Moreover, this is an area where...
...Admiral Rufus Taylor explains: "We're not convinced that a chemical plant can control its effluents, or that any state agency or state laws can make it do so." One example that supports Taylor's claim is a small Tenneco chemical plant operating near Beaufort. A marine biologist recently sampled a downstream creek and found that the water was extremely acidic...
Meantime, several schools are planning their own teach-ins to lead up to the national day. The first teach-in will take place this week at Northwestern University. Because it will be first, "Project Survival" has attracted many leading scientists, including Biologist Barry Commoner, Population Expert Paul Ehrlich and Ecologist Lamont Cole. Northwestern's activists say they expect as many as 10,000 people to attend half-hour sessions throughout the night on such issues as the depletion of natural resources and the psychological problems of overcrowding. The organizers hope to awaken a public awareness that survival itself...
...OVERPOPULATION. Biologist Barry Commoner, the Washington University eco-activist, warned that current projections of six to eight billion people on earth (twice as many as now) presage global catastrophe "probably within the next generation." The upsurge, he said, will strain the earth's dwindling resources while endangering the stability of ecosystems that supply food, oxygen and water-the necessities of life. Technology can ease the pressure for now, added S. Fred Singer, a high official in the Interior Department, but the cost will be enormous-for example, between $43 billion and $66 billion just to curb U.S. water pollution...