TEXT 8
The industrialized nations of the world still appear determined to continue on a collision course with environmental reality. Faced with a sudden increase in the price of petroleum set by the principal oil-producing countries, and with the inevitable exhaustion of this resoaurce in the nondistant future, little effort has been made to restrict petroleum consumption. Instead all-out efforts are being pursued to find and develop new petroleum reserves, with little concern for environmental safeguards. New impetus has been given to gouging the face of the earth with strip mining for coal, oil shale, or the development of tar sands. Great new fleets of monster supertankers, built with little concern for safety of control are being launched to haul oil around the world's oceans. Concern for the safety of humanity and the biosphere is being set aside in a new rush to develop nuclear power as a substitute for petroleum and coal ― and the problem created by nuclear wastes and the needs for safeguards are of serious magnitude. Alternative, safe sources of energy are receiving little attention, nor are people facing up to the need for revising what are basically unviable ways of life in favor of some more satisfying and enduring alternatives.
Surface mining often disturbs other resources. In many instances, timber is removed, wildlife habitat disrupted, natural streams diverted or contaminated, roads are built in undisturbed' areas, and holes drilled. There is also the question of whether the initial mining operation will reduce our mineral-resource basin by interfering with or precluding entirely the ultimate recovery of other underlying minerals. The demand for land to support both urban growth and mineral development (particularly sand and grave) also creates serious- social and political questions in denselypopulated areas. In addition, when reclamation is contemplated, disagreements often occur as to the type of land use that will contribute most to society.
Tourists from industrialized nations traveling through rural Asia and Oceania smile at the local use of paddy husks, coconut shells, jute sticks and cow dung for heating and cooking. Yet their own children's may have to resort to such fuels because of drastic energy shortages. Fossil fuels, we must remember, are non-renewable resources and once burned, they've gone forever.
During the history of humanity, people have made many mistakes in their relationships to the world they live in. Our ancestors, however, were able to postpone the day of reckoning. They were able to seek present, profit without too much concern for its future effects. There were many who said, "Let posterity worry about it". You are the posterity they were talking about. During your lifetime you must find answers to this question: How can human beings continue to live on planet Earth without destroying the environment on which their lives depend? Sustainable ways of life must be discovered. Destructive ways of life must be abandoned. Without these there will be no posterity.