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Iozzi, Louis A.; And OthersPeople and En7ironmental Changes. [Student's Guide.]Preparing for Tomorrow's World.Rutgers, The State Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Centerfor Coastal and Environmental Studies.New Jersey State Dept. of Education, Trenton.8077p.; For related documents, see SE 041 564-585. Acomplete catalog of the multi-media packages makingup this program is contained in SE 041 585.SOPRIS WEST, Inc., 1120 Delaware Ave., Longmont, CO80501 (Complete multi-media module, including studentmaterials, $75; replacement student worksheets,$2).Guides Classroom Use Materials (For Learner)(051)

EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.DESCRIPTORS *Change; Climate; Critical Thinking; Decision Making;

*Environmental Educat.ion; Environmental Influences;*Futures (of Society); High Schools;Interdisciplinary Approach; Learning Activities;Moral Development; *Moral Issues; *PhysicalEnvironment; Pollution; *Problem Solving; RolePlaying; Science Education; Secondary School Science;Social Studies; Technology; Weather

IDENTIFIERS Acid Rain; Dilemma Discussion Approach; Preparing forTomorrows World Program; *Science and Society

ABSTRACTThe intent of this module is to engage students

(grades 9-11) in an examination of issues that arise as a result ofhuman activities in the physical environment. Activities areorganized into two sections: the first focusing on weathermodification and construction of dams as examples of plannedenvironmPntal rhangP and the second focuqing An unplannedenvironmental changes (desertification, unintended weathermodification, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and erosion).To demonstrate socio-scientific conflicts, a simulation game,role-playing simulations, and dilemma/discussion formats are utilizedto highlight and heighten the underlying issues. Dilemmas are briefstories posing a critical decision to be made by a main character.This decision revolves around conflicts between two or moremoral/ethical issues (as identified by Kohlberg) presented in thesituation, and it is the moral/ethical implication that provides thethrust for later student discussions. Preceding each dilemma arereadings/case studies providing background information regardingissues in the dilemma. Questions and sample student responses(representing positions taken by typical students) are provided tostimulate thinking about the issues and generate discussions. Themodule may be used as a separate unit of study, mini-course, orincorporated in such subject areas as social studies, language arts,or science. (JN)

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U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONiCENTER IERICI

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New Jersey State Department of Education

Fred G BurkeCommissioner of Education

Joseph L PicognaDirector of Title IV

Sarah BanksConsultant, Division of School Programs

Preparing for Tomorrow's WorldArt Interdisciplinary Curriculum ProgramCoastal Decisions- Difficult ChoicesEnergy. Decisions for Today and Tomorrow

future Scenarios in CommunicationsSpace EncountersTechnology and Changing Life-StylesFood A Necessary ResourcePerspectives on Transportation

Future New Jersey: Public Issues andthe Quality of Life

People and Environmental ChangesEnvironmental Dilemmas. Critical Decisions

for SocietyOf Animals. Nature and HumansBeacon City An Urban Land-Use SimulationDilemmas in BioethicsTechnology and Societ/ A Futuristic

Perspective

Copyright, 1980 by Highland Park Board of EducationHighland Park. New Jersey

Copyright will be claimed only during the period offurther development unless copyright of final material isauthorized by the New Jersey Department of Education

T he materials presented herein weie prepared pursuant to a giant fi urn the New Jersey State Department of Education under provisions of TitleI V-G ot the Elementary and t.,,ecundary Edut.ation Act k 1965), as amended However, the opinions expressed heiein do not necessarily reflect theposition or policy of the New Jersey Department of Education or the U S Office of Education

3

PREPARING FOR TOMORROW'S WORLD

People andEnvironmental Changes

Developed and Prepared by

Louis A. lozzi, DirectorJaney M Y Cheu, Associate Director

Nancy Brzezinski, Administrative AssistantIllustrations by Cathleen lozzi

,

0

Institute for Science, Technology and Social Science EducationThe Center for Coastal and Environmental StudiesRutgers The State University of New JerseyDoolittle HallNew Brunswick, New Jersey 08903

&there a pprwation isexpitssed to the si_hool systems that assisted the prow.thur students ikho field tested the preliminary dralb of this program. and alsocooperation and thoughtful cntiques are integral components in the successful

Asbury Park DistrictAsbury Park High School

Dolores Lynch. Joseph Marino. Thomas Soblesrczyk

Burlingtoh City DistrictBurlingion Cul High Schoo/

David Burchell. James Franchino

Dumont DistrictDurnom High School

Raymond Polomski

East Brunswick Township DistrictWarnsdorfer Elememarv School

Tracy Shis ler

Franklin Township DistrictSampson G Smith Intermediate School

Robert Etrobst. Chairperson. Suence Dept Mel Hill. Chades Kuria,Victor Luty. Steven Mick lova,. Science Coordinator.William Petscavage. Theresa Thorsen. Control Carol Guarino

Galloway Township DistrictArthur Rann Elernentan School

Stephen Bent. Stanley Cwikhnski

Hamilton Township DistrictHamilton East - Steinert High School

Allen Dakin. Ronald Di Giuseppe, Thomas Ebeling. ChairpersonScience Dept . Paul Fessein. William Kester, Ri Ila Lee Kramer.Lester Gibbs. Kenneth Sulhvan, Control Joseph DePuglio.Ehno Kirkland

Hillsborough Township DistrictHillsborough School

Jane VOSS

Irvington DistrictUnion Avenue Elementarv School

Louise Donnelly. Adele Hueston. John Ignacio, Science Coordinator

Long Branch DistrictLong Branch High School

Joseph Anastasia

Long Branch Junior High St heelRobert Frost. Florence Kessler

Middletown Township DistrictMiddletown High School - South

William Harding. Patncia Larkin

Milltown DistrictParkview Elementary School

Judy Temkin

Montgomery Township DistrictMontgomerv. High School

Thomas Smith

Montville Township DistrictMontville High School

JOseph McKeon

Mortis Hills Regional DistrictMorris Knolls Ihgh School

Cathleen Anderson. Pnscilla Aniheiter. George Hrobuchak,Science Coordinator. Barry Lehman. Raymond Tarchak

Morns Hills High SchoolRalph Panel. Edward Spencer. Manlyn Tenney

t and syrved as &ld test Lentel Wre cspct.tally thank thy following teachersandthosy teai.hei S and students who served cis t orUroI dast s Their cnthuswsm,development of these matenals

North Arlington DistrictNorth Arlingion High School

John Bennett

Oakland DistrictIndian Hills High School

Lawrence Insley

Old Bridge Township DistrictCedar Ridge High School

Edna Hudson. Trudy lwanski. James Simes. Control Raymond Davis

Princeton Regional DistrictJohn Witherspoon Middle School

James Messersmith

South Brunswick Township DistrictCrossroads Middle School

Jean Dorgan. Director of Instructional Development

South Brunswick High SchoolR Brian Biemuller. Robert Chopick. Chairperson, Science Dept ,

Terry Fannella, William Gray. Robert Johnson. Virginia Markham.Control George Blackburn, Karen Korarski

Spotswood DistrictSpotsltood High School

Roberta Baker. Ernest Beckley. Control Karen Boyle

Toms River Regional DistrictToms River Imerrnedtale - East Middle School

Terry Reagan

Union Township DistrictBurnet Junior High School

Ralph Amato. Jack Roland, Science Coordinator. Robert Weitz,Control-Patricia Abrahamson. Thomas D'Agostino

Union Senior High SchoolPatricia Mueller

Washington Township DistrictLong Palley Middle School

Francis Hobble. District Curnculum Coordinator. Robert Joyce.Kenneth Kopperl. John Streko, Control Diane Bauman.Susan Chadwick. Vincent Domeraski, Carol Farrell. Philip Kinney.Richard Kleh Anthony Martin. Judah Novack. David Weidemoyer,Louis Zarrello

Woodbridge Township DistrictJohn F Kennedy Memorial thgh

Crystal Lingenfelter

NONPUBLIC SCHOOIS

Chelsea School, Long BranchThomas Cronin

Red Bank Catholic High School, Red BanADrew Arcomano. Steve Donato. Steve Johnson. Gene Lociani.

St. Mary Wendelin. Control George Jones, Kathleen Walsh

St Mary's High School, Perth AmboyRussell Simon

6 St. Peter's High SchooL New BrunswickSr Joseph Marie McManus, S C

St Poo X Regional High School, PiscataltavBr. Kevin Conniff. Barbara Goodman. James Duns

St Thomas Aquinas High School, EdisonBetsy Piesen

3

ACKNOWI.

A project of this broad scope reflects the contributions of man.s indis dualsand support Our deepest appreuation and special thanks are extonded to

Highland Park Public SchoolsBoard of educationDr James Sgambettera, SuperintendentDr Edward Leppert. Assistant SuperintendentMr William Donohue. Assistant Principal,

Highland Park High School

Center for Coastal andEnvironmental Studies, Rutgers University

Dr Norbert P Psut). DirectorDr Leland G Merrill. ProfessorDr Karl Nordstrom. Assistant Pro1e4sorDr Carol Litchfield, Associate Professor

(presentl) F I DuPont de Nemours & Co )Ms Jaiuce I imb. Director. Cartograph) Lab

Cook College - Rutgers University I'Dr Arthur W Edwards. Chairman, Education DepartmentDr William G South, Assistant ProfessorMs Maryalice Annuli. Secretory

Department of Radiation Science, Rutgers UniversityDr Francis llaughe>. l'rofessor

V-

EDGEMENTSv.ho base shared vith us their professional expertise. creative insights, wisdom

Graduate School of Education - Rutgers UniversityDr George J Pa Brand, ProfessorDr Michael Piburn, Associate Professor

New Jersey Department of EducationMs Sarah BanksDr Ronald l esherDr Joseph Picogna

New Jersey Department of Education -Middlesex County Office

Dr Rita J Carney. SuperintendentSr 1 herese Alma. Coordinator. Private SchoolsMs Jean Sadenwater, Coordinator

New Jersey Department of EnergyMr Bruce Hoff. OCS CoordinatorMr Robert Golden. Energy Analyst

Stanley Cesaro AssociatesStanley Cesaro PresidentPeter Bastardo. Curriculum Specialist

Ehiabeth Public SchoolsFlirabeth. N J

PREFACE

We hve in an exciting, rapidly changing, and c hallenging world a orld highly dependent upon science and technology Our

world is Lhangng so rapidly that we sometimes fail to reeognile that much of %%hat we today take for granted as common,everyday oceurrenees existed only ia the imaginations of people just a few short years ago. Advances di science and technologyhave brought many dreams to fruition. Long before today 's se hool children beeome senior cal/ens. much of today's "science

fiction" will. in fact, become reality. Recall just a few aewmphshments which not long ago were v iewed as idle dreams

New biomedual advances hare made it possible to replace defective hearts. It idnejs and other organs

The first air flight at Katy Hatt A la.sted only a fest se«,nds. ;Vim, a little oter half a tenturt later space ship.s travelthousands of miles an hour to explore distant planets.

Nut lear le( hnolog t of interest a fess short ,t ears ago bttau.se of as dest rut tit e potential could prot ide humanAmd with

abnost limitless supplies of energy for peace-nme needs.

Computer technology has nwde a possible to .solte in seconds probknis h Iii. h onit a detach' ago tsould require many

human lifetimes.

Science and tetlinologt iwte broughl as to du brinA f ontrolling ttcather. earthquaAes and other natural phenomena.

Moreover, the changes whieh we have been experieneing and to w h we have beeome aecustorned arc occurring at an

mereasingly rapid rate Changes. most futurists foreeast. win continue and. in fact, even accelerate as we move into the 21st

Century and beyond. But. as Barry Commoner has stated. "1 her( is no such thing as a free lunch "These great adv anceswill not

be achieved without a high price. We are now begin nmg to experience the adverse effects of our great achievements.

The worldc natural resources are being rapidly depleted;

Our planet's water and r;r are no longer pure and clean

Thousands of plant and animal species are thremened with evtinction.

Nearly half tlie world:s population .sullers Irwn malnutrition.

W lute scienee and tec hnology hav e go, en us tremendous pow er, e arc_ also Lonfronted tIi ,m a w csonic responsibility to use

the power and a bility wisely, to make equitable deeision tradeoffs, and to make valid and just choiecs w hen there is noabsolute

"right" ahernative. Whether we have used our new powers wisely is highly questionableloday's y outh w ill soon become sue iety 's decision-makers Will they be capable of im pro% mg upon the decision-making of

the past! W ill the} possess the skills and abilities to make dfective, equitable. long-range decisions to ereate a better world?

To the student:

I his module has been prepared to help you the student and future decision maker function more effectively in a rapidly

changing world. Other modules in the Preparing for Tomorrots's in.h/ program fouls on addition.d issues of current and

future importance.To the teacher:

It is our belief that this module and indeed the entire Preparing for Thmorrots 's IfOrld program w ill hdp ou the teacher

prepare the f u tu re deeision-lw ker to dea 1 effect dy with issues and ihdflcngcs at the interfaces of se ience technology society.

It is our behel that the contents and aet ales in this program wdl begin to prepare today's } out h to live hfe to the fullest, in

balance with Earth's resources and emironmental limits, and to meet the challenges of tornorrow's world

Louis A. !OM, Ed. D.Cook CollegeRutgers-The State University of New Jersey

CONTENTSPage

Introduction 1

1Section I: Planned Environmental Changes 3

Activity 1: The Rainmakers 3

Part A Reading 1: "The Magical Control of Rain" 4

Part B Rainmaking Ceremonies 9

)

Activity 2: Controlling the Rain 10

Part A Reading 2: "Rainmaking in the Modern Age" 10

Reading 3: "Making Weather Fit the Crops" 11

Part B You Are the Judge: A Decision-Making Game 13

Case #1 The Center City Flood 15

Case #2 Robbing Peter to Pay Paul 16

Case #3 Filling the City Reservoir 17

Case #4 Not Enough Rain 18

Case #5 Scientific Uncertainty 19

Part C What Should be the Law9 20

Activity 3: The Dam Builders 22

Part A People and Dams Introductory Readings 3,Reading 4: "You Can't Shoot the Rapids on a

Man-Made Lake" 23

Reading 5: "Daniel Boone's Wilderness May be Tamedby a Lake" 27

DILEMMA I: Make Way for the Dam 29

Part B Plants, Animals and Dams Introductory Readings 30

Reading 6: "We Must Decide Which Species WillGo Forever" 30

Reading 7: "The Endangered Species Act" 33

DILEMMA 2: The Endangered Plant 35

Part C Distributing Power in the Northwest Background 36

Customer Viewpoints, 37

-,.....

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITSPage 10, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Documerica, page 13, United Nations, R. Greenbaum; page 24, UnitedNations, P.T. Teuscher; page 27, United Nations; page 31, L.L. Rue, Ill; page 36, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,Documerica; page 39, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Documerica, page 45, United Nations, M. 1 zovaras; page 54,United Nations, Boscardi, Jr.; page 62, United Nations, Rise, page 64, United Nations, R. Witlir.; page 67, United Nations,

J.R Laffont.

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CONTENTSPage

Section II: Unplanned Environmental Changes 39

Activity 4: Human Activity and Change 39...

Activity 5: Unintentional Weather Changes 42

Part A Pollution and Rainfall 42

Reading 8: "Changing Climate" 42

DILEMMA 3: Rain, Unwanted at Harvest Time 45

Part B Changing Climate Changing Activities 46

Student Handout 1: Changing Activities 48

Part C Acid Rains 49

Reading 9: "Acid Rain Fallout: Pollution and cp

Politics" 49

Reading 10: "Pollution Parley" 54

DILEMMA 4: The Acid Lake and Jobs 56

Student Handout 2: An Evaluation of Possible Effects 58

Activity 6: Unintentional Land Changes 59'

Reading 11: "The Desert Made by Man" 59

Reading 12: "Sahelian Drought" 62

DILEMMA 5: Too Many Animals 64

DILEMMA 6: A New Theory 65

Reading 13: "Natural Disasters: The Human Hand" 66

Reading 14: "Earthquake Hazards in the Mountains" 67

DILEMMA 7: Courting Disaster 69

Activity 7: Directions for the Future 70

Iti

INTRODUCTION

"Man as wi implement maker, the first and such on earth, has the power to. -transform landscapos and to 'nonage soil and water resources so he has become,

in dfeet, himself a tnajor force of geological changes. When the firstman or men began to fashion sticks..stones and bones to serve a givenpurpose, the metamorphosis began."

Russell LordThe Care of the Earth A Story of Husbanthy

I hrough natural processes our planet Earth has undergone continuous change. Although the process isslow. Earth today is very different from Earth at its time of creation. The presence of people in the past

sevend thousand years has brought about new varieties of changes. Applying science and fashioningtools, people have made major changes on Earth's surface and created new environments.

One needs only to take a quick look around to see how people have used Earth and its resources toadapt their surroundings to suit personal needs and activities. Cities, suburbs, highways are of coursethe most obvious evidences of man-made alterations of the landscape. While most people in the U.S.are not directly involved, on a daily basis, in farming and resource extraction they depend on thoseactivities to suAain their lives and provide for their many comforts. These activities too art majorchange agents. Where once there were forests and swift running rivers there are now millions of acres ofplowed fields, irrigation systems and electricity generating plants.

With the advent of modern science and technology people have acquired even more powerful tools todirect and control Eirth's environment. Not only can people now change the surface, but they also canbring about changes deep into Earth's crust, such as drilling for water or oil, and far irto the reaches ofspace, such as with supersonic jet flights and space exploration vehicles. In this module some of theways in which people have modified the environment will be examined. It is true that each step onetakes or each time one takes a breath of air one changes the surrounding ground and air. However, thetypes of modifications which we will be concerned with here are those with broader effects and, per-haps. less easily reversible or of a permanent nature. Many of the modifications are directed towardsthe attainment of specifk goals such as those examined in Section I. Others are inadvertent or uninten-tional, that result from other activities as demonstrated in Section II. In both instances, nevertheless,the ways in which people seek to exert.greater control over their environment or,use Earth's resourcesoften raises new problems and concerns, It is. therefore, necessary to question whether or not we haveunwittingly opened "Pandora's Box" and unleashed a new set of difficult and undesirable problems.There may be no one simple answer to the question. By being alerted to some of the kinds of things wedo and their many consequences, we may learn to act more wisely in the future.

Section I:A

Planned Environmental Changes

ACTIVITY I: THE RAINMAKERS

PART A: Readings

om the time people he( lime hauler% and depended on large amount.% of water fin- crvps, thedesire to control in mllueme the II eather be«une 011 the Ino-e urgent. This Ls reflected in therituals, rues. and «Temontes lound among varion.% peoples. designed to bring rain or divertdangerous %toms. In some communifie 5 rbe raimnuAer %vas frequently one of the more impor-tant or influential leaders. The 161lotsing reading is excerptedfrom Chapter 5 of The GoldenBough wruten fame% flazer in 1 922 and describes some of the rainmaking practicesemployed b) people in various parts oldie world at different times.

Skim through these excerpts befbre meeting with members of your group.

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Rydoing 1 ,

The Ma6ical Control Of Rain'by Sir James Frazer

Of the things which the public magician sets himself todo for the good of the tribe, one of the chief is to controlthe weather and especially to ensure an adequate fallof rain. Water is an essential of life, and in most coun-tries the supply of it depends upon showers. Withoutrain vegetation withers; animals and men languish anddie. Hence in savage communities the rain-maker is avery important personage; and often a special class ofmagicians exists for the purpose of regulating theheavenly water-supply. The methods by which they at-tempt to discharge the duties of their office are com-monly, though not always, based on the principle ofhomoeopathic or imitative magic. If they wish to makerain they simulate it by sprinkling water or mimickingclouds: if their object is to stop rain and cause drought,they avoid water and resort to warmth and fire for thesake of drying up the too abundant moisture. Such at-tempts are by no means confined, as the cultivatedreader might imagine, to the naked inhabitants ofthose sultry lands like Central Australia and someparts of Eastern and Southern Africa, where often formonths together the pitiless sun beats down out of ablue and cloudless sky on the parched and gapingearth: They are, or used to be, common enoughamong outwardly cMlised folk in the moisture climale,of Europe. I will now illustr&e them by instances drawnfrom the practice both of puolic and private magic.

Thus, for example, in a village near Dorpat, in Rus-sia, when rain was much wanted, three men used toclimb up the fir-trees of an old sacred grove. One ofthem drummed with a hammer on a kettle or small caskto imitate thunder; the second knocked two fire-brandstogether and made the sparks fly, to imitate lightning;and the third, who was called "the rain-maker," had abunch of twigs with which he sprinkled water from avessel on all sides. To put an end to 'drought andbring down rain, women and girls of the village ofPloska are wont to go naked by night to the boundariesof the village and there pour water on the ground. InHalmahera, or Gilo lo, a large island to the west of New

'This euerpted seleLtion is from The Golden Bough. A Stud) in Magi, and Rehgwn, 1922. Reprinted by permissionfrom MacMillan Publishing Co.. Inc.

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Guinea, a wizard makes rain by dipping a branch of aparticular kind of tree in water and then scattenng themoisture from the drippii-ig bough over the ground. InNew Britain the rain-maker wraps some leaves of a redand green striped creeper in a banana-ieaf, moistensthe bundle with water, and buries it in the ground, thenhe imitates with his mouth the plashing of rain.Amongst the Omaha Indians of North America, whenthe corn is withering for want of rain, the members ofthe sacred Buffalo Society fill a large vessel with waterand dance four times round at. One of them dnnkssome of the water and spirts it into the air, making afine spray in imitation of a mist or dnzzhng rain. Thenhe upsets the vessel, spilhng the water on the ground,whereupon the dancers fall down and drink up tne wa-

. ter, getting mud all ove:- their faces. Lastly, they squirtthe water into the air, making a fine mist. This saves thecorn. In spring-time the Natche4 of Nyrth Amenca usedto club together to purchase favourable weather fo.their crops from the wizards. If rain was needed, thewizards fasted and danced voth pipes full of water intheir mouths. The pipes were perforated like the nozzleof a watering-can, and through the hols the rain-maker blew the water towards that part of the skywhere the clouds hung heaviest. But if fine weatherwas wanted, he mounted the roof oflis hut'and withextended arms, blowing with all his Aht, he beckonedto the Clouds to pass by. When the rains do not come indue season the people of Central Angoniland repair towhat is called the rain-temple. Here they clear awaythe grass, and the leader Ours beer into a pot which isburied in the ground, while he says, "Master Chauta,you have hardened your heart towards us, what wouldyou have us do? We must pensh indeed. Give .yourchildren the rains, there is the beer we have givenyou." Then they all partake of the beer that is left over,even the children being made to sip it. Next they takebranches of trees and dance and sing for rain. Whenthey return to the village they find a vessel of water setat the doorway by an old woman; so they chp their bran-ches in it and wave them aloft, so as to scatter thedrops. After that the rain is sure to come driving up inheavy clouds. In these practices we see a combinationof religion with magic; for while the scattenng of thewater-drops by means of branches is a purely magicalceremony, the prayer for rain and the offering of beerare purely religious ntes. In the Mara tribe of NorthernAustralia the rain-maker goes to a pool and sings overit his magic song. Then he takes some of the water inhis hands, drinks it, and spits it out in various direc-tions. After that he throws water all over himself, scat-ters it about, and returns quietly to the camp. Rain issupposed to follow. The Arab historian Makrizidescribes a method of stopping rain which is said tohave been resorted to by a tribe of nomads called Alga-mar in Hadramaut. They cut a branch from a certaintree in the desert, set it on fire, and then sprinkled theburning brand with water. After that the vehemence ofthe rain abated, just as the water vanished when it fellon the glowing brand. Some of the Eastern Angamis ofManipur are said to perform a somewhat similar cere-mony for the opposite purpose, in order, namely, toproduce rain. The head of the village puts a burningbrand on the grave of a man who had died of burns,

and quenches the brand with water, while he prays thatrain may fall. Here the putting out the fire with water,which is an imitation of rain, is reinforced by.-the influ-ence of the dead man, who, having been burnt todeath, will naturally be anxious for the descent of rainto cool his s,:orched body and assuage his pangs

In the time of severe drought the Dieri of Central Aus-tralia, loudly lamenting the impoverished state of thecountry and their own half-starved condition, call uponthe spirits of their remote predecessors, whom they callMura-muras, to grant ,t5em power to make a heavyrainfall. For they believe that the clouds are bodies inwhich rain is generated by their own ceremonies orthose of neighbouring tribes, through the influence ofthe Mura-muras. The way in which they set about draw-ing rain from the clouds is this. A hole is dug abouttwelve feet long and eight or ten broad, and over thishole a conical hut of logs and branches is made Twowizards, supposed to have received a special inspira-tion from the Mura-muras, are bled by an old and influ-

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An Indian Rainmaker

ential man with a sharp flint, and the blood, drawn fromtheir arms below the elbow, is made to flow on the othermen of the tribe, who sit huddled together in the hut Atthe same time the two bleeding men throw handfuls ofdown about, some of which adheres to the blood-stained bodies of their comrades, while the rest floats inthe air. The blood is thought to represent the rain, andthe down the clouds. During the ceremony two largestones are placed in the middle of the hut; they standfor gathering clouds and presage rain. Then the wiz-ards who were bled carry away the two stones forabout ten or fifteen miles, and place them as high asthey can in the tallest tree. Meanwhile the other mengather gypsum, pound it fine, and throw it into a water-hole. this the Mura-muras see, and at once they causeclouds to appear in the sky. Lastly, the men, young andold, sui round the hut, and stooping clown, butt at it withtheir heads, like so many rams. Thus they force theirway through it and reappear on the other side, repeat-ing the process till the hut is wrecked, In doing this they

5

are forbidden to use their hands or arms; but when theheavy logs alone remain, they are allowed to pull themout with their hands. "The piercing of the hut with theirheads symbolises the piercing of the clouds; the fall ofthe hut, the fall of the rain." Obviously, too, the act ofplacing high up in trees the two stones, which stand forclouds, is a way of making the real clouds to mount upin the sky. ...

After the rains have fallen, some of the tribe alwaysundergo a surgical operation, which consists in cuttingthe skin of their chest and arms with a sharp flint. Thewound is then tapped with a flat stick to increase theflow of blood, and red ochre is rubbed into it. Raisedscars are thus produced. The reason alleged by thenatives for this practice is that they are pleased with therain, and that there is a connexion between the rain andthe scars. Apparently the operation is no: very painful,for the patient laughs and jokes while it is going on.Indeed, little children have been seen to crowd roundthe operator and patiently take their turn; then atter be-ing operated on, they ran away, expanding their littlechests and singing for the rain to beat upon them. How-ever, they were hot so well pleased next day, when theyfelt their wounds stiff and sore. In Java. when rain iswanted, two men will sometimes thrash each other withsupple rods till the blood flows down their backs, thestreaming blood represents the rain, and no doubt issupposed to make it fall on the ground. The people ofEgghiou, a district of Abyssinia, used to engage in san-guinary conflicts with each other, village against village,for a week together every January for the purpose ofprocuring rain. Some years ago the emperor Menelikforbade the custom. However, the following year therain was deficient, and the popular outcry so great thatthe emperor yielded to it, and allowed the murderoustights to be resumed, but for two days a year only. Thewriter who mentions the custom regards the blood shedon these occasions as a propitiatory sacrifice offered tospirits who control the showers, but perhaps, as in theAustralian and Javanese ceremonies, 0 is an imitationof rain The prophets of Baal, who sought to procureram by cutting themselves with knives till the bloodgushed out, may have acted on the same principle

Tnere is a widespread behef that twin children pos-sess magical powers over nature, especially over rainand the weather. This curious superstihon prtailsamong some of the Indian tribes of British Columbia,and has led them often to impose certain singular re-stnctions or taboos on the parents of twins, though theexact meaning of these restrictions is generally ob-scure Thus the Tsimshian Indians of British Columbiabelieve that twins control the weather, therefore theypray to wind and rain, Calm down, breath of the twins."Further, they think that the wishes of twins are alwaysfulfilled, hence twins are feared, because they canharm the man they hate. They can also call the salmonand the olachen or candle-fish, and so they are knownby a name which means making plentiful." In the opin-ion of the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia twins aretransformed salmon, hence they may not go near wa-ter, lest they should be changed back again into thefish. In their childhood they can summon any wind bymotions of their hands, and they can make fair or foulweather, and also cure diseases by swinging a large

6

The Grizzly Bear, Magical Rainmaking Power.. ?

wooden rattle. The Nootka Indians of British Columbiaalso believe that twins are somehow related to salmon.Hence among them twins may not catch salmon, andthey may not eat or even handle the fresh, fish. Theycan make fair or foul weather, and can cause rain to fallby painting their faces black and then washing them,which may represent the rain dripping from the darkclouds. The Shuswap Indians, like the Thompson In-dians, associate twins with the grizzly bear, for they callthem "young grizzly bears." According to them, twinsremain throughout life endowed with supernaturalpowers. In particular they can make good or badweather. They produce rain by spilling water from abasket in the air, they make fine weather by shaking asmall flat piece of wood attached to a stick by a string;they raise storms by strewing down on the ends ofspruce branches... .

It is interesting to observe that where an opposite re-sult is desired, primitive logic enjoins the weat her-doctor to observe precisely opposite rules of conduct.In the tropical island of Java, where the rich vegetationattests the abundance of the rainfall, ceremonies forthe making of rain are rare, but ceremonies for the pre-vention of it are not uncommon. When a man is aboutto give a great feast in the rainy season and has invitedmany people, he goes to a weather-doctor and askshim to "prop up the clouds that may be lowering." If thedoctor consents to exert his professional powers, hebegins to regulate his behaviour by certain rules assoon as his customer has departed He must observe afast, and may neither drink nor bathe, what little he eatsmust be eaten dry, and in no case may he touch water.The host, on his side, and his servants, both male andfemale, must neither wash clothes nor bathe so long asthe feast lasts, and they have all during its continuanceto observe strict chastity. The doctor seats himself on anew mat in his bedroom, and before a small oil-lamp hemurmurs, shortly before the feast takes place, the fol-lowing prayer or incantation: "Grandfather and Grand-mother Sroekoel" (the name seems to be taken at ran-dom, others are sometimes used), "return to your

1 4

country. Akkemat is your country. Put down your water-cask, close it properly, that not a drop may fall out."While he utters this prayer the sorcerer looks upwards,burning incense the while. So among the Toradjas therain-doctor, whose special business it is to drive awayrain, lakes care not to touch water before, during, orafter the discharge of his professional duties He doesnot bathe, he eats with unwashed hands, he drinksnothing but palm wine, and if he has to cross a streamhe is careful not to step in the water Having thus pre-pared himself for his task he has a small hut built iorhimself outside of the village in a rice-field, and in thishut he keeps up a little fire, which on no account maybe suffered to go out. In the fire he burns various kindsof wood, which are supposed to possess the propertyof driving off rain, and he puffs in the direction fromwhich the rain threatens to come, holding in his hand apacket of leaves and bark which derive a similar cloud-compelling virtue, not from their chemical composition,but from their names, which happen to signify some-thing dry or volatile If clouds should appear in the skywhile he is at work, he takes lime in the hollow of hishand and blows it towards them The lime, being sovery dry, is obviously well adapted to disperse thedamp clouds. Should rain afte,w,gds be wanted, hehas only to pour water on hosti/e, and Immediately therain will descend in sheets.

The reader will observe how exactly the Javaneseand Toradja observances, which are intended to pre-vent rain, form the antithesis of the Indian observances,which aim at producing it. The Indian sage is com-manded to touch water thrice a day regularly as well ason various special occasions; the Javanese andToradja wizards may not touch it at all The Indian livesout in the forest, and even when it rains he may nottake shelter; the Javanese and the Toradja sit in ahouse or a hut The one signifies his sympathy withwater by receiving the rain on his person and speakingof it respectfully; the others light a lamp or A fire arid dotheir best to drive the rain away Yet the ,winciple onwhich all three act is the same; each of them, by a sortof childish make-believe, identifies himself with thephenomenon which he desires to produce. It is the old

,'To Some, Birds Have Magical Powers

fallacy that the effect resembles its cause if you wouldmake wet weather, you must be wet; if you would makedry weather, you must be dry. . . .

Animals, again, often play an important part in theseweather-charms. The Anula tribe cf Northern Australiaassociate tha dollar-bird with rain, and call it the rain-bird. A man who has the bird for his totem can makerain at a certain pool. He catches a snake, puts it aliveinto the pool, and after holding it under water for a timetakes it out, kills it, and lays it down by the side of thecreek. Then he makes an arched bundle of grass stalksin imitation of a rainbow, and sets it up over the snake.After that all i-e does is to sing over the snake and themimic mint... sooner or later the rain will fall. Theyexplain this procedure by saying that long ago thedollar-bird had as a mate at this spot a snake, who livedin the pool and used to make rain by spitting up into thesky till a rainbow and clouds appeared and ram fell. Acommon way of making rain in many parts of Java is tobathe a cat or two cats, a male and a female, some-times the animals are carried in procession with music.Even in Batavia you may from time to time see childrengoing about with a cat for this purpose, when they haveducked it in a pool, they let it go.. . .

Sometimes, when a drought has lasted 'a long time,people drop the usual hocus-pocus of imitative magicaltogether, and being far too angry to waste their breathin prayer they seek by threats and curses or evendownright physical force to extort the waters of heavenfrom the supernatural being who has, so to say, cutthem off at the main. In a Japanese village, when theguardian divinity had long been deaf to the peasants'prayers for rain, they at last threw down his image and,with curses loud and long, hurled it head foremost intoa stinking rice-field. "There," they said, 'you may stayyourself for a while, to see how you will feel after a fewdays' scorching in this broihng sun that is burning thelife from our cracking fields." In the like circumstancesthe Feloupes of Senegambia cast down their fetishesand drag them about the fields, cursing them till rainfalls.

The Chinese are adept in the art of taking the king-dom of heaven by storm. Thus, when rain is wantedthey make a huge dragon of paper or wood to repre-sent the rain-god, and carry it about in procession; but ifno rain follows, the mock-dragon is execrated and tornto pieces. At other times they threaten and beat the godif he does not give rain; sometimes they publicly de-pose him from the vank of deity. On the other hand, ifthe wished-for rain falls, the god is promoted to a higherrank by an imperial decree. In April 1888 the mandarinsof Canton prayed to the god Lung-wong to stop the in-cessant downpour of rain; and when he turned a deafear to their petitions they put him in a lock-up for fivedays. This had a salutary effect. The rain ceased andthe god was restored to liberty. Some years before, intime of drought, the same deity had been chained andexposed to the sun for days in the courtyard of his tem-ple in order that he might feel for himself the urgentneed of rain. So when the Siamese need rain, they setout their idols in the blazIng sun; but if they want dryweather, they unroof the temples and let the rain pourdown on the idols. They think that the inconvenience to

_.,

7

which the gods are thus subjected will induce them togrant the wishes of their worshippers.

The reader may smile at the meterology of the FarEast, but precisely similar modes of procuring rain havebeen resorted to in Christian Europe within our own life-time. By the end of April 1893 there was great distressin Sicily for lack of water. The drought had lasted sixmonths. Every day the sun rose and set in a sky ofcloudless blue. The gardens of the Conca d'Oro, whichsurround Palermo with a magnificent belt of verdure,were withering. Food was becoming scarce. The peo-ple were in great alarm. All the most approved methodsof procuring rain had been tried without effect, Proces-sions had traversed the streets and the fields, Man,women, and children,selhng their beads, had lain wholenights before the holy images. Consecrated candleshad burned day and night in the churches. Palm branches, blessed on Palm Sunday, had been hung on thetrees At Solaparuta, in accordance with a very old cus-tom, the dust swept from the churches on Palm Sundayhad been spread on the fields. In ordinary years theseholy sweepings preserve the crops, but tnat year, if youwdl beheve me, they had no effect whatever. At Nicosiathe inhabitants, bare-headed and bare-foot, carried thecrucifixes through all the wards of the town andscourged each other with iron whips. It was all in vain.Even the great St. Francis of Paolo himself, who annu-ally performs the miracle of rain and is carried everyspnng through the market-gardens, either could not orwould not help. Masses, vespers, concerts, illumina-tions, fire-works nothing could move him. At last thepeasants began to lose patience. Most of the saintswere banished. At Palermo they dumped St. Joseph ina garden to see the state of things for himself, and theyswore to leave him there in the sun till rain fell. Othersaints were turned, hke naughty children, with theirfaces to the wall. Others again, stripped of their beauti-ful robes, were exiled far from their, parishes,th:eatened, grossly insulted, ducked in hOrse-ponds. AtCaltanisetta the golden wings of St. Michael the Arch-

8

angel were torn from his shoulders and replaced withwings of pasteboard, his purple mantle was taken awayand a cloud wrapt about him instead. At Licata the pa-tron saint, St. Angelo, fared even worse, for he was leftwithout any garments at all; he was reviled, he was putin irons, he was threatened with drowning or hanging."Rain or the rope!" roared the angry people at, him, asthey shook their fists in his face.

Sometimes an appeal is made to the pity of the gods.When their corn is being burnt up by the sun, the Zuluslook out for a "heaven bird," kill it, and throw it into apool. Then the heaven meRs with tenderness for thedeath of the bird, "it wails for it by raining, wailing afuneral wail." In Zululand women sometimes bury theirchildren up to the neck in the ground, and then retiringto a distance keep up a dismal howl for a long time. Thesky is supposed to melt with pity at the sigrn. Then tewomen dig the children out and feel sure that rain willsoon follow. They say that they call to "the lord above"and ask him to send rain. If it comes they declare that"Usondo rains." In times of drought the Guanches ofTeneriffe led their sheep to sacred ground, and therethey sepai ated the lambs from their dams, that theirplaintive bleating might touch the heart of the god. InKumaon a way of stopping rain is to pour hot oil in theleft ear of a dog. The animal howls with pain, his howlsare heard in Indra, and out of pity for the beast's suffer-ings the god stops the rain. Sometimes the Toradjasattempt to procure rain as follows. They place thestalks of certain plants in water, saying, "Go and ask forrain, and so long as no rain falls I will not plant youagain, but there shall you die.' Also they string somefresh-water snails on a cord, and hang the cord on atree, and say to the snails, "Go and ask for rain, and solong as no rain comes, I will not take you back to thewater." Then the snails go and weep, and the gods takepity and send rain. However, the foregoing ceremoniesare religious rather than magical, since they involve anappeal to the compassion of higher powers.

;

fTIAn American Indian Dancer Tries To Make It Rain

PART B Rainmaking Ceremonies

Early Rainmaking Ceremonies:

Small gioups ot to 4 students ss ill work togethei tocomplete this actisity

Select horn the reading one of the rain cerenioisies,ntrials for furthei discussion and respond to the follow-ing questions.

What type of ceiemony or iitual was performed')An offering or good w orks.) A magical charm? A com-munication to supernatural forces?

Can you determine how the people felt towardsnatural forces or the controller of \scathe!? Fear? Ac-ceptance Anger?

What's% ho to these people vs as the makei of rain-storms? Magic ? Gods? What was their tole in i am-

making?

Did they believe that nature resembles humans?Did nature have a personality? How can you tell?

What was their view of people's ielationship tonature ? People should ti y to control nature? Peopleshould accept nature? People can change nature?Does nature vs ork for people or do people work withnature?

Who might be blamed if the rain did not Lome?

I n some cases the ritual was an imitatjon of rain-fall. What types of symbols were used in the imitation?

Organize your thoughts and ideas in a short sum-mary that descubes how the people felt about theforces of nature and what they believed brought aboutweather changes.

Meet with another group and present your summary.Thec in turn, will present their summary to you.

A Scientific Explanation of Rain:

Return to your original group to plan your next presen-tation. Your task is to imagine that the group you justmet with represents the people they dest.ribed. Usingyour knowledge about rainfall, you are to develop a

scientific explanation of ainfall. In developing yourexplanation consider the following.

What is the other group's belief about weather?

What is the basis for their belief? How can youLon% ince them that their belief is erroneous?

In what way can you show them that your ideasare correct. What is your proor?

How can you best describe this to them') Draw-ings') Diagrams? Experiment?

Do additional iesearch or readings if necessary tohelp you in your explanation of weather and rainfall.

At the next meeting with the other group, presentyour explanation.

Are they willing to accept your explanation? Ifnot, why?

What arguments do they give to support theideas they hold?

Your group will in turn hear the explanation given bythe other group.

At this time you must try to put yourself in theposition of the people you represent. Remember, youhold your beliefs strongly and it is difficult to changeyour ideas. In what way can you defend your belief-9

Are the arguments convincing?After the two explanations are given and the argu-

ments discussed, each person will privately vote onwhether he/she, as a person in the earlier culture, willaccept the scientific evidence presented. I ndicate thisas "yes" or "no- on a separate piece of paper and turnit over to the student who will count the votes.

What are the results?

Why might the evidence be accepted or re-jected?

I n what way might the new knowledge help orhinder the people? Will it change the way they livedand acted?

Is there a way to prove that the rituals and cere-monies did not "make" rain?

Do people today use any of these techniques tocall for rain?

9

Activity 2: Controlling The Rain

PART A Readings

e..

\

Controlling The Rains Could Have Prevented Flooding

5

Reading 2

"Rainmaking In The Modern Age"

10

Our scientific rainmaking techniques today can be traced back to the 1940s and the dry-iceexperiments of Vincent Schaefer, and the theories of Nobel prize winner, Dr. Irving Langmuir. Theproblem they had to solve was to make water droplets in the clouds large and heavy so thatmoisture will fall to the ground instead of remain suspended as clouds. They found by supercoohng the water vapor of clouds with dry ice, ice crystals would form and fall as snow or raindepending upon the surrounding temperature. The first cloud seeding flights took place in De-cember of 1946 and dramatically showed that where dry ice was dropped snow formed, leavinglarge clear areas in the clouds.

Shortly afterwards, Dr. Bernard Vonnegut discovered that ice crystals can be produced byintroducing artificial ice shaped particles onto which water vapor will collect and form largercrys.tals or droplets. The crystals were silver iodide. One advantage to using silver iodide wasthat one could produce sdver iodide ''smoke'' on the ground and allow air currents to carry it up tothe clouds. It was not necessary then to drop the particles from airplanes onto the cloud, onecould simply control everything from the ground.

Cloud seeding to produce rain has significant benefits in many areas. With increased rainfallwheat farmers in normally drier regions can produce larger harvests. Airports can clear theirairstnps of fog and insure safer landings through improved visibility. Drought prone areas canincrease their water supply for drinking and irrigation. Ski resort operators can keep their slopeswell packed with snow and perhaps extend their operating season. Increased water supplieb canincrease the electricity generating capacity of hydroelectric generators.

Cloud seeding can also serve to avert catastrophes. Hail just before harvest time is disastrousto farmers but can be suppressed by over-seeding the clouds. Millions cf dollars of crop damagecan thus be avoided. The force of hurricanes if dissipated by seeding further out at sea candrastically reduce damage to property and protect lives in densely populated coastal areas.

State and local governments and private operators were soon in the rainmaking business. By1959 thirty-sx weather modification projects were in operation. In 1973 cloud seeding to producesnow and rain or to reduce the amount of hail involved over 135,000 square miles or 5% of U.S.land area.

Reading 3

Making Weather Fit The Crops

.:,

Mark 1wain's observation that everybody talks aboutthe weather, but no one ever does anything about itmay soon become outdated. Scientists already havethe know-how to modify weather in order to stabilizefood production, and within a few years, the technologymay be applied on a large-scale basis.

Weather control may be coming just in time, accord-ing to scientists writing in the recently-publishedMcGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Food, Agriculture, andNutrition. Meteorologist James D. McQuigg, for in-stance, warns that many projections of agriculturalyields and grain production for the coming decades arebased on data collected over the past two decades a

time during which the world may have experienced un-usually good weather. Projections based on this periodassume that world climate will remain as good as it hasbeen recently. But McQuigg believes that the world'sluck may change for the worse. If climate returns to thecooler temperatures experienced between 1600 and1850, food expert Douglas Russ says, one quarter ofIndia's population would starve, the Soviet Union wouldlose a major portion of its arable land, and Canadianexport capacity would decline by 75%.

Also worrying scientists is the decreasing ability ofcrops to adjust to different weather conditions. BiologistH. Garrison Wilkes reports that fewer kinds of plantsare being grown to feed the world, and the variation ineach species of food plant is also diminishing, thus fur-ther reducing the chances to breed new varieties thatcan adapt to local weather conditions. A mere 15 plantsnow provide three-fourths of the food calories con-sumed by humanity.

To make the weather more dependable, majorweather modification developments will take placewithin the next few years, according to a recent Na-tional Research Council report on Climate and Food.The report indicates that prospects are favorable forsuccessful weather modification in the years ahead.Specifically: ,

Increasing rain. Seeding mountain-createdclouds with silver iodide offers the 'best bet. Undersome conditions, research within the next few years

Reprinted by permission from TIIL FlyTURIST. February 1978, pp. 53-54. World Future Society, 4916 St. Elmo Avenue, Washington, D.C.

1 9 11

may bring successful seeding of summer ansd tropicalstorm clouds.

Suppressing hail. Crop losses from hail in theUnited States alone amount to about 1% of the annualcrop value, or as much as $1 billion. Wheat, corn, andsoybeans three of the most important Americancrops suffer the most. More than one-fourth of theU S wheat crop is lost to hail each year. Recent fieldexperiments suggest that hail might be suppressed asmuch as 30% by artificial means The most promisingapproach is to seed hail-causing clouds so as to reducethe size of hail particles.

Local temperature control. In the future, scien-tists will be able to form clouds at will in order to shadeunusually hot areas. Scientists are already able to cre-ate high-altitude cirrus clouds by seeding the skies dur-ing conditions of high humidity but no clouds. Scientistsare also seeking ways to clear away clouds to allowsunlight to reach crops that need short periods of directsunlight. (Chernes, apples and some vegetable cropswould benefit the most.) By modifying clouds in theearly stages of development, the skies could becleared, and damaging winds reduced.

In areas with high cloud-seeding potential, precipita-tion can be increased by 70% to 80%. In most areas,continuous weather modification during periods of bothfavorable and unfavorable seeding conditions could in-crease rain an average of 10% to 200/0. Such an im-provement might not seem important, but the research-ers report that a mere 10% increase in rain whereneeded would add 38 million bushels of corn, 34 millionbushels of wheat, and 18.5 million bushels of soybeansto annual American production of grain. Reducing hailby the 30010 considered feasible would increase produc-hon even more, almost doubling the added wheat cropalone. Weather modification techniques now in usecost only 15 to 50 cents per acre. As the techniquesbecome more sophisticated, the cost may rise consid-erably. But even inflated prices would add up to only2% to 3% of money now lost to the weather. And mostof the equipment needed for weather modificationaircraft, radar, minicomputers, etc. can be adaptedto other farm uses.

Another benefit of weather modification is to makefarming more predictable. Present crop variabihtyforces dealers to store grain during good years and dis-tribute it during the bad years. Storing grain is expensive, current annual storage costs equal about oneseventh the value of the grain itself. When food prices

go up during bad seasons, the nations that need foodthe most often do not have the capital to buy the storedgrain. Weather modification would increase productiv-ity and allow farmers to plan how much food toproduce.

One of the biggest obstacles to the application ofweather modification techniques is not the know-how,but fears concerning unintended consequences. Areasonly miles apart often have radically different weatherpatterns. Weather modification geared toward one lo-cality might have disastrous consequences on aneighboring region. Even individual cloud systems arecomplex, and contain huge energy transactions asingle storm cloud can release the energy of severalatomic bombs. Governments and concerned groupsare increasingly expressing doubts over the safety ofmodification. The National Research Council reportsthat a hail-suppression project undertaken by a groupin southern Colorado was halted by farmers who fearedthat rainfall would be reduced along with the hail. Thirtystates have adopted weather modification control laws,and the federal government requires that all activitiesbe reported. As weather modification becomes wide-spread, international conflicts will arise over its use.Nonetheless, NRC scientists claim that weather modifi-cation over homogeneous areas of land does not seemto cause many harmful effects.

Man is already modifying the weather on a massivescale, albeit unintentionally. Scientists report that in-dustrial activity has increased the frequency of thunder-storms east of St. Louis by 20% to 30%; hailstormshave increased 100%. Jet trails cause "false cirrus"cloudss of ice particles that may keep the sun's raysfrom warming the earth. Other kinds of pollution dustfrom soil erosion and carbon dioxide released from fac-tories may be warming and cooling the earth simul-taneously Climatologist Stephen Schneider suggeststhat a warming trend caused by industrial pollution mayproduce drier weather in the U.S. central plains whileincreasing tropical monsoon rains in the already-wetregions of the world. Weather modification would beneeded just to restore the status quo.

Scientists predict that weather modification will be-come common within the next several years. It will takea great deal more research before the local weather-man will be able to announce /ether than predict theweather. But the increasing sophistication of modifica-tion techniques is making such an occurrence morelikely.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

What is the scientific principle used in cloud seeding?

Why is there so much interest in weather modification?

In what ways can we benefit from changing the weather?What types of problems can result from weather modification activities?

Can weather modifiL tion icti'ities Lreate conflict between ountries? Is it possible to use weather modificationas a weapon?

Have you ever wanted to change the weather? How did you want it changed?

12

2u

Water Is Key To A Successful Harvest

PART B "You Are the JudgeA Decision Making Game"

Object Of The Game:

e coui t cases are pre sented . each v, it h four possibledecision choices. Players will form teams to select thedecision they believe was the one made by the court.Points are awarded for selecting the Court% DecAionor a Fair De( i,sion. The team with the highest score isdeclared the winner.

Game Procedure

Players will t'orm into teams of 3-5 members.

Each team will discuss the fie cases one at atime. It will then select from the four. possible choicesthe decision it believes was reached by the court andthe reason for that decision.

IS minutes are allotted for the discussion of eachease and selection of the decision. The players mustreach an unanimous agreement. Each team will thenwrite a short statement stating why it made that partic-ular choice. (Le., Give your reasoins) for se)ecting thedecision and explain why you think it is the bestchoice.)

4

At the end of 15 minutes the game moderator willask each team to state its decision and read the state-ment explaining why that selection was made. A repre-sentative from each team is selected to make the retport. For each case, a different team spokesmanshould make the presentation. The results and expla-nations will be recorded on the blackboard.

TEAMNUMBER

DECISIONNUMBER REASON

3.

4.

5.

6.

Challenging tht Decision: A team may decide thatnone of the choices are adequate. The team may thendevelop its own decision and reasons for that decision.It will also provide an explanation for Ithy that deci-sion is better than the choices given. This New Deci-sion will be presented at the team's turn tc announce

13

its choice. The other players will then vote to deter-mine if this decision and reasons for the decisictfgareacLeptable. If this new decision receives a majority ofthe votes the decision will be awarded a 4-point score.(New Decision) If it receives less than 50% of thevotes but more than 25%, 2 points are awarded. Nopoint is given if less than 25% of the other players votein its favor.

When all results and explanations are recorded,the individual teams may have 5 minutes to review theexplanation and decide whether or not it wishes tochange its choice. If a change is made, the team willreceive one point less than the points assigned thatchoice. (e.g., The score for selecting the court's deci-sion is 4. If the team switches from its initial choice tothat choice it will receive 3 points.)

The moderator will record the team's score forthat case, using a table similar to the one below.

karn I

[earn 2

learn 3

Team 4

"[earn 5

-learn 6

Scoring

After all the selections have been announced andrecorded, the moderator w ill read from the teacher'sguide the Court's Decision and the score for each ofthe other choices.

Points are awarded as follows:Points

COURT'SDECISION 4

FAIR DECISION ,POOR DECISION 0

NEW DECISION 4 > 50% of votes2 25 - 50% of votes0 < 25% of votes

(Reminder. A decision that has been changed receives one lessPoint.)

CASE I CAS. 2 CASE 3 CASE 4 CASE 5 TOTAL

,

The remaining cases will be discussed and scored in the same manner. After completing the five cases,the scores are totalled and the winning team declared.

CASE ONEThe Center City Flood

Center City expenenced its worse storm in history onDecember 1955, and the damages were devastating.The levees above the town gave way. Flood waterspoured in killing 37 persons, injuring over 3,000, des-troying 450 homes and damaging 6,000 more. Lossesran into the hundred of millions.

Who was to blame and how could damages be re-covered? Was it the fault of town officials who failed toevacuate the town? Were the levees not properly main-tained by the country?

Investigating all possible causes for the disaster thetown offidals learned that the state's largest electriccompany had been operating rainmaking equipment in10 sites around the area. The purpose was to increasethe snowpack in the mountains and the.reby increasethe water supply to run its electricity generators. Thetown officials put two and two together and concludedthat rainmaking had increased the normal amount of

rainfall. The added rain filled the river to capacity,soaked the soil and weakened the levee system

The town then filed action against the electric com-pany, contending that it was liable for the losses suf-fered by the Center City residents

Mr. Marks, lawyer for the electric company, ques-tioned the company representatives.

Mr. Marks: How long have you been cloud seedingin the area and what were the results?

Company Representative: For two years. Butmost of the rain and snowpack we made runs intoLake Thorns. We increased rain in our target area by

26%. Nonetheless, Lake Thorns has never spilledover.

Mr. Marks: Did you seed prior to the storm, and didyou seed those particular storm clouds?

Company Representative: Yes, we seeded thefirst part of the week but turned off the generators theday before the storm because the clouds were toohigh to be reached with our ground generators.

M. Marks: Did you have approval to conduct thecloud seeding?

Company Representative: Yes, we were grantedpermission by the state, and the cloud seedihg,com-pany has a state license to operate. \

Mr. Nils, lawyer for the town, questioned Mr Moore, a

weather expert.

Mr. Nils: What were the weather conditions just be-

fore the storm?Mr. Moore: Snow and rainfall for the first half cit the

month broke all previous records, but high tempera-tures in the mountains melted 30 inches of snow inthree days.

Mr. Nils: Could the silver iodide, generated the daybefore, have reached the storm clouds?

Mr. Moore: That is a possibility but most wouldhave increased rainfall over the area which drainsinto Lake Thorns, 50 miles away.

How did the court decide? What reasons did it give

for that decision?

A. Yes, the company is hable because it should not be tampering with the weather.

IB. No, the company is not liable because that storm was an act of God.

C. Yes, the company is liable because the area never had so much rainfall.

D. No, the company is not liable because there is lack of proof that seeding had a direct effect

on the disasterous storm.

15

tf

16

4

CASE TWORobbing Peter to Pay Paul

(or Who Has the Right to the Clouds Above?)

Paul, a wheat farmer in Texas, joined with neighboringwheat farmers to hire the firm, Weather Changers, toconduct hail suppressing operations during the farmingseason. The year before, severe hail storms had dam-aged their crops so badly that they lost over half theharvest. The farmers felt that they could not take sucha chance again. Another bad year and they might all beout of business.

For a year, cloud seeding operations were conducted v.over the entire area. The number of hail storms werereduced, and the farmers enjoyed a good wheat har-vest. Peter, a neighboring rancher to the riorthbast,hOwever, was left with dry and sparse grass that year.He was forced to spend several thousand dollars to buygrain to feed his cattle. He felt that the cloud seedinghad robbed him of the normal rainfall necessary tokeep his grasses green and animals fed.

Peter Went to cournd ask that it issue a ban on allfuture cloud seeding activities in the area.

How did the court decide? What reasons did it givefor that decision?

A. The farmers may continue to seed clouds because there is no law stating that they cannot.

B. The farmers must stop seeding because the ranchers have a right to the rainfall Natureprovides over their land.

C. The farmers may continue to seed because they have a right to protect their crops.

D. The farmers !mist stop seeding because they are causing harm to the ranchers.

%)

CASE THREEFilling the City Reservoir

City X, the largest city on the East Coast with over 10million people, was suffering a severe water shortage.There tad been no winter snow, and spring rains weresparse that year. Pure drinking water from its mountainreservoir had reached a critically low point. The Cityhired Dr. Hone to seed the clouds as they passed bythe mountains in order to raise the water level of thereservoir. After the seeding operations, the reservoirgained a two-week supply of water.

This brought immediate relief to the city residents,but Mr. Sax was most displeased. He owned a largefancy resort in the mountains, and because of the rainshis regort was deserted. Each day of rain caused him tolose thousands of dollars. HiS business depended ongood summer weather.

Mr. Sax went to court to ask that the seeding opera-tions be ordered stopped. He pointed out that the unex-pected summer rains harmed his resort business. In

addition, the increased amounts of rain might overflow`the mountain streams, causing possible property dam-age to people living along the stream.

How did the coun decide? What reasons did it givefor that decision?

i

L

A. City X may continue to seed clouds because water is important to the welfare of the gen-

eral public.

B. City X may not continue to seed clouds because it does not have a right to disturb clouds

over someone else's property.

C. City X may continue to seed clouds because there is no evidence that the rains will causeflooding. (speculative nature of risk)

D. City X may not continue to seed clouds because it will be taking rain away from other

areas.

4

, 1 r-.r.: 0

a

CASE FOURNot Enough Rain

t* Tom Hayes was assured by Rainfall Inc. that cloudseeding would solve all his worries over the droughtforecasted for that year. He paid the company $5,000to seed clouds over his farm for the season and thenwent ahead and planted all his wheat fields.

Whenever the clouds passed by, company planesflew over and seeded. Sometimes rain fell and othertimes it did not. By the middle of summer, the wheatwas wilting from the heat and lack of water.

Tom was furious. This was not what he expected.Now his huge investment of seed, fertilizer.and extrahired help was "going down the drain"! How was he torecover such a great loss?

He felt that Rainfall Inc. had led him astray with theirpromise. He went to court to demand a refund on thepayment as well as money to compensate for his ri-oploss.

In court, Rainfall Inc. argued that it did not promisewith absolute certainty that Tom would reap an abun-dant harvest. It did not sign an agreement to deliver somany gallons of water. "Anyway," said the companyrepresentative, "controlling weather is tricky business;you cannot always predict that all clouds will behave inthe same way. Under some conditions no matter whatyou do, rain cannot be produced. It is like trying to wringwater out of a dry sponge."

Tom's lawyer, on the other hand, contended that thecompany had misrepresented itself by making claimsthat it could avert the drought. Tom trusted its judgmentand therefore went ahead with his plans.

How did the court decide? What reasons did it givefor that decision?

A. Rainfall Inc. musf return the money because it didn't know what it is doing and shouldn't bein the business.

B. Rainfall Inc. need not return the money because it-performed the services agreed upon.

C. Rainfall Inc. must return the money because it claimed that cloud seeding would solve theproblem of insufficient rainfall.

D. Rainfall Inc. need not return the money because there is not enough proof that it wastrying to cheat Tom.

18 2 b

CASE FIVEScientific Uncertainty

"Cloud seeding is still an experiment," reported Dr.Bruce, "and more experiments are needed before wecan say with certainty how mtich we truly benefit fromcloud seeding. Will cloud seeding benefit one area to

detriment of another? I recommend that we conductexpe.iments over a larger area and for a longer timeperiod. 'n this way we can begin to learn more aboutthe behavior of different types of clouds and howdiffer-ent seeding materials might affect the outcome of astorm."

In response to Dr. Bruce's report, three adjoiningstates organized a hail suppression program. In thestudy they would compare crop production in areaswhere hail storms are seeded to areas where this is notdone. They would also study different cloud seeding'methods arid materials and gather'information aboutdifferent cloud types and on how to select clouds forseeding. A tn-state weather study committee wasformed to select the areas for the test and those areas

to be left as control and to debign the procedures to beused.

A year after the program began, a survey of the cropharvest in the seeded areas showed a 25% reduction in

crop loss. This certainly pleased the farmers in thearea. But, farmers who were not in the seeded area feltthat they had been cheated out of the possible benefits.

The farmers in the unseeded area brought their caseto court and demanded that the state government paythem for what they lost in crop damages. They arguedthat it was unfair that they be "guinea pigs" in the ex-periments. "Why should we be left out of the benefits?The experiment was paid for through our taxes, yet wehad not been given an opportunity to participate. Thestudy committee merely selected the areas in an arbi-trary way."

How did the court decide? What reasons did it givefor that decision?

A. The state governments are not responsible for the damages because hail storms are anatural occurrence. Farmers have accepted that fact even before cloud seeding became

available.

B. The state governments are responsible because they could have helped the farmers if

they wanted to.

C. The state governments are responsible because they must insure that the people involved

are adequately protected when they take on a project of such an experimental nature.

D. The state governments are not responsible because there was no guarantee that theseeded areas would benefit significantly.

19

k.7,-

PART C What Should be the Law?

During the "You are the Judge" game you no doubtcame to the realization that weather modification by"cloud seeding" creates a variety of conflicts. Rainneeded by one group of people may not be needed byanother group in the same area. If clouds are seeded toproduce more rain in one section of the country, thesection downwind may find their rainfall reduced. Anumber of questions thus arise:

Can people "own" the moisture in the air in thesame sense as they own property?

Does one have the right to the clouds above one'sproperty or just the rain that falls on the property?

How might people be protected from harmful ef-fects of cloud seeding?

How does one decide if people in one area areharmed by cloud seeding in another area?

How does one decide that increa,sing rainfall orsuppressing hail is necessary?

At present, the laws regulating rain-making are notclear. Some states have rain-making regulations,others do not and a few have even banned rain-makingaltogether. For examples:

State X claims that all moisture in the atmosphereabove it belongs to the people of the state. Thereforeprivate parties in order to seed clouds must show thattheir activity will not be harmful to the people of thestate.

State Y allows each county to set its weathermodification regulations, and each has a right to pro-hibit that activity if it finds it undesirable.

State Z puts no limits on weather modification ac-tivities and only requires that persons or companies in-volved in cloud seeding file a report on its activities.

In this activity you will have the opportunity to writea set of laws governing weather modification activitiesfor a state. The characteristics of the state and guide-lines for writing the laws are described below:

Law for Rainmaking in State A

State A is primarily an agricultural state and frequentlyhas long periods of drought that result in hundreds ofmillions of dollars in Lrop loss. In times of scart.e rainfall it needs to buy water from a neighboring state forirrigation and drinking, but that state has had an in-Lrease in popuLttion and is less % illing to sell its water.

State A hits no law s that regulate weather modifiLation. In teams of 4 to 5 students, %rite a set of laws forState A that will govern weather changing activitiesand will adequately settle the legal questions and prob-lems that might arise. Discuss the following consider-ations before you begin writing:

Considerations:

First determine who has ownership of moisture in theair. Does it belong to all the people of the state as

20

"common property" or to the people who own the landunderneath the air? If the moisture in the air is held byeveryone in common, does it mean that the state cantell the property owner how much of the water thatfalls on his/her land he/she is allowed to use? If themoisture in the air above belongs to the propertyowner, does he/she have the right to make rain when-ever heishe pleases even though it might have undesir-able effects on his/her neighbors? Explain why youhave selected your particular viewpoint.

Should the state control all weather modification ac-tivities or should this be left to private operators?

If activities are conducted by private operators,how does one determine if the weather changers arecompetent?

If the state government conducts the activities,how does it select "where" and "when" to cloud seed?What government agency should make the selections?Increased rain may not please everyone who is af-fected. A government agricultural agency's interest inchanging the weather may be different from that of thegovernment transportation agency.

If the rainmaking causes damages, who should beheld responsible?

How does one determine if damage has occurred?If rain, for example, spoils a large outdoor festival, isthat to be considered an important loss?

Who determines what is a harm or a damage? Abenefit to one party may not be consider a benefit bythe other party. (Heav3 snowfall is welcomed by skiresort owners, but not necessarily by city governmentswhich must spend large sums of money for snow re-moval.

If one area loses rainfall, how can its residentsrecover the loss?

Does one have to show that harm has been doneto recover the loss? How does one prove that harm hasoccurred? (Is there any way that one can prove that acloud seeding activity significantly reduced rainfall inanother area or that it increased the severity of thestorm rather than decreased it?)

If cloud seeding activities were operated by thestate, who should pay for them? Everyone? Only thosewho benefit?

Ho% will the state show that it is acting ineveryone's best interest? What if errors occurred in thecloud seeding proLedure, and damage to property andlives resulted?

To aid in the development of the final set of laws, itwould be helpful to group the laws into categories asthey are presented. Some possible categories might in-clude:

Cloud seeding operatorsTypes of permissible activities

Management of activity

Role of state governmentLiability rules (Who is responsible? What types of

damages can be claimed?)Agreements between states

2 d\

The CompleteWeather Modification Laws for State A:

Examine each law in turn, and as a group decide ifthe law should be included in the final set of laws. Inmaking the decision, determine if the law satisfies Thefollowing points: .

Does the law treat everyone fairly?Does the law violate anyone's rights unnecessar-

ily?Are people and their property adequately protec-

ted?Compile the set of laws for State A. Examine

them as a whole. Determine if any regulations conflictwith others and make the necessary changes.

Optional Activity:

Obtain from your state government its laws regulatingweather modification.

Compare these with the laws developed by the class. ,How are they similar? Different?

Are there any important aspects that are not coveredby the state's laws? Your laws?

Would you recommend any changes in the existingstate laws?

Should the state have to obtain permission fromthe people of the area each time it engages in cloudseeding? ,

,

Do people need to be warned that cloud seedingactivities will take place9

sw,*

t

How does State A respond if a neighboring stateclaims that cloud seeding has robbed it of its rain?

Is State A only responsible for the welfare of itsown residents and not to the people of the other state?

What types of agreements have to be made withneighboring states?

Procedure:

Meet in your groups to discuss the above consider-ations and select a recorder to write down the mainideas brought out. .

Begin by listing all the possible problems that youthink might arise in weather modification actiVities.

(e.g.) How are different people affected? What might be theirobjections? On what grounds might-they base their ob-jections? /

It may be helpful to refer back to the court cases inthe previous game for some ideas.

Using the-fist Of possible .problems as a guide, de-velop a set oflaws/regrlations for weather modifica-tion activities in State A. The laws that you writeshould help to settle some of these possible problems.

When each group has conripleted its set of yeathermodification laws, all class members will meei to-gether. At this time a spokesperson from each groupwill present the laws developed by the group.

The class recorder will write the laws presented onthe board or display them on large sheets of paper sothat they can be critically examined by everyone.

1..

(

21.

ACTIVITY 3: THE DAM BUILDERS

PART A "People and Dams"Introductory Readings

When man, the hunter, became man, the farmer, a reliable source of water became all the moreessential. No longer did a person simply "pull up stakes" at whim and move to another streamor lake. One was now dependent on the land-one plowed and seeded to produce an adequateharvest.

However, rainfall was new constant; there were often long dry seasons or long periods oftorrential rain, both of whipIS often contributed to crop loss and famine. To overcome theseproblems people devised 1,$ays- to control the flow of water by building dams, diverting riversand digging irrigation canals'. These activities of changing the surface of the land to better servethe needs of people can be traced back to earliest history.

For example, in Chinese history severe catastrophic floods afflicted the land during the reignof Emperor Yau (approx. 2280 B.C.) He commissioned Kun, minister of works, to remedy thesituation. Kun then proceeded to build a series of darns to contain the flood water,s, but for nineyears his efforts were of no'avail. He was replaced by his son, YO, who began by surveying thenatural contours of the land and the course of water flow. Yii concluded that the river was notfollowing its intended cOurse because the outlets were impeded. He embarked on a Massiveengineering project, cutting channels through mountains, which resulted in nine new outlets forthe river. This engineering feat proved to be a successful prevention measure against disasterousfloods and YO was immediately proclaimed a national hero.

Dam building Wand rechanneling rivers has continued throughout history as methods of watercontainment_ and in more recent times, the energy of water flowing through dams has beenharnessed and converted to electricity. Today, dams, in addition to storing water and controllingfloods, provides an important source of electricity.

While dams are a common feature along the majority of rivers in the U.S., controversies haveerupted over new dam construction projects in recent years. The following excerpt from amagazine article underscores a few of the issues of debate.

3u22

Reading 4

You Can't Shoot TheRapids On A Man-Made Lakeby Rice Odell

3 i

With a flood of arguments, Army engineers seek

to dam Virginia's Rappahannock, but local

opponents say that their reasons don't hold water

Periodically, Charles S. Rowe, editor of the FreeLance-Star in Fredericksburg, Wginia, sits down at histypewriter and composes an angry editorial denounc-ing plans to build a huge dam and reservoir on the Rap-pahannock River a few miles above the city.

Rowe has called the Salem Church Dam proposal

"one of the most wasteful pork-barrel projects imagin-able," and has referred to local supporters of the damas the Army Corps of Engineers' "loyal legion of lobby-ists." Never mind that a long-time supporter of the damhas been his brother Josiah P. Rowe, Ill, who not only is

mayor of Fredericksburg but general manager and co-owner of the newspaper as well.

The Salem Church controversy has all the elementsof a classic environmental "crunch." The Rappahan-nock, which is joined by its principal tributary the Rapi-dan River, rises on the slopes of the Blue Ridge Moun-tains and flows 185 miles through hilly woodlands andpastoral farmlands into Chesapeake Bay.

All was serene Until one woek in October 1942, whentorrents of rain 19 inches in one place fell in theRappahannock watershed. The river poured a 42-footcrest of water down on Fredericksburg and nearbyareas. More than 200 businesses and 180 homes inthe city were covered with water at depths up to fivefeet; fires started at oil storage plants near the river.Damage was estimated at about $1.2 million.

Reprinted by permission from Smithsonian Magazine. November 1971. Copyright 1971 Smithsonian Institution.

23

Community leaders prodded Congress for protec-tion, Congress went to the Corps cf Engineers, and theCorps concluded that it would be impractical or un-economical to provide protection by building a largedam near the city just for flood control.

But the Corps specializes in construction, it recom-mended construction at the Salem Church site of a highdam with two major purposes. protection against floodsby backing up floodwaters in a 240-foot-high reservoirand generation of hydroelectric power for sale by re-leasing the stored water.

At normal level, the reservoir would cover 21,300acres, inundating farm and other lands in five counties,it would obliterate 26 miles of the Rappahannock Riverand 27 miles of the Rapidan, creating instead a seriesof long, twisting fingers of water with the look of a Rors-chach inkblot. Annual charges for the project (intereston investment, amortization, operation and mainte-nance) would be $1,165,900, while annual benefits(principally the value of electric power) would be$1,774,850.

This produced an economically attractive "benefit-cost ratio" of 1.52 to 1; for every dollar spent on theproject each year, it would result in benefits, or dam-ages avoided of $1.52.

Congress authorized construction of a Salem ChurchDam in 1946 but restricted the height of the feservoirto 220 feet, chiefly because upstream farmers hadhowled over having so much of their acreage flooded.

But power generation would not be feasible at 220feet so the Corps was stuck with an authorized projectwhich, it was forced to admit in 1952, had a benefit-costratio too "marginal" (1.11 to 1) to justify construction.The dam project was in limbo.

In 1966, the Corps surfaced again, not only recom-mending a reservoir at the original 240-foot level, butshowing a benefit-cost ratio of 2.1 to 1, far more favor-able than before. (Annual costs of $3,464,000, annualbenefits of $7,290,000.)

How did the Corps manage to revive the dam withthis numerical feat? This becomes increasingly difficultas the most feasible projects are built, leaving less fa-vorable rivers and dam sites to work with. But Con-gress, and in some cases the Executive Branch, havecontinually changed the rules by which projects areevaluated, adding to the list of benefits which the Corpsis permitted to crank into its evaluatbns.

The Corps now could recommend a multi-purposeproject with the following benefits (shown with the per-centage of total annual benefits attributed to each):

Recreation 41.0 percentPower generation 23.4 percent

, Salinity control 20.4 percentWater-quality control 8.3 percentWater supply 4.7 percentFlood control 2.2 percent

Recreation became the dominant justification for theproject, while flood protection, the original reason for it,

,44

fb.11,-

* =1-

RldIng The Raplds

24

accounts for a mere 2.2 percent of the benefits. Thismay be appropriate, since there hasn't been a flood ofany significance for almost 29 years.

Also the Corps found another important new peg"salinity control." In the lower Rappahannock and itsestuary there are productive oyster grounds. As thewater gets saltier closer to Chesapeake Bay, the oys-ters are more susceptible to predators and disease.Releases of fresh water from the reservoir in summer,the Corps reasoned, would increase oyster production.

Again the dam had strong support from the city ofFredericksburg; from bankers, businessmen andothers who wished to see construction and other dam-related activity stimulate the area economy; fromFredericksburg's single large industry, the AmericanViscose Division of FMC Corporation, which is thelargest cellophane manufacturing plant in the world andwhich uses huge quantities of water for both process-ing and cooling; from most counties and towns in theregion; from oystermen downstream; from variousstate agencies; from all relevant federal agencies; andeven from far-off Prince William County to the northwhich feels the Salem Church reservoir will be the mosteconomical way to meet future water-supply needs.

In contrast to this powerful array were some 200landowners.who objected to the flooding of their farms.And then there was Randy Carter.

Carter is a Rauquier County building inspector wholives in Warrenton, well above the area which would beflooded. He is an expert, well-known, white-water ca-noeist, and he was particularly concerned over the pro-posed inundation of Kelly's Ford rapids, a long and su-perb stretch of bounding, rock-strewn water unique toNorthern Virginia.

Carter later testified before a congressional commit-tee that flooding this section of the Rappahannockwould "destroy something that is priceless and some-thing that nature has given us very little of. Engineerscan give us flat water but only God can give us a beau-tiful, fast-water, mile-and-a-half like the Kelly's Fordrapids." Carter has also pointed out that the Rappahan-nock is "one of the best small-mouth bass streams onthe East Coast." So he began to fight. He was a lonewolf for a long time, says Robert T. Dennis, director of

the Central Atlantic Environment Service, who joinedCarter in opposition. Carter organized the landownersand other canoeists and conservationists. He alsospurred opposition to Salem Church by the business-men and officials of Fauquier and Culpeper counties,since the reservoir would flood and remove 20,000acres from their tax base.

Among other things, Carter urged the Corps to con-sider a lower dam so less upstream land need betaken and so the reservoir, though flooding other rapidsdownstream, would not quite reach over Kelly's Ford. "Itold them, 'You've made this report, and you've neverseen the river."

An awkward event tor conservationists

In the summer of 1966, however, Fredericksburg wasplagued, not by a flood, but by a drought. The city hadto restrict water usage.

The,drought sc.are boosted support for the SalemChurch Dam. "Feeling was running very high," said Sa-muel R Mason, later a president of the Fredericksburg-Rappahannock Chapter of the lzaak Walton League ofAmerica. He noted that Fredericksburg (and twoneighboring counties) had no long-range plans to as-sure a water supply for their residents. "So the damlooked pretty good to those of us who liked to drinkwater." In view of this, the lzaak Walton Chapter in

1967 voted in favor of Salem Church.

The drought also spurred Fredericksburg and thetwo counties to plan construction of small works to pro-vide enough reserve water supplies to last until con-struction of the high dam. These interim actions allayedthe fears of many. In 1969, the lzaak Walton Chaptervoted to reverse its position and oppose the dam.There was a bitter split and the chapter lost some of its

members.Congress finally authorized construction of a

240-foot level dam in 1968. But its opponents havecontinued to work assiduously, compiling more argu-ments against it, and lining up important new allies.They claim many of the figures and techniques withwhich the Corps calculated its 2.1 to 1 benefit-cost ratioare bogus. Any such evaluation process, to be sure, ismore art than science.

On March 18, 1970, Senator William Proxrriire ofWisconsin accused the Col'ps in general of using vari-ous unsound and improper evaluation procedures:"They include the consistent overestimation of the eco-nomic benefits. They include the understatement of thecost of these projects. They include the neglect, indeeddisdain, of the environmental disbenefits which appearas side effects to the manipulation of natural rivers.They include the use of very low interest rates to evalu-ate the present worth of the future impacts of theseprojects, a practice which artificially bloats the benefit-

cost ratio."The Salem Church opponents claim that the Corps

did not sufficiently explore all alternatives to the highdam. They scoff at the Corp's cost estimates for the47,453 acres of privately owned land the governmentwould have to .purchese an average $60 for awooded acre and $20 for a farmland acre. This yearMayor Rowe noted that to buy land for its smallerwater-supply impoundment, the city paid almost $1,500an acre for "remote woodland."

The dam's opponents also challenge the very needfor its benefits, as follows:

Flood Control Salem Church wouldn't eliminateall flood damage, and the Corps has inflated its esti-mate of damage that would be prevented, it is said.Much of the serious damage in 1942 was caused by alocal flash storm that poured rain over an alreadyflooded area. Damage would have been far less hadtnere been more than a few hour's warning.

Water Supply Smaller impoundments, such asthose already being built, are seen as an answer towater-supply problems for decades. Prince WilliamCounty is considered too far away to be justified in rely-

ing on the Rappahannock for its water.

q '-0 '.. 25

Water-Quality Control "Low-flow augmentation,"or releasing water to dilute and flush pollutants down-stream, is viewed as an improper substitute for 're-quiring industries and municipalities to treat theirwastes before discharge. Dam opponents wonder howrelevant this benefit of Salem Church will belif waste-treatment technology improves significantly after thedam is built.

Power Generation Dam opponents say the powercapacity at Salem Church (89,000 kilowatts) is notneeded and would be a mere spark next to the vastcapacity of the huge North Anna nuclear power plantwhich is about to be built nearby by Virginia Electric andPower Company (initial capacity 800,000 kilowatts,later four million).

Salinity Control Salem Church opponents doubtthe efficacy of using controlled water releases to in-crease oyster production or of timing them accuratelyenough to discourage the oysters' enemies. Carter putit this way: "We do not see why we should have our dirtfarmers in upper Frauquier and Culpeper countiesflooded out for the benefit of oyster farmers a hundredmiles further downstream."

Recreation Most of all, Salem Church opponentsattack the project's heavy reliance on mass recreation.The dam has become a classic illustration of the basic,irreconcilable conflicts between two different types ofrecreationists between two different types of per-sonalities, really, seeking to use the same waters. On

26

one hand are the stream fisherman, the hiker, thehunter, the canoeist the "purists" who Ike their na-ture in the raw, with its quiet and reflective solitude. Onthe other hand are the outboard boater, the water skier.the swimmer and picnicker the mass, "flat-waier" re-creationists who gravitate more to each other and tcfacilities provided for them, though they too are learn-ing to dislike crowding.

The so-called purists have had two strikes againstthem in trying to counter the Corps' arguments. For theCorps, with earlier assistance from the InteriorDepartment's Bureau of Outdoor Recreation (BOR),worked up a strong statistical case to show that the 27-mile long reservoir would be a recreational boon foreveryone within many miles. The reservoir's 21,300acres would, said the Corps, be "ideal for skiing andboating." Ifs meandering 420 miles of "pleasing shore-line and sheltered coves" would attract fishermen, pic-nickers, swimmers, hikers and campers. BOR and theCorps gave each visitor-day a value of one dollar.Since the average number of visitor-days per year wasestimated at 3,580,000, the total recreation benefit wasa staggering $3,580,000 per year.

To get net benefits, the Corps had to. deduct thepresent recreation values. BOR estimated that only300 canoeists a year used the stretch of the river to beflooded. It gave each white-water canoeing day a vak.eof three dollars, and thus arrived at the grand total of$900 a year in canoeing benefits to be foregone.

3

, .

An Immense Man-Made Waterfall

Reading 5

Daniel Boone's WildernessMay Be Tamed By A Lakeby. Alton Marsh

With time running out, bitter homeownersand conservationists are suing to forestall

Corps of Engineers' dam in Red River Gorge

"I don't feel like I'm going to leave. I'd rather die," saidJimmy Skidmore, his usually ruddy, cheerful faceclouded with anxiety.

Jimmy Skidmore is anguished because his modernbrick house sits on the spot where the U.S. Army Corpsof Engineers would like to place an 1,800 foot-longearthen dam.

Reprinted by permission from Smithconian Magazine, September 1975, pp.56.61. Copyright 1975 Smithsonian Institution

3527

The Corps sees the steep canyon walls ofKentucky's Red River Gorge as a natural reservoir forwater impoundment. Present plans call for a 141-foot-high dam that would slowly begin to create a lake cov-ering 1,500 acres, and the impounded water wouldback up 15 miles along the Red River (one of a numberof rivers in the United States with the same name).

When the current $34.1 million project was author-ized by Congress in 1962, the Corps proposed placingit in the narrow valleys of the heart of the gorge, in whatthe U.S. Forest Service calls the "geological area,"where 84 natural rock at les have been sculpted froman ancient seabed over a period of 60 million years.Public opposition forced a move in 1969 to a site in awide, farm valley just below the gorge.

Despite the lapse of years and change of site, publicopposition to the dam is as intense today as it was inthe late 1960s. In fact, it is now the basis for a legalbattle. The Red River Gorge Legal Defense Fund is su-ing the Corps on behalf of Kentucky chapters of theAudubon Society, "Save our Red River the SierraClub and individual landowners. With an injunction cur-rently holding up construction of the dam, the case isnow before the U.S. District Court in Louisville.

In recent months, environmentalists from 18 stateshave pledged their support to the Defense Fund. Some44,000 people, mainly from Kentucky and southernOhio, have signed petitions against the project for pre-sentation to Kentucky Governor Julian Carroll. Twothousand people have marched on the state capitol inFrankfort in a peaceful protest. The U.S. National ParkService has proposed a "natural landmark" status forthe gorge, declaring it one of the finest examples avail-able of geological and ecological resources in the Ap-palachian Plateau.

But, undoubtedly, the most heartfelt of the oppositioncomes from Jimmy Skidmore and 54 of his neighbors,whose homes would be removed to make way for 60feet of water behind the dam.

Jimmy is a relative newcomer to the valley, his familyhaving arrived only 100 years ago. Most of the valleyresidents are descendants of settlers ,who camearound 1800, about the time Virginia's GovernorPatrick Henry made a private land grant of thousandsof acres in the gorge. Included in that tract is the smallfarm belonging to H.B. Farmer and his wife Tressie.

"When something like this comes to destroy you, youhave to go all out," Farmer said recently. So he madethe supreme effort. At age 70 he bought his first type-writer. "The dictionary burned in a house fire in 1944,"explains Farmer, who had never found it necessary toreplace it. He has only a few years of schooling, andmust look up words he wants to use by reading throughnewspapers and magazines, it takes a long time tocomplete one of the letters, but Farmer has now writtenmore than 300. "This is Eden," Farmer said one day,motioning toward a brook behind his home where dog-wood blossoms were reflected in the ripples.

The Red River Gorge is located along MountainParkway, 70 miles southeast of Lexington, Within theDaniel Boone National Forest. It was in this wilderness200 years ago that Boone discovered "nature was a

28

-series of wonders, and a fund of delight. Here she dis-played her ingenuity and industry, in a variety of flowersand fruits beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, andcharmingly flavored; and we were diverted with num-berless animals ..."

Visitors today are no less charmed by the hauntingpeauty of white water, stands of tall timber, the multicol-

-iored carpet of gentians, Dutbhman's-breeches, cardi-nal flower, Indian pipe and trout-lily, viewed from suchvantage points as "Angel Windows," "Cloud-splitterRock" and "Pinch-em Tight Ridge." To many people,preservation of this "little Grand Canyon" of the East isa must.

Everyone knows the environmental effects on thegorge would begin to be felt as soon as the Corpsmoved in the first bulldozer. Some wildlife, includingraccoon, gray squirrel, deer, grouse and beaver, wouldbe frightened away by the noise of construction. Theywould flee to join wildlifein neighboring habitats, result-ing in overcrowded living conditions that would soonexhaust the food supply. Some will die, according toCorps documents, including a unique colony of cornsnakes.

The overall character of the geological area, where763 species of plants have been found including 14that are rare and endangered would begin tochange. Forty-seven plant species, including fourknown nowhere else in Kentucky, would be flooded. Atone point in the gorge a rare association of beech, syc-amore, tulip poplar, hemlock, basswood, sugar mapleand other trees would be killed.

"I think there will be a change in plant life," ColonelJames Ellis, Army Corps district engineer, said in aninterview in his Louisville office. "I don't know if that'sfor the better or worse. You noght find out 15 or 20years from now we have a hardier, more attractive plantlife down there."

When Dr. Mary E. Wharton, retired after 27 years ashead of the biology department at Kentucky's George-town College, heard about the colonel's comment, shereplied, "Botanists, however, think the present, uncom-mon plant species will be replaced by the more com-mon box elder, willow and poison ivy."

Botanists from many Kentucky colleges now use thegorge as an outdoor laboratory. But its value in that ca-pacity would be greatly diminished by the dam, accord-ing to Dr. Wharton and Dr. Roger W. Barbour, a biolo-gist at the University of Kentucky. The wide range ofhabitats, from moist valleys to the dry ridges, providesa diverse environment capable of supporting numerousspecies. Drs. Wharton and Barbour have taken classesto the gorge for 25 years, and they have co-authoredtwo popular reference books A Guide to the Wildflo-wers and Ferns of Kentucky and Trees and Shrubs ofKentucky.

Geology students also find the gorge an exceptionallearning area. University of Kentucky Professor Carl M.Clark has termed it a "geological art gallery." Thearches such as the popular Sky Bridge, high on thepoint of a ridge, and Gray's Arch, large enough to holda moving van, are spectacular enough, but deep in aseldom-visited portion of the gorge is an "arch within an

36

arch" formation. Called "Cherokee," the 90-foot-longnatural bridge was formed inside a huge cave or "rock-house." It is 50 feet high and seven to eight feet thick.While the arches in the upper gorge would not beflooded, it is the overall change in the character of thewhole area that Kentucky scientists fear. One specialconcern is that the valley floors in the geological areamay become mud flats.

Archaeologists .have clearly identified signs of pre-historic Indian cultures. Archaic, Woodland and FortAncient in the gorge area. It is estimated by WesleyCowan, University of Kentucky field archaeologist, that31 of the sites left by these cultures would be inundatedby the reservoir. (The Corps says federal funds wouldbe available for an archaeological excavation beforethe waters come.)

Corps officials repeatedly remind the public that theyhave a "mandate from Congress" for the dam project.

Unless Congress changes its mind, they make it clearthat they plan to p roceed with preparations for con-

struction.

Their justification for the dam is based on severalclaimed benefits. The strongest of these is that the damwill reduce flooding at Clay City, a community of about1,000 downriver from the dam site. Yearly floods oftendamage crops in the area, but the last serious one af-

fecting the town occurred 13 years ago.

Opponents point out that the dam controls only theNorth Fork of the river, and that' flash floods could stilloccur at Clay City from the Middle and South Forks.The Corps admits this, but says its project was nevermeant to stop flooding only to reduce it. A flood soserious that it can be expected to occur only once in ten

years or more will thus affect only 4,500 acres, not7,200 as at present, the Corps says.

Dilemma I MAKE WAY FOR THE DAM

Gene Tucker 1,eld steadfast. He and his family werenot going to .nove. He had labored long and hard forhis 200 acres of fertile farmland and was not about togive it up. His farm was his entire life, and no one wasabout to take it away from him! Gene was not going tofollow along with his 50 other neighbors who meeklysold their farms. He was going to stay and fight thegovernment and its plan to build the dam. If the damwas built, his farm would become part of the newlyformed lake.

John Sneed, sheriff of the county, had known Genesince their school-boy days. He tried to talk some

,

sense into Gene, but without success. Gene was stub-born. John in the meantime, received world from theEngineer Corps informing him that construction was tostart in a month and all persons living in the affectedarea were to be evacuated. John's task was to makesure all persons left. He realized that the only way tomove Gene and his family was by force. He and hisdeputies could certainly get the Tucker family out oncethey appeared armed with guns.

Should John follow his orders and force the Tuckerfamily to move? Why?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

t, Why should it be important for John to follow his orders?

What should be John's most important consideration in making his decision? Why?

Should the fact that Gene was a friend for many years make any difference in John's decision? Why or why not?

Should a friend be treated any differently from anyone else? What if he didn't know Gene?

If the government decides that a project is necessary and has many benef;ts. does it have a right to force people

to sell their property? Why or why not?

Does a person have a right to his/her property even if it prevents the construction of a public project? Why or

why not?How does the government determine that it is being fair to everyone?

Is Gene being selfish by wanting to keep his farm and stop the dam from being built on that location? Why or

why not?Is there anything that the government can do to try to help Gene and his family? Should it be expected to do.

that? Why or why not?If the government pays Gene a fair price for his land, shouldn't that be enough? Why or why not?

How should the government, or anyone for that matter, decide on building projects that would displace many

residents?What reasons are there for Gene to abide by the government's decision as his neighbors did?

'3729

.. -

4

Activity 3: The Dam Builders (Continued)

PART B Plants, Animals and DamgIntroductory Readings

Reading 6

We Must DecideWhich Species Will Go Foreverby Thomas Lovejoy

. . There is increasing dwareness about endangeredspecies such as the California condor (Smithsonian,March 1972). The problem is generally confronted on aspecies-by-species basis: the Mauritius kestrel. withnine individuals; the whooking crane with 85 (61 wildbirds, 24 in captivity); the Sumatran rhinoceros withfewer than 50. That there de endangered species ofplants as well some 20,000 of them worldwide isunknown to most. Generally, the whole lot of en-dangered species seem to be Lewis Carroircreatureswith a rather never-never-land existence. it id symp-tomatic that meny people believe the dodo's.existencewas confined tcj Alice in Wonderland, rather than beingone of the first birds exterminated in historic times.

One of the most fundamental Units in nature, the spe-cies is one of the easiest for the human mind to grasp,unfortunately leading people to think of endangermentand extinction as a series of discrete events, ratheithan as something that takes place at an estimablerate. Extinctien is not only as old as the history of life onour planet, but the usual fate for-an overwhelming ma-jority of species. These natural extinctions were usuallycaused by the evolution of new, more competitive andsuccessful forms of life or by normal environmentalchange. The' extinction rate has fluctuated,.but in gen- 'eral it has increased. At the same time, the number ofextant species on the planet has continued to increase,with 'only occasional minor setbacks, until today the to-tal species number somewhere between three and tenmillion.

This excerpted selection is reprinted by permission from Smithsonian Magazine, July 1976, pp. 52-58. Copyright1976 Smithsonian Institution

30 369

At least within historic time, however, and more likelygoing back into the Paleolithic Age, a new and insidi-oug extinction process has been introduced. In additionto natural ones, man-made extinctions have been oc-curring at first quite selectively to eliminate competi-tion or dangerous animals, or by overexploitation oflarge edible species (it is known prehistoric Mancaused the disappearance of at least such large ani-mals as the elephant bird or roc of Madagascar and thegiant ground sloth of the New World), Increasingly,Man has exerted stress, often not deliberate, on theecosystems of the planet These systems respond byshedding species just as a plant sheds leaves in re-sponse to the stress of drought or cold, and once aspecies is shed by all the ecosystems in which it natu-rally belongs, extinction results. The result is impover-

, ishment of the biota of the planet, a reduction of itsability to support Man and other forms of life. The prob-lem of endangered species is not, therefore% a hypo-thetical one, as some may wishfully believe; biotic im-poverishment is an irreversible process that hasprofound consequences for the future of Man.

There is no question that extinction rates are acce-lerating. A graph of historic extinctions of birds andmammals follows the same curve as one for humanpopulation growth, but the real extinction rates of his- 'toric times are undoubtedly several times higher be-cause, among other reasons, it is almost impossible toremove a single species from an ecosystem withouttaking dependent species with it.

Today, with soaring human population increase andwith the technological ability to assault nature improv-ing to the point where we are capable of wiping outentire ecosystems, extinction rates are going upwardexponentially. This is taking place long before the in-ventory of the planet s species is anywhere near com-pletion. Scientist have described over a million spqcies

perhaps as many as one and a half million leavingthe job 50 to 85 percent incomplete, depending on whatestimate one takes of the total number of species onthe planet.

Species are becoming extinct today before they areknown to Man. Usually we remain in eternal ignoranceof what we have lost. Who on receiving a packagewould toss it out before looking inside? Yet that is whatwe are doing with our biological heritage.

The tropical forest regions of the globe are some ofthe richest, both in terms of total species numbers andin terms of undpscribed species. Probably only half thefresh-water fish species in the Amazon drainage andf emir than half the soil mites of Amazon soils areknowh to science. Yet the tropical rain forest is beingdestroyed at an unprecedented rate. Two-thirds of thesou1heast Asian rain forests are gone, half of the Afri-can rain forests, and more than one-third of the virginforests of the Amazon have been cut over.

Many of the species of these virgin forests are com-pletely dependent on this primary vegetation and willjoin the dodo in Vivion if all these forests are cut.Luckily, in the Amazon at any. rate, the cutover areasare patchily distributed. Although substantial numbersof described and undescribed species have probably

.4 c

The American Bald Eagle

become extinct within the last few years, we have notlost the huge number that would have gone had a conti-guous one-third of that forest been cut. . . .

Among the firSt species to go are large animals, onesrequiring large land areas for existence, and often atthe end of long food chains. We have little idea of whatconsequences removing a species at the end of a sin-gle food chain would have for an eccsysterri.i

Many of these first species to go are quite secureunder natural conditions, but that very seeurity makes

ihem singularly vulnerable to unnatural disturbance byMan. Island species are typical examples; with smallpopulations, they are in equilibrium with their insularenvironment which, once breached, is too small to af-ford opportunities for escape. Many of thd large ani-mals have a sirnilarly vulnerable security; as species ofstable environments, they have evolved to be closely intune with that stability, and in'cloing so have sacrificedthe ability to recover rapidly from disruption. They livelong, begin reproduction late in life and have fewyoung. Whales, whooping cranes, great apes, ele-phants all are similarly vulnerable for this reasdn.. . .

Can we possibly save a representative series of spe-cies as living museum collections, scattered in variousprotected ecosystems throughput the world? If thiswere possible, then once Man's mad assault on thenatural systems of the planet abates, once The enor-mous population increases already essentially inevita-ble are checked and population diminishes to reason-able levels, and if only we haven't spread too many poi-s,ons about, then might a portion of the planet be re-claimed by the wild? Evengiven all the ifs, it would notbe possible without that representative series. Extinc-

. 31

v*, s

tion is permanent; final. Man with all his terrifying abilityto destroy species and ecosystems will never have thepower to resurrect even a single indMdual of even onespecies he has eliminated.

Environmental triage has not been widely practicedin the past. When the numbers of endangered specieswere smal% it did not seem necessary to Choose be-tween trying to save the ivory-billed woodpecker or thewhooping crane. With longer and growing lists of en-dangered species such choices are being forced.Man's appetite for cellulose is so insatiable it wouldshame a termite; is it then realistic to try to save hole-nesting birds such as the Puerto Rican parrot (20 birds)which require large old timber tracts?

Should triage be based on the ease or difficulty withwhich a species might be saved? perhaps we should

32

write off the most endangered *cies, and concentrateon those for which our efforts won't be easily jeopar-dized by random events. Would it be Wiser to take the$15,000 currently devoted yearly to the nine Mauritiuskestrels and use it to establish a reserve for the 100 orso St. Lucia parrots, or a reserve for the pigmy hogs ofthe Terai of Assam and possibly Nepal, once thought tobe extinct but rediscovered in part through the efforts ofGerald Durrell's Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (seeSmithsonian, September 1972)? Should we trylo savethe leopard rather than the cheetah, becaut,e thespace needs of the latter are so demanding? Wouldthe conservation community suffer a loss of faith if anendangered species were to be deliberately written off,or is it the only way the point can be made about theplight of the world's animals and plants?

CI

Reading 7

The Endangered Species Actby Kevin Shea

I.

oIn Youngstown, Ohio, a commdn pleas judge recentlyruled that pigeons do not have constitutkinal rights. TheU.S. ConstitUtion guarantees the !ife, liberty, and prop-erty of citizens, noted Judge Sidney Rigelhaupt, but"the court can find nothing ,ip the Constitution whichguarantees similar rights to pigeons:" With that pro-nouppcement, the court lifted a temporary restraining or-der preventing the city health department from poison-ing, a flock of.downtown pigeons. The judge was right,'0 course, but had the city been faced with a plague oflong-tailed ground rollers or light-footed clapper railsthe outcome of the case might have been entirely dif-ferent, because those two birds along with severalhundred other animals and a 'few,plants_ nave beendesignated by the Department of the Interior as en-dangered species and placed on the department's en-dangered species list. As will be seen, once an animalis placed on the list all members of that species are, ina sense, gukanteed life andilberty. Furthermore, if youcan call their habitat property, that may be guaranteedas well..

I

The law ttlit grants this protection to certain non-human residents of the U.S. Isome protection is alsoafforded sp6cies in other countries) is the EndangeredSpecies Apt of 1973, which is juSt now being recog-nized as ope of the toughest and most uncompromisingenvironmental laws ever passed by the U.S. Congress.Alreadvlegal actiont brought under provialons of theact have halted two major federal water prbjects andforced, the Department of Transportation to relocate aninterchange on a federal highway in Mississippi. Butthat seems to be only the beginning. According to theU.S. Fish and Wldlife Service, which is the Department

4iThe excerpted selection is reprinted by permission for Environment, Vol. 19, No. 7, October 1977, pp. 7-15.

33

of the Interior agency responsible for carrying out theprovisions of the act, the endangered species list soonwill include about 120 different aquatic animals living inhabitats threatened by government dams. Further-more, it is fairly certain that, as environmentalists dis-cover the unyielding nature of the act and the broadopportunity it provides for bringing legal action, we willbe hearing a great deal more about madtom catfish,pearly mussels, and furbish louseworts.

Congress is becoming restive about these develop-ments, and many congressmen who voted for the act(passed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate and avote of 355 to 4 in the House), thinking they were votingto save bald eagles, leopards, and timer wolves, wereunaware that their vote might help slam the lid on thepork-barrel. As one congressional aide put it, "If youstart cutting public aid projects, you'll have a hue andcry from every congressman and congresswoman inthe country." At the present time there are three bills,two in the House and one in the Senate, that ,wouldweaken certain parts of the act to allow federal Objectsto proceed.

What the Act Does

The purpose of the act is quite simple. Beginning in thelast half of the nineteenth century and continuing untilnow, the rate at which animals and plants were becom-ing extinct increased rapidly. The overwhelming major-ity of these extinctions were caused by people, throughnabitat alteration, hunting, and perhaps even pollution.The Endangered Species Act is an attempt to slow therate at which species are becoming extinct by singlingout those plants and animals that are thought to benear extinction (endangered) and giving them specialprotection. In the words of the ak,t itself, it is a measure"to provide a means whereby the ecosystems uponwhich endangered species and threatened species de-pend may be conserved (and) to provide a program forthe conservation of such endangered and threatenedspecies."

The chief "provider" is the federal government itself.The act declares it the policy of Congress that all fed-eral departments and agencies shall seek to conserveendangered species and threatened species and shallutilize their authorities in furtherance of the purpose ofthe act, several specific provisions of the act implementthis purpose.

One can imagine the palpitations the act causedamong federal bureaucrats reading it for the first time.

3 4

Federal agencies must "use all methods and proce-dures which are necessary to bring any endangeredspecies or threatened species to the point at which themeasures provided . .. are no longer necessary." Thatis how the statute defines conservation. The definitiongoes on to give some ideas on what methods might beused to conserve endangered species but is careful notto limit the methods to those mentioned. It should alsobe noted that the definition does not say that agenciesshall use all practical methods to conserve en-dangered species but rather all necessary methods.

Probably the most potent definition in the statute andthe one causing the most consternation on Capitol Hillis the definition of "fish and wildlife." To most of us,those words mean animals we catch with a rod, shootwith a gun, or look at through binoculars. We may nowadd those we look at through a microscope or smashwith a fly-swatter. In the statute, "fish and pildlife"means any member of the animal kingdom, including,without limitation, any mammal, fish, bird, amphibian,reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, or other inver-tebrate, as well as any part, product, egg, or offspringthereof, or the dead body or parts therof.

Since one of the major prohibitions in the act is thatwhich deals with "taking" endangered species, the defi-nition of "take" is also jrnportant. In the statute, "take"means to harass!, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound,kill, trap, or collect or attempt to do so. In the regula-tions issued by the secretary of the interior to imple-ment the law, however, "harass" came to mean an in-tentional or negligent act or omission which created thelikelihood of injury to wildlife by annoying it to such anextent as to significantly disrupt normal behavioral pat-terns. In other words, it is never a good idea to be in thepresence of an endangered species, since 'uninten-tional harassment could occur.

Not only that, it may not be a good idea to be in thepresence of a species that looks like an endangeredspecies, for it may be listed, too. The act gives the sec-retary of the interior authority to liSt animals or plants.that are so similar in appearance to listed species that itmakes protection of the endangered species difficult.While this is a little-used section of the act, it has verybroad implications, since closely related species are of-ten difficult to distinguish. The most useful purpose ofthis section is to prevent the importation of commercialproducts which are derived from endangered speciesbut enter the U.S. labeled as products from nonpro-tected species.

Dilemma 2 The Endangered Plant

thriving there. The dam would flood the area and de-stroy forever this plant. They argued that dam con-struction simply had to be stopped!

The environmentalist brought a lawsuit to halt thedam construction. They contended that this plant hadbeen placed on the endangered species list and wasprotected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Anygovernment activity that would change or destroy thehabitat of a threatened species had to cease.

Supporters of the power project, on the other hand,argued that the dam would bring new benefits for thepeople of the state. The dam would help controlfloods, produce electric power fOr homes and industry,and provide lake recreation.

The else was presented to the court for a decision.Should the judges order dam construction be halted?Or, should the judges permit the construction to con-tinue? Why?

A botanist, conducting a study of the river valley soonto be covered by a lake created by the new dam, cameupon a startling discovery. While walking along theriver's edge, she found a plant long thought to be ex-tinct. It was a slender fern-like plant with small yellowblossoms, a distant relative to the snap dragon. Ex-ploring further, she discovered that clumps of theseplants grew only along a certain stretch of the river.

The news of her findings quickly spread throughnewspapers and scientific journals. The local environ-ment groups were jubilant over the discovery. How-ever the joy was soon displaced by the realization thatthe power project and dam construction would destroyall these plants growing along the river bank.

Although the $700 million dollar power project waswell underway, the environmental groups felt thatnothing should stand in the way of preserving this spe-cial plant. Since it was found nowhere else, the uniquecondition of this river must be the reason for the plant

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Should the fact that the dam is near completion be an important consideration when the judges make theirdecision? Why or why not?

Since this plant is listed as an endangered species and protected by law, is that reason enough for the judges tostop construction? Why or why not?

If the plant species has little value to people (e.g., food, shelter, medicine) should that make any difference in thedecision? Why or why not?

Is it more important to protect only plants which have known benefits to people? Why? What if a benefit (e.g.cure for cancer) were discovered after that spet.ies became extinct? Is that important to consider? Why or why not?

Biologists argue that a W ide diversity of plant and animal life is important to the survival ofall life on this planetShould this be an important idea for the judges to consider? Why or why. not?

Through people's various activities many species of life have been extinguished or threatened. Should peoplechange their ways, even if it means making great and costly sacrifices? Why or why not?

!fa plant or animal species interferes with the needs of people, should that species be allowed to perish? Why orwhy not? What if there was an urgent need for drinking water? Recreation?

Do people have the right to determine which species should survive and which should perish? Why or why not?

Should plants and animals have a right to survive? Why or why not?

How can the rights of Plants and animals be best protected?Should it be important for people to try to protect all species of life? Why or why not?Suppose the group which brought up the lawsuit had been fighting the dam to keep the river unchanged for white

water canoeing and used the plant as the excuse for protecting their recreational area. Should that make a differ-ence in the judges' decision? Why or why not?

35

Activity 3: The Dam Builders (continued)

PART C Distributing Power in the Northwest

Background:

A serious battle is Liu i ently. iaging in the Northwest.The controersy is oer wbo should get the electricpower produLed by the series of dams built along theColumbia and its tributanes. These federally built andoperated dams supply 80r;; of the electricity for theNorthwest. When the dams were originally built, there

was an excess of electricity and the government poweragency, Bonneville Power Administration, was able tooffer the power at a very low cost. This low costpower, about one half the rate charged in other parts ofthe country, attracted industry, particularly the alumi-num smelting companies.

The situation of abundant electricity has sincechanged. With population growth ,and increased elec-t' icity demands there is no longer enough electricity to.go around. The agency now wants to stop supplyingpower to pH% ately owned utility companies. Much ofthe problem stems from the original policy guidelinesfor selling electricity to potential customers. The pol-icy establishes three classes of customers:

Electric Power From The Dams

Industrial Users: To attract the aluminum industry tolocate in the area the agency offered long-term con-tracts. The contracts also guaranteed the consumerlarge amounts of electricity at reduced rates. Atpresent these companies use one-third of the powerproduction.

Public Utilities: These utilities are, operated by stateor local governments and have first priority to pur-Lhase the agen.4 produced power. Most Washingtonstate residents are sered by the state run public utility.Since the utility buy s power from the government

36

tgency, Washingtonians pay less for power than resi-dents in other areas.

Private Utilities: These utilities are owned by the in-vestors of the company. Most of Oregon is served byprivate utilities. They have last priority to the powerand do not have long-term contracts with the agency.Aith each subsequent year they receive I ess and less ofthe 'power.

At present, the private utilities want to reestablish aspublic utilities (city or state run). In doing so, they canthen qualify as first priority customers. They will be

LI

1.

eligible to be first on the list for the electrical power.However, the agency claims that it does not haveenough power and refusgs to ac.Lept new customers. Itargued that it cannot meet the new requests withoutdropping its old customers. .

How should this problem be resolved to everyone'ssatisfac tion?

Customer Viewpoints

Aluminum Industry

"We are one of the most important industries in theNorthwest and supply one-th d of all U.S. aluminum.The dernand for aluminuM I continue to increase asrnore cars are built with aluminum. Aluminum cars arelighter weight wid therefore use less gasoline. We mayuse a large amount qf energy in our smthing process,but in the long run we are helping our country conserveenergy by snaking it possible to produce lighter weightcars."

"The main reason we moved our plants here is thatwe were promised low cost electricity. The agencysigned contracts that guaranteed us electricity to meetour needs for the next twenty years. Without sufficientelectricity we will be forced to close down or moveelsewhere. Relocation will run in the hundreds of mil-lions dollars. The cost of electricity elsewhere is threeto five times more. If that happens, the price of alumi-num will soar. Think of all the products that requirealuminum. All these products will cost snore if our pro-dm lion costs increase. Additionally, the 12,000workers that $te now employ will lose tiwirjobs."

Utility Companies in Washington(publicly owned)

"The power that we buy from the agency serves over65% of the state's residents. It is important that thecost of electricity be kept low, because the homes builthere are all electric. Therefore, homeowners requirelarge amounts of electricity. If the costs go up, thepoor and retired people on fixed incomes will be indeep financial straits. We must look out for the welfare

, of the people.""Moreover, we have, by law, first priority to the

power. When the agency was established, the law gaveit permission to sell power to industry only after allresidential and farm demands had been served. Thelaw gives us the right to the electricity."

"If we have to produce our own power we wouldhave to build coal-fired or nuclear plants. Coal plantswould dirty our air. N uclear plants would presentradioactive dangers. We certainly do not want to en-danger the health and safety of our residents."

Utility Companies in Oregon(privately owned)

"Our residents have never benefited from the hy-droelectric power from the dams built with federalmoney. Yet, they, too, as taxpayers should be entitled

to something. For example, the cost for the sameamount of electricity for persons living in this state isover two and one-half times more than that for personsjust across the river in Washington. That doesn't seemfair." .

"4 bill has just been passed for the state to take overthe operation of all private utility companies. Being apublic utility should give us first priority to the BPApower, but the agency now tells us that it would notaccept new customers."

"With increases in our state's population we willneed more electric power. We can build more coal-firedplants, but high construction costs will add to the costof electricity. Also air pollution is becoming a seriousproblem in our largest city. The coal plants will furtheraggravate the problem."

"It is time that we receive a share ofclean, inexpen-sive hydro-electric power. Why can't there be someway for all of us to benefit?" ..

Resolution of the Dispute

Procedure

Group Meeting Meet in groups of three. Eachperson will select one of the classes of power cus-tomers (Washington, Oregon or Aluminum Industry)and represent its point of view.

Based on the background information and ygourown ideas, present the arguments for your position andoffer what you think is the best solution to the problemfrom your point of view. (Remember it is important toinsure that you have enough electricity to meet yourneeds.)

After all the arguments and viewpoints have beenpresented, discuss the possible solutions. Do any ofthe solutions best satisfy the needs of everyone? If thesolutions were modified and some compromises weremade, will everyone be satisfied?

Try to come to an agreement with your groupmembers on a solution that will be fair to everyone.Summarize that solution into a 3-5 minute presentationto be presented at the next class meeting. Include anexplanation as to why you think the solution will bestresolve the dispute.

Class Meeting A spokesperson froth each groupwill present the group's solution at the meeting of theentire class. Class members at this time will have anopportunity to question each of the presenters.

At the end of each presentation, each presenter willbriefly outline the essential elements of the solution onthe board. These solutions will be judged by the classmembers after all presentations have been made.

The Vote Each member of the dais will cast oneballot for the solution he/she believes will best solvethe problem. Which solution received the greatestnumber of votes?

45 37

- Section II:Unplanned Environmental Changes

ACTIVITY 4: HUMAN ACTIVITY AND CHANGE

AllAdlill:1111.

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-4. _16.7."

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A Man-Made Environment

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INTRODUCTION:

"Tor thousanth of lear, men have dreamed of natural plea.sures in .some mythical Arcadia, butthey have spent a very large pent ntage of their waking hours toiling to modify nature. Evenstronger than man's biological urge for natural ways of life is his conviction that he can andshould transfOrm the world to make it a better and liappier place. This was symbolized by theancient Greeks in the myth of Prometheus, the demi-god who stole fire from Zeus and broughta down to num. A ( «ifding to the Prometheus myth the «mtrol of fire made man superior toanimals by enabling hat: to make tools, warm hi.s dwellings, engage in trade, develop medicine,and create the arts.

There is no indication in the myth or in reality for that matter that Promethean frnan ishappier than Arcadian man or than wild animals. But he difkrs from then: in deriving auniquely human a tisfirc tion from tnanipulating nature to create new patterns and new valuesaccording to his desires. In A esclo lns's play Prometheus Bound, the demi-god takes immensepride in having enabled men to use nature fior their own ends and thereby to become ,uallyhuman.

Promethean num believes that, through hIs techniques and his labor, he can re-create para-dise ks impo.sing order on the chaotic wilderness. During the Middle Ages, the Benedictinemonks even felt a was their duty to improve nature, as if they were acting as partners of God in«mipleting the Diving Creation. They used fire, windmills, and watermills to convert wilder-ness into a modified form of nature more suitable to human use, more pleasing to human eyes,and, as they believed, more appropriate to the worship of God,"

Rene Dubos, A God Within, 1972

.,.

In the preceding selection, Rene Dubos identifiesmodern man with the Greek god, Prometheus, whouses his skills and tools to dominate nature. In doingso, nature undergoes changes. Human activity is thusseen as a continuous process of changing the naturalworld to serve human needs and to reinforce people'ssense of superiority.

Do y ou think this is an aLcurate description ofhuman nature?

What types of evidence support Dr. Dubos'contention?

40

One can, with certainty, say that any activityproduces change. Some changes, however, seem sominor and insignificant that they go unnoticed. Others,of course, are major changes that bring about furtherand perhaps different types.of changes.

For example, consider an activity in which you tookpart during the past week. Examine that activity fol-low ing the format shown below. Answer the questionson a separate piece of paper.

TABLE 1: Example Of An Activity

I. Activity Played a game of baseball.

2.

3.

4.

5.

How did you plan it?.

% .

Called friends; arranged a car pool; gatheredequipment; etc.

What were all the things you had to con-skier?

Find a convenient time; check the weather;make sure everyone had a ride; etc.

Did it occur as you planned? What wasdifferent?

Catcher sprained his finger; lost ball; had tostop early; etc.

Did it change you in any way? Describe. Felt proud of my two home runs; very hungryafter game, etc.

6. Did it in any way affect people aroundyou? Describe,

Everyone had a good time; parents tookcatcher to the emergency room; they were latefor their dinner party. /

7. Did the activity have any effect on theland or other living things? Describe,

-

Trampled tall grasses looking for lost ball;scared some rabbits; crushed an ant hill.

,

The example given on previous page may seem likean ordinary activity that has very little relationship toanything else. However, if one begins to examine eachitem involved, it suddenly becomes interconnected tomany other things which in turn affects other types ofchanges. Let's think about some of these:

Carstransportation to/from ballfield - manufacturingsteel and plastics, assembly of auto parts, buildingof highway and roads.

Gasoline to power carsdrilling oil wells, pipe lines, refining crude oil,shipping to gas stations.

Maintaining ballfieldplanting, fertilizing and mowing grass, buildingbackstops and bases.

Hospital emergency roommedical equipment and supplies, training doctorsand nurses, record keeping.

Communications.developing telephone technology, manufacturingphones and equipment, connecting lines, repairingequipment.Clothes worn and baseball equipmentmanufacturing materials, laundering clothing, etc.

Thus, a number of other activities are involved inmaking that ball game possible. When one includesthose items in the total picture. one can easily imagine

I

the many ways the environment has changed in order.to support that activity.

It is relatively simple to trace the many interconnec-tions of activities which have taken place or activitiesin which we take part. It is more difficult to predicthow the use of new technologies or the combinationsof many activities might produce unplanned effects.Some effects go unnoticed for many years, but thenaccumulate to produce sudden, drastic and quite oftenundesirable effects.

The use of DDT is often the example cited to illus-trate how a "in racle" insecticide has become an envi-ronmental ctir e. When first put into general use,farmers glorifi its ability to protect crops from insectpests, easily qnd inexpensively. -Soon insects becameresistent to i , and larger quantities were required tocontrol pests). Unfortunately, this chemical does not

mals. DDT rogresses up the food chains and eventu-break down and remains in water, soil and ani-

ally up to hu ans. DDT is also found in deep sea fish,thousands o miles from where it was applied. The de-cline in popu ation of many animal species can be at-tributed to th toxic effects of DDT.

When we e bark on various'activities or apply newtechnologies t e intent is to benefit mankind. Never-theless, in man cases, other unintended situations arecreated, produ ing undesirable results. In the activi-ties that follow fhe effects of unplanned environmentalchanges are exa ined. As we become more aware ofpossible future ects, perhaps we will begin to planour actions with ,greater diligence or rethink what wepresently do. \

4 3

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41

lorilmoommoml

Activity 5: Unintentional Weather Changes

PART A Pollution and Rainfall

Reading 8

Changing Climateby Richard D. James

When people in LaPorte, Ind., want to schedule a pic-nic, they might do well to first check the productionplans of the big stael mills in Gary, 30 miles to the north-west. The reason: When steel output goes up in Gary,more rain comes down on LaPorte. The precipitation istriggered by smoke from the mills, weather experts say.

Though scientists have long suspected dirty air mightchange the weather, they devoted little research to thesubject until recently. But now stepped-up research in-dicates pollution is becoming so bad that it's alteringthe weather over hundreds of thousands of squaremiles of the United States and possibly the global cli-mate as well.

"We're putting astronomical quantities of materialsinto the atmosphere, and there's no question it's affect-ing the weather," says Charles L. Hosier, a meteorolo-gist and dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sci-ences at Pennsylvania State University. "I'm afraid thechanges are already greater than most people suspect,and there may be a threshold beyond which smallchanges in the weather could bring about a major shiftin the world's climate."

Increased rainfall is just one effect of pollution on theweather. In some cases, the contamination actually re-duces precipitation. Mounting evidence indicates, too,that dirty air helps raise cities' temperatures by prevent-ing the escape of heat generated in the cities, prolong-ing their frost-free season as much as 60 days. Itscreens off sunlight and produces fog, hail and thun-derstorms. And those who contend pollution is felt on aglobal scale say it has weakened trade winds, in-creased,cloud cover and, in contrast to its effect in ur-ban areas, lowered the earth's temperature.

The processes by which pollution changes.theweather aren't fully understood, but scientists thinkthey know generally what's happening. Man-made pol-&Alutants that are sprewed into the sky each year. anestimated 160 mifflon tons from the U.S. and 800 mil-lion tons world-wide have loaded the earth's air withdust.

Reprinted from The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., December.,31, 1969. All rights reserved.

42

The turbidity, or dustiness, of the atmosphere inplaces with supposedly "clean" country air, such asnorthern Arizona, Yellowstone National Park and theAdirondack Mountains, has increased tenfold in thepast decade, recent research has shown. Over the Pa-cific Ocean, the dustiness of the air increased 30% in10 years, and the dust fall in central Asia, as measuredby Russian scientists, is 19 times as great at it was in

1930.

The dust particles are otten so small much lessthan 1/25,000th of an inch in diameter that they'reinvisible to the naked eye. But they are highly effectivecloud-forming agents. They strongly attract water va-por, which condenses and freezes on them, forming icecrystals. These, in turn, form clouds. If sufficient mois-ture is present, the cloud droplets grow and eventuallyfall as rain.

Precipitation generated by pollution in this fashionisn't a freak occurrence. Researchers think it can hap-pen any place where the air is dirty, and they havefound several cases to support their theory. For in-stance, Belleville, III., 10 miles southeast and down-

wind of St. Louis, receives about 7% more rain an-nually than areas upwind of St. Louis where the air iscleaner. The added moisture falls mainly on weekdays,when pollution from automobiles and industry in St.Louis is heaviest. Belleville even gets more rain thanSt. Louis itself because the prevailing winds tend toblow the pollution away from the city. In the past 18

years, Belleville has had rainfall of at least a quarter-inch on 83 More days than St. Louis. All but one ofthose rainy days were weekdays: the other wa& a Sat-urday.

LaPorte, though, is by far the most dramatic examplediscovered so far. Its situation was documented byStanley Changnon, a meteorologist with the IllinoisState Water Survey, a state agency engaged in study-ing the area's water resources. Chicago's automobilesand factories, as well as the Gary steel mills, he ex-plains, throw huge quantities of two rain-producing in-

gredients into the air water vapor and the dust parti-cles on which it can condense and freeze. Flyingthrough the orange plumes of smoke streaming fromstacks of the mills, researchers have found billions ofice crystals being formed.

Wind sweeps the polluted air southeastward. Manycommunities along the route feel the effects, but La-Porte bears the brunt. Between 1946 and 1967 itaveraged 47.1 inches of precipitation a year. This was19 inches or 47% more rain than fell at stations upwindof Chicago and the mills. There's no indication the pat-tern is any different now.

Mr. Changnon considers it highly unlikely that thesoaking the town gets is due to chance or to nearbyLake Michigan. For one thing, during the 1955-65 pe-riod LaPorte had 31% more moisture than nearbyweather stations that also would feel any effect fromthe lake.

Two other facts are even more convincing. LaPorte'srain pattern generally matches .the number of days ofhaze and smoke in Chicago, a rough indication of theair pollution level. And the town's rainfall rises and falls

in concert with the area's steel output. "Peaks in steelproduction occurred seven times between 1923\ and1962, and all of these Were associated with highOnLaPorte's precipitation," Mr. Changnon says.

Sometimes pollution has just the opposite effect.Clouds can become so over-seeded that no rain falls.This occurs when pollution generates so many dustparticles that none of them can attract enough moistureto grow to raindrop size. One of the best-documentedexamples of this is in the sugar-producing arevofOdeansland, Australia. During the cane-harvestingseason, the cane leaf is burned off before cutting andharvesting, casting palls of thick smoke over wideareas. Downwind of these areas, rainfall is reduced upto 25% from levels in neighboring regions unaffectedby the smoke.

Vincent J. Schaeffer, director of the Atmospheric Sci-ences Research Center at the State University of NewYork, believes the same proce3s has modified the char-acter of rain and snow over the Northeastern U.S. dur-ing the past five years. "Instead of the downpours weused to receive, we get fine, misty rains and snows inwhich the drops are so small they tend to drift downrather than fall," he says. "We had more than 20 ofthese this year. We used to see only two or three ayear." Rains and snows of this type can drift great dis-tances, changing a region's precipitation pattern, Mr.Schaeffer says.

Air pollution can produce dense fogs, tob. PennState's Dean Hosier has studied and photographed ex-tensively a massive fog bank 1,000 feet high that formsregularly near a paper mill in Lock Haven, Pa., andspreads 23 miles down the Bald Eagle Valley. "The fogappears about a third of the time, especially in fall andwinter," he says. "Normally there wouldn't be any thereat all. It appears on days when little or no fog is ob-served elsewhere in the state. This type of thing is re-peated all over the country hundreds of times in differ-ent locations."

Scientists believe violent weather occurs more oftenwith polluted air than with clean air. Downtown St. Louisduring one eight-year period averaged five more daysof thunderstorms a year than a rural area 13 miles up-wind with less pollution, an 11% difference. Chicago'sMidway airport had 5% more thunderstorms thanO'Hare Field, 16 miles northwest in an area of presUm-ably cleaner air. And LaPorte in 14 years has had 130days of hail, four times as many as surroundingweather stations. "We really don't know how or whypollution causes these changes," says Mr. Changnon.

Dirty air is responsible for more subtle weatherchanges as well. Acting as a blanket, it is one factoralong with the massive amounts of heat-absorbing con-crete that keeps cities warmer than suburbspy re-taining the heat from industry, autos, furnaces andother sources. Average annual minimum temperatUresin the center of Washington, D.C., for instance, runaround 49 degrees, five degrees higher than outlyingareas. Temperature differences are greatest on week-days, when pollution mainly from autos isgreatest. In New Haven, Conn., the minimum tempera-ture on Sundays differs from the countryside by only

u43

1.2 degrees. During weekdays the difference is twicethat.

Variations of that magnitude have a great impact onthe frost-free period of 197 days; in surrounding coun-ties it's about 160 days. To find open countryside with afrost-free time as long as downtown Chicago's, youwould have to go 400 miles south. Meteorologists sayalmost none of the temperature difference betweenChicago and surrounding areas is attributable to theheat-retaining effects of Lake Michigan. The lake, theysay, warms the entire region city and rural areasalike.

A blanket of pollution also means less sunlight ayear-round average of 15% to 20% less than surround-ing countryside in many cities, it's estimated. Duringthe four months of winter, the center of London getsonly about 96 hours of sunshine, compared with asmuch as 268 hours in the open countryside. Even atthat, London gets about 50% more sunshine than it didprior to the enactment in 1956 of smoke control laws.

Not all weather-changing pollution originates withautos or factories. Scientists say jet airplane emissions

\ high in the atmosphere are affecting the weather in\ many parts of the world. In some areas, for instance,

pollution from heavy jet aircraft traffic has noticeablyincreased the cloudiness, they say. "In the alley be-tween New York and Chicago, below which I happen tolive in Pennsylvania, we get cirrus clouds 90% of thetime now," says Dean Hosier. "Most of them wouldn'thave been there naturally before. They are formedstrictly by.the thousands of jet aircraft flying overhead."

Reid A. Bryson, University of Wisconsin meteorologyprofessor, says the same phenomenon is occurring inthe air lanes t etween New York and London. Cloudcover in this rugion has increased by 10%, he esti-mates, and he adds that cirrus clouds could well attain100% coverage with the advent of the supersonic jettransports.

44o

"For every pound of fuel a jet bums it releases apound and a quarter of water. At those height's20,000 to 40,000 feet that will saturate a very Ilrgevolume of air because it's so cold," PrOf. Bryso

ti,

ex-.plains. "It's like exhaling on a cold morning. ThO jetsalso put out dust particles, so they're providing a coupleof things needed for cloud formation. And there' onejet approximately every six minutes across the NorthAtlantic. That makes for a lot of clouds."

Along with the greater dustiness of the atmo phere,the clouds are contributing to another phenom nonthe world-wide cooling trend, Prof. Bryson anØ otherssay. There's little argument that since 1940 the averageannual temperature of the world as a whqle hasdropped by one-third to one-half a degree '7- whichdoesn't seem like much until you consider that the. la-test ice age was brought about by a temperature dropof only four or five degrees The weather scientists ar-gue that the dirt and clouds have increased to a pointwhere they are reflecting away enough sunlight to over-ride other factors that would tend to raise the tempera-ture of the earth. One such factor is the growingamount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, resultingfrom increased combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon diox-ide acts as a one-way filter, permitting the sun's rays topass through but deflecting the heat given off by theearth.

Prof. Bryson concedes that meteorologists don't yethave enough information to predict what wilNiappen tothe climate in the future, but he adds: "The only basiswe do have is to look at the past to see what did hap-pen. Looking at the climate of the past, it is clear thatsmall changes in the past 10,000 years had very largeecological effects and they can happen bloody fast.The end of the ice age took less than a century ka-powl It's fast, and that worries me because we don'tknow but what in a few years we could have a signifi-cant change that would disrupt our entire climate. Andthat includes where we grow corn and wheat."

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Dilemma 3 RAIN, UNWANTED AT HARVEST TIME

The midwestern farm community of Franklin re-sembled most of the surrounding farmlands in all re-spects except for one. It experienced 40% more thun-derstorms and nearly 250% more hail storms than itsneighbors. This climatic anomaly was explained by arecent scientific study. The report concluded thatFranklin received more severe rainstorms because ofits kftation 40 miles downwind from the largesteelmills of Ross. Smoke particles from the coal firedmills had a "cloud seeding" effect on passing clouds,thereby contributing to the increased intensity of therains in Franklin.

It was harvest time again, and the Franklin wheatfarmers were "keeping their fingers crossed." Theycould not survive another year of heavy crolidamageresulting from hail storms just before harvest. Theweather had "held" up until a week before harvest;then the weatherman forecasted moisture laden cloudsmoving in from the west. The farmer knew that withthe steel mills going full blast, spewing smoke in theirdirection, they would have no chance of avoiding de-structive rains.

They decided that this time something had to bedone to protect their crops. A group of the farmerswent immediately to meet wiih the officers Of thesteelmills to ask that the mills shut down until theclouds passed. Although the steel workers were sym-pathetic with the farmers plight, they said that closingthe mills would be impossible. They had contracts tothe automakers who were depending on steel deliver-ies for the new fall line of cars. Already they were be-hind schedule. If they shut down for any amount oftime, it would take several days to start up their coalfurnaces again. This would mean losses in the thou-sands of dollars each day.

The farmers tried to get the mayor of Ross andcounty officials to issue an emergency order to closethe mills. They, too, were of no help. The officialsclaimed that since Franklin was in another county,they had no power to act on their behalf.

The farmers went home dejected. They were de-pending on this crop. Without a decent harvest thisyear many were destined to lose their farms. They hadworked years for their farms, and this storm could lit-erally wipe them out. As they discussed their bleakprospect, one farmer came up with a suggestion. Hesaid, "We have no choice but to try to protect our ownfarms. We may not be able to stop the clouds frompassing, but we can certainly stop the mills I suggestthat we join together, sneak into the mills and shutdown its operations. I worked in the mills one winterand know my way around."

Should the farmers carry out the plan to shut downthe steel mills? Why or why not? Factories Can Alter The Weather

45

<1

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Do the farmers have the right to protect their' property? Why or why not?It is against the law to trespass and damage property. In this case is it right for the farmers to break the law? Is it

ever right to break the law? Why or why not? .

Is it fair that the farmers should have to bear the consequenCes of smoke from the steelmills? Why or why not?

Since the steelmakFrs are contributing to the farmers' problems, shouldn't they be responsible for the damages?Why or why not?

If the, smoke from the steelmills meet air pollution standards, can the public expect the steelmakers to do anymoreAan that? Why or why not?

What responsibilities do the steelmakers have to the public? To their workers?

If the steelmills are shut down, the steelworkers, autoworkers, and tool workers would be out of work. Shouldthis be important for the farmers to consider when mAing their decision? Why or why not?

If your father were one of the farmers, what do you think he should do? Why?ShoUlfi the farmers be punished if they are caught? Why or why not?

Aye the farmers being selfish in expecting the steelmills to shut down so they can harvest a good crop? Why orwhy not? -

9 s.Suppose that automobiles and electricity generating plants in a nearby large metropolitan city also added a large

part of the smoke and smog particles that affect the w eather in Franklin. Should the people living there also be heldresponsible for the farmers' plight? Why? Is there ..ny way they can help remedy the problem?

PART B Changing ClimateChanging Activities?

Factories, power plants and cities have been identifiedas contributors'to the increased carbon dioxide in theair for the past century. This increase has producedwhat is commonly known as the "green house effect"because the carbon dioxide acts as a heat shield, pre-ve.nting surface heat from escaping. As a result thetemperature of the earth has risen. Some scientistshave suggested that the ir crease amounts to as muchas 11°F.

With population and industrial growth, the rate ofcarbon dioxide accumulation will continue to increase,accompanied by temperature rises.

Suppbse that a warming trend persists and wintersbecome shorter, summer's longer. How might you beaffected?

Instructions:

Fill out Student Worksheet Changing Activities to bedistributed by your teacher.

Consider how your activities might be affected by aWarmer climate in these two conditions: warmer andwetter and warmer and drier. Assume that the averageincrease in temperature will be 10°F. For the -frier con-dition assume that rainfall will decrease by 20%. Forthe wetter condition assume that rainfall will increase20%.

A sample of a similar type of analysis by a professorin sociology is found in Table 2. In that analysis theeffects of a cooling trend were considered. In a cOlderand wetter situation, longer winters and more rain and

}

46

snow were expected. He then identified a series of hu-man activities and considered how each might be af-fected by the climate change. For example, he envi-sioned that families will be spending more time in-doors, and as a result, family members will have moreopportunities to do things together and come to knowone another better. In terms of health care he sug-gested that colder weather increased the incidence ofillness as well as injuries from ice and snow. There-fore, more time would be devoted to caring for the sickand injured.

In completing your analysis, try to think of the char-acteristics of each Season in the area you reside andwhat you do during those times. Then try to imaginewhat it would be like if it were hotter with more precip-itation or hotter with less precipitation.

After each person has completed the assignment,meet in small groups to compare your analysis and dis-cuss the following questions:

Questions:

In what categories Were your analyses similar?Different? I

Did you find the change desirable?

What activities were most greatly changed?Unchanged?

What changes might you ,find most difficult toadjust to?

Write a summary statement based 3n the group's in-put for each of the two situations. Include the group'slikes and dislikes regarding the change and how peoplewill have to adjust to the change.

A spokesperson from each group will report thegroup's conclusion at the class meeting.

.. 49.

TABLE 2.

Outline of Anticipated Changes in Family and Community Activity. Due to Biro Types of Climatic Change

Activity

Average Weather Conditions

Colder and Wetter Colder and Drier

LOCAL

Within thenuclear family ,

NeighboringJourney to work:

Shopping

Education

Leisure andrecreation

Health care

Political activity

Other businessactivity

Religiousactivity

DISTANT

FamilialLeisure andrecreation

Commuting towork

li

Increased adultchild interactionIncreased sibling interaction

Reduction in frequencyIncreases tardiness and absenteeismMore time spent on road

Slight increase in time per unitpurchased

More school closirigsIncrease in unsupervised.children %

at homeReduction in outdoor exercisefor children

Sharp reduction in outdoor activity(winter)Significant reduction in outdooractivity (summer)Increase in indoor, passive leisure

For both home and hospital. increase intime spent caring for sick and injured

,

Reduced citizen participationAdditional reliance on TV duringpolitical campaign

Greater day-to-day variance in volumeof retail salesMore frequent delays in delivery ofproducts and services

Reduction in participationin organized activity

More interrupted and cancelled tripsIncrease in interrupted and cancelled.trips (winter)Decline in trips to certain areas(all seasons)

Decline in number of commutersusing autos

,

,

Less significant changein same variables

Minor change onlyNo significant change

No significant change

Minor change only

Slight reduction in out-door activity (winter)Slight increase in out-door activity (spring,summo, and fall)

No significant change

Minor change only

Minor change only

No significant change

No significant changeMinor change only

No significant change

J. Eugene [lass. 'Social Impacts of Weather Modification" in Terry A. Ferritr (ed). The Urban Costs ar ClimateModili«then. New York: John Wiley & Sony 1976. p. 113. Reprinted by pertflission.

5i47

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o

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STUDENT HANDOUT ONE

\

CHANGIN ACTIVITIES

Describe how the listed activities will change if climate in your area changes.

Hotter & Wetter Hotter & Drier

School

Class activities

Sports outdoorindoor

Field tripsAttendance at afterschool activities

Home

Family activities

Activities with friends

T. V. viewing

Time spent indoors

Chores - indoorsChores - outdoors

Food

Mealtimes

Cost of food

Types of food eaten

Recreation &Entertainment

Vacations

Weekends

Entertainment

Clothing

Types of clothes

Costs

'fravel

Local

Long Distance

48

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SAMPLE: Use the worksheet distributed by your teacherDO NOT WRITE IN THE BOOK

1.

Activity 5: Unintentional Weather Changes (Continued)

PART C Acid Rains

Reading 9

Acid Rain Fallout:Pollution And Politicsby James Gannon

The birds are back in Hyde Park. That's the goodnews from London in recent years, and its implicationsgo far beyond a mere ornithological happening. Thebirds are a sign of London's triumph over its deadlysmog, smog that killed 4,000 people in a terrifying four-day inversion twenty-five years ago. Air that can sup-port birds can also support people and it can help tosweep away the dark memories of the world's worst airpollution disaster.

From Scandinavia the news is bad. Acid rain andsnow, a form of pollution unknown twenty-five yearsago, have caused magsive fish kills in the past two dec-ades. Ironically, England is a major contributor to theScandinavian pollution. The birds live in Hyde Parkwhile the fish die across the North Sea in southern' Nor-way and Sweden.

At first glance the trade-off may seem favorable tosome observers even when you count the fish kills inCanada and the United States from North Americansources of pollution. No Massive toll of human beingsof the magnitude that London experienced in 1952 canbe remotely linked to acid rain. Not even one humandeath.

But to a leading A-merican autority on acid rain,Gene E. Likens of Cornell University, the fish kills are a"disaster." Likens, an ecologist, is alarmedby what heperceives to be a threat to the natural life systems.

"One has to be very seriously concerned abbut thiskind of environmental insult on the natural system," hewarned. "There is a limit to the stress they can with-stand. The forests and the lands are life-support sys-tems. Without those He-support systems to cleanse theair and the water, to provide food for us to eat, ourhealth is just as much in jeopardy as if something isaffecting us directly."

Reprinted by permission from Nwamal Parks et Conseil town AI tigazme. October 1978. Vol. 52. pp. 16-21. Copyright1978 by National Parks & Conservatioo Assoc.

56 49

Acid Rain Can Eventually Kill!

These are some of the signs of stress that concernLikens:

Acid rain has wiped out commercial salmon fish-ing in much of soothern Norway and Sweden and hasdestroyed sport fishing in parts of Scandinavia, easternCanada, and the northeastern United States

.

Acidic lakes and streams do not simply kill fish,they eliminate other forms of aquatic life includingmicroscopic forms and affect larger animals thatfeed on fish.

In waters where the fish are not all gone the acid-ity contnbutes tt.: higher ievels of mercury contamina-tion in the most desirable game fish, and the contami-nation can be passed on to humans.

Acid rain may leach nutrients from soils and im-pede the growth of vegetation, inciuding plants for foodand timber, it has done so, at least, in laboratory experi-ments.

Acids do occur naturally in the atmosphere andhave always fallen to earth in precipitation But nature'smarvelous system of checks and balances has neutra-lized them until recently. Now the excessive loadingof man-made acids on vulnerable land surfaces tips thebalance against nature. These acids usually originatein the burning of fossil fuel for electricity and other usesand in smelting of ores for industry.

But they don't start out as acids. Sulfur and nitrogen

50

oxides emitted from the stacks are oxidized into the de-hydrate of sulfuric and nitric acids. Water in the atmo-sphere does the rest. Measurements by Likens at theHubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the WhiteMountains of New Hampshire confirm the acid compo-nents of rainfall to be as much as 65 percent sulfuricand 25 to 30 percent nitric. Other monitoring stationshave detected these acids in slightly lesser amounts.Both are highly corrosive acids. They can destroy plantand animal cells destroy life on contact.

The rainfall is still almost all water. The acids occuronly in minute amounts, never in strengths greater thanthe acids in the human stomach, but often andhere's the danger in strengths greater than the acidsin nature.

Acid rain can fall anywhere downwind of urban orindustrial pollution. In cities it is simply one more ele-ment undermining air quality. it contributes to the corro-sion of buildings and monuments and has subtle, long-term effects on human health.

But acid rain is more remarkable for transferring whathas been an urban problem to the countryside. You donot expect to find the effects of air pollution in the Cana-dian wilderness or among the stately mountains of NewEngland and northern New York but you find themthere now.

The pollutants come from near and far, and theytravel in all directions without respect for internationalboundaries. A report prepared for the Canadian-American International Joint Commission shows thatLake Superior receives significant acid fallout frompoints as distant and scattered as St. Louis, Cincinnati,Pittsburgh, and Sudbury, Ontario.

The American Cities are all more than five hundredmiles away from Lake Superior. If conditions are favor-able, the pollutants can go that far in a day. They'vebeen known to stay airborne for weeks, althoughSwedish scientists estimate that the average time aloftis two to four days. There's time, in any case, for pollu-tion originating in North America to travel across thou-sands of miles of ocean to Sweden and Norway. it is notuncommon for acid rain that falls in Scandinavia to be"made in the U.S.A."

That's a bit startling, but it is consistent with knownglobal transport of atomic and vcicanic clouds. Tall in-dustrial smokestacks built in the past quarter century tohelp clean up cities like London may account, in largemeasure, for long-range pollution.

The danger is growing. Acid rain is so widespreadtoday that the average rainfall in the eastern half of theUnited States and southeastern Canada regions ofheavy industrialization is about twenty-five timesmore acidic than it would be if the rain contained acidsfrom natural sources only. As recently as ten years ago,that sort of acid intensity could be found only in thenortheastern states and around the nickel mining cen-ter of Sudbury, Ontario. But today there are more than200 tall stacks in the United States alone, rising 400 to1,200 feet above power plants and smelters and spew-ing the sulfar and nitrogen compounds into the atmos-phere. The acid rain problem could become even more

5 I

acute with construction of many more coal-generatingfacilities.

The administration's national energy plan, given toCongress in the fall of 1977, calls for an 80 percentincrease in the use of coal for electrical generation. Un-der a 1977 clean air law, the best available technologywill be required for new plants. Right now that means"scrubbers," devices that can trap 90 percent ormoreof the sulphur dioxide from a plant's flue gas But ahuge environmental battle has been brewing about thepollution controls needed to check the emissions fromall these new plants. Meanwhile, there are no signifi-cant standards for nitrogen oxides a huge part of theacid rain problem a httle research on technology tocontrol that pollutant.

The danger from acid rain is greatest in lakes situ-ated in hard-rock areas where the rocks and soils arelow in neutralizing chemicals, such as the calcium car-bonate in limestone All soils have these "buffering"chemicals to a greater or lesser degree, but many un-derlying rock formations do not. Rocks made of graniteor lava, for example, simply do not react with acid. Soacid rain can gradually, almost imperceptibly, disruptthe surface ecosystem.

The entire Canadian Shield, made of Precambrianrock formed six hundred million to four billion yearsago, is vulnerable It stretches from the Arctic Circleacross most of Greenland and the eastern half of Can-ada into the United States below the Great Lakes.Cor,:bined with other pockets of hard-rock formations, itadds up to more than a million square miles of acid-sensitive land surface in North America.

Lakes in hard-rock areas, said Likens, are the"clearest and most dramatic example" of acid rain's ef-fects. An acid lake is a death trap for fish For the newlyspawned, should they survive the spawning, it is almost

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We Can MI Help To Fight The Dangers Of Acid Rain

instant death. For older fish, more resistant to the toxiceffects of acid, it is a slow and tortured death. Howeverit comes, death is inevitable, for fish and for other fdrmsof life, as the acid level slowly rises.

Richard J. Beamish, a scientist for EnvironmentCanada, has probably spent as much time as anyonein North America studying what acid does to fish. Formany years Beamish used the acidic lakes aroundSudbury, site of the world's richest nickel deposit andthe world's largest single point source of sulfur pollu-tion, as his "laboratory."

Beamish and his colleagues found that adult fish be-came emaciated, stunted, and deformed under acidstress. Far more destructive for the fish populations,however, was the failure of female reproduction. "Eggswere developed," Beamish discovered, "but they werenever passed from the ovary and fertilized." It made thepremature deaths of adult fish a moot point, he theor-ized, because without the recruitment of new fish intothe population, the species is inexorably reduced tozero.

That happened to one species after another in lakesthat Beamish studied. Some prime game fish, smallmouth bass and walleye, were the first to be eliminated.Northern pike and lake trout, were next. Even the mostacid-tolerant fish, such as lake herring, perch, and rockbass, eventually succumbed to the lethal acid.

Beamish estimated "conservatively" that twohundred to four hundred lakes within a fifty-mile radiusof the Sudbury smelters have few or no fish remaining.Since the construction of the world's tallest smokestackat Sudbury, acid pollution has reached out to Ontario'spopular resort areas of Muskoka and Haliburton wherethe lakes are on the edge of disaster. Pollution made inthe United States will undoubtedly share blame for thedisaster.

In Scandinavia the problem is even more severe.Lars N. Overrein, director of comprehensive Norwegianstudy of acid rain, reported that the "majority of inlandwaters . .. have completely lost their fish populations."That runs to "thousands of localities."

In New York's Adirondack Mountains the fish aregone from about a hundred lakes and streams at higherelevations; and ecologists fear, the loss of "bufferingcapacity" and ultimately the loss of fish, in the lowervalleys.

The spring snow melt, when acid levels can rise pre-cipitously from winter snow accumulations, is the mostdangerous time for fish. A late winter thaw in 1975killed trout by the thousands along the Tovdal River insouthern Norway.

Fish are not the only casualties. Around Sudburythe acid lakes look pure because they are so clear be-cause, for all practical purposes, they are dead. Theorganic life has been virtually erased: fish, amphibians,invertebrates all gone. Plankton, gone. Algae, bacte-ria, severely reduced or chemically altered. The entireaquatic ecosystem snuffed out perhaps irrevocably.Beamish said at least one hundred lakes near Sudburyfit this description, and he doubts that they can be re-stored. When the chain of life is broken like this, the

51

higher animals are also affected. Fish-eating birds andvertebrates have left the lakes.

Parts of the barren landscape around Sudbury willresemble what the earth will be like when life is goneentirely. The vegetation has been destroyed by the di-rect fallout of sulfur dioxide. But twenty-five miles away

--. the land looks normal at least to the untrained eye.

It's difficult to tell what happens to forests and agri-culture from acid rain. So many hazards funaus, in-sects, bacteria, drought, and other man-made pollu-tants can afflict a plant in the natural environmentthat sulfur dioxide and acid rain are merely additions toa long list. But scientists have clearly shown in labora-tory experiments that simulated acid rain, with othernegative influences factcred out, is destructive to vege-tation.

Acid rain has a capacity to "leach out" nutrients thatcan affect the environment in different ways. Falling di-rectly on plants, it causes leaf lesions, reducing thearea for photosynthesis and limiting growth. In the soil itimpedes root development.

Swedish scientists predict that acid rain will leachcalcium from their nutrient-poor woodland soil, leadingto a reduction of forest growth of 10 to 15 percent bythe year 2000. If true, that will be a serious economicloss. (The Canadian and American pulp and loggingindustries, notorious denuders of the landscape,should take note.)

The leaching property of acid rain also draws outheavy metals from the earth and atmosphere. Metalssuch as aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, tin, beryl-hum, and nickel are drawn into the freshwater systemsand held in solution by the acid.

One result is another mechanism of fish mortality.this one discovered by Carl L. Schofield, a Cornell biol-ogist, from observations in the Adirondacks. In thiscase, aluminum combined with nitric acid is the deadlyweapon. "We found," said Schofield, "that the alumi-num in this situation is very toxic to fish. You get a muchhigher toxicity for a given level of [acid] than you wouldotherwise.''

Mercury is one of the better known threats to humanhealth. The human race has had quite enough experi-ence with it to hold d in respectful fear. It kills or maimsin any form. As methyl mercury, one of its organicforms, it accumulates in fish a major source of pro-tein for humans.

The worst outbreak of mercury poisoning from fishoccurred in the 1950s in Minamata, Japan. More thanone hundred people died. and several hundred otherssuffered symptoms ranging from mild tingling of theskin to reduced motor coordination, retardation, andimpaired sight and hearing effects that are perma-nent because mercury causes irreversible damage tothe cells of the central nervous system

That tragedy came from the industrial discharge ofmercury waste into Minamata Bay, where it contamina-ted fish and shellfish eaten by local people. Industrialdumping of mercury into Ontario's English/WabigoonRiver system and other freshwaters of North Americahas brought fear and consternation closer to home, es-

52

Mercury Deadly To Fish And To Humans

pecially among native populations who make a steadydiet of fish.

The "acid connection" to the mercury contaminationof fish is more subtle. It occurs in the same waters vul-nerable to human-generated acid pollution: softwaterlakes situated on hard rock strata. Mercury enters thewater in a metallic inorganic state, then falls to the bot-tom sediment where it is converted by niicroorganismsto an organic form, methyl mercury. Methyl mercurypasses easily into the food chain and, because it doesnot pass easily out, accumulates in fish regularly eatenby humans. \

, b

A Swedish scientist, Arne Jernelov, has establisheda clear correlation between the acid levels of lakes andmercury levels of fish that is, the more acid added toa lake's water, the more mercury in its fish, up to thepoint where the acid kills the fish outright.

More than 600,000 U.S. citizens go fishing in Ontarioeach year. Increasingly, they are fishing in troubled wa-ters. They can find out for themselves by writing toOntario's Ministry of the Environment (the tourist indus-try won't tell them) for the "Guide to Eating OntarioSport Fish." Excluding the Great Lakes, 336 lakes andrivers (70 percent of 479 cited) have at least some con-tarninatod fish at levels officially considered unsafe forprolonged human consumption. The highest levelswere found in the predator game fish, walleye andnorthern pike.

But sport fishermen have no cause for alarm, accord-ing to John M. Wood, director of the University ofMinnesota's Freshwater Biological Institute. "Theydon't get sufficient exposure to mercury-contaminatedfish to really seriously be threatened. You have to havea diet of fish for a significant period of time to be af-fected."

Like the diet of the Canadian Indians, for example.They eat fish almost daily in the summer, and theyhave cause for alarm. In a recept survey by Health andWelfare Canada, 42 percent of 764 Indians tested inQuebec, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories had ab-normally elevated blood or hair mercury levels.

It's the Indians trying to live close to nature who aremost immediately threatened by acid rain. The threat ismagnified at the tiny Ojibway Village on Lac La Croix bythe prospect of an 300-megawatt power plant close tohome.

Chief Steve Jourdain wants to keep the ways of hisancestors, but he doesn't mind enjoying the benefits ofmodern industry. When he clears his beaver traps inwinter, he makes the rounds by "ski-doo" (skimobile.)Two years ago, he said, his band of two hundred"kicked out" welfare because it "goes against our beliefthat welfare is a damaging thing."

Now they are trying to live off the wilderness, fishing,hunting, and trapping. Their only outside source of in-come comes from guiding U.S fishermen in the sum-mer, and they pick up a few extra dollars from the de-clining number of pelts they gather in the winter. Thethought of acid rain has them virtually paralyzed withfear.

Lac La Croix, a softwater lake on the hard-rock Ca-nadian Shield, rests directly on the Canadian-Americanborder. It's adjacent to two wilderness preserves theBoundary Waters Canoe Area, an official "national wil-derness area" in Minnesota, and the Quetico ProvincialPark, a "primitive wilderness" in Ontario.

The Indians live on the Canadian side, and their ownprovincial government is about to execute the final blowto their tenuous wilderness existence. Ontario Hydro, acrown corporation, plans to build a large coal-firedpower plant near Atikokan, only fifty miles from the vil-lage. That's why they're afraid; visions of Sudbury keepcoming to mind. (To be wholly accurate, Atikokan wouldnot come close to Sudbury in emissions.)

"The economic base of our reservation is the sur-rounding environment. If that's destroyed, our wholeeconomic base is destroyed," says Chief Jourdain

He could as easily fear for the present. Things arebad enough without the power plant, just from the ef-fects of a small nearby smelter combined with long-range pollution. A simple test (not sdentifically valid)has indicated that already the acid level of the lake iscritical for fish survival, and one fish analyzed for mer-cury was contaminated.

It is hard to see how the new power plant can doother than make it worse. The utility has said it will uselow-sulfur coal and claims it will not need expensivescrubbers for sulfur removal. In contrast to the UnitedStates, scrubbers are not in use in Canada, but pres-sure for them may increase with an acceleration in Ca-

nadian development. Environmentalists, fearing for theentire surrounding wilderness, have turned the issueinto an international controversy that has reached dip-lomatic levels.

The Atikokan dispute illustrates as well as any oneincident can the seeming inflexibility of acid rain poli-tics. Scientists are concerned about the plant's effectsbut in the absence of a four-star disaster like the Lon-don inversion, the kind that inspires mass demand forreform, industries and governments are likely to remain,unmoved. It seems Indians cannot even match the po-litical clout of the Tennessee snail darter.

Whether industry and government are one and thesame, as with Ontario Hydro, or separate seems irrele-vant. Government agencies, said Frank D'Itri of Michi-gan State University, who headed a mercury study forthe National Academy of Sciences, are "usually use-less in solving pollution problems." They act occasion-ally after the fact to compensate victims, but almostnever for prevention.

Yet government agencies spend the taxpayers'money as if their existence depended on it and per-haps it does. The money, said D'Itri, goes into researchfor what he calls "technicological counter-measures."Precisely that phenomenon today threatens to tu,.. acidrain research into a government-fulded growth indus-try. Projects for liming acid lakes (giant Alka Seltzers)and for developing acid-resistant fish are being under-taken in lieu of any meaningful solution.

Because the use Of fossil fuels is the source of theacid rain problem, the obvious solution is to stop usingfossil fuels. As utopian as it may sound to those of usaccustomed to seeing the world through industrialsmoke, that solution is not only plausible; it is inevita-ble. Fossil fuel reserves will be exhausted, according tocurrent estimates, in about 200 years.

While we bend to the task of finding alternative sour-ces of energy, it matters how we use the remaining fos-sil fuels the speed and magnitude of consumption,for example, and whether we extract the sulfur or trapthe nitrogen. And it matters how fast we find safe alter-natives. Because we have no choice about finding al-ternatives, why not act aooner rather than later, savewhat's left of the wilderness, and safeguard our health'?

E..i ks.1

53

Reading 10

Pollution ParleyBy Gail Robinsol.

Water Unfit For Fish

We are, of course, at peace. Yet within 20 years theUnited States may help destroy almost. 50,000Canadian lakes. And a planned Canadian project willpose a very real threat to one of the United States' mostcherished wilderness areas.

The war is not intentional, nor are its weapons bulletsor bombs. The U.S. and Canada are lobbing sulfur andnitrogen oxides across the border and these gaseseventually return to the earth as acid rain. Now the twonations are trying to declare a truce, but, as in anytreaty talks, the negotiations promise to be long andcomplicated.

, The acid rain discussions between the U.S. and Can-ada began in 1978, and last July the countries issueo ajoint statement announcing that they agreed on suchthings as the exchange of scientific information on airquality and the reduction of "transboundary" pollution.

In the case cif acid rain, most of the "transboundary"pollutants come from coal fired plants, although otherfossil fuel plants, automobiles and nitrogenous fertil-izers, as well as volcanoes, are also sources. In theatmosphere a chemical reaction converts the su!furdioxide and the nitrogen oxide into sulfuric acid and ni-tric acid and then finally, as water droplets fall from theatmosphere, into acid rain.

Before the industrial revolution, rain was virtuallyneutral neither acid nor alkaline. Today, according toa recent study published in Scientific American, rainand snow in much of the world is five to 30 times moreacidic than it would be in an unpolluted atmosphere,and individual storms can be thousands of times moreacidic than they should be. A 1974 storm in Scotlandwas so acidic it was literally as though vinegar werefalling from the sky.

Acid rain was observed in England in the 1880s. Asearly as the 1940s it was killing fish in Scandinavia, andit has now spread to much of northern and central Eu-rope.

Rept mted by pet mission uoin 1. ,i irowne .1( tIUII oyembet 1979 Y- 1979 1-nyironmentd1Action. 1346 Count:y.1i-, y.ut NW. Washmgton, D

54 (31

In the United States, acid rain has ravaged much ofupstate New York s Adirondack Mountains and hasspread over most of the Northeast. Sharp increases inthe acidity of precipitation have also been reported inthe Southeast. The most recent studies show that acidrain is now threatening the Rockies.

Buildings are eroded by acidic. downpours and cropscan be adversely affected. Scandinavian experts say itcould cause a 15 percent drop in timber yield within thenext 20 years. But acid rain has perhaps its most lethaleffects on lakes, which simply cannot neutralize theacid. And, according to a Brookhaven National Lab sci-entist, when a lake gets very acidic, the water can leachmercury, lead and aluminum from the atmosphere, andaluminum, for one, can melt a fish's gills

As Field and Stream observed in a recent article,lakes afflicted with acid rain can look absolutely won-derful clear depths sparkling in the sun But beneaththat pastoral exterior, lurks a dead or dying lake, in theAdirondacks 56 percent of the lakes above 2,000 feetare barren, approximately 140 lakes in Ontario aredead or nearly dead; and seven Nova Scotia rivers,once teeming with salmon, are now devoid of the popu-lar fish.

But while the effects of acid rain are readily apparent,people have been slow to discover its cause, finding ithard to believe that in the Adirondacks fish are dyingfrom pollution. Pollutants, though, can blow long dis-tances. And the situation is often exacerbated in moun-tainous areas, where the pollution is trapped until fre-quent rains wash them out of the sky and down toearth.

The Clean Air Act contains two major methods ofcombating air pollution. One requires that ail in a givenarea not exceed a specific clean air standaro and theother the so called new source performance stand-ards dictates that all new sources of pollution mustalso conform to certain standards. But a report in Sci-ence magazine predicts that sulfur emissions will stillincrease by nearly 2 million tons over the next 15 yearsbecause coal burning is expected to increase sharplyand because standards for existing plants are lax.

Faced with acid rain, New York State has taken an "ifyou can't beat 'em, join'em" approach dumping limein Adirondack lakes to neutralize the acid and en-couraging development of acid resistance strains offish. But as the U.S. plans to increase its reliance oncoal, the need for real solutions to the acid rain problembecomes ever more pressing. Scrubbers can be in-stalled on existing plants in addition to the new ones,coal can be washed, utilities could be required to usetheir newer, cleaner plants whenever possible (for baseinstead of peak load) and, of course, we can simply useless energy. But when asked whether the governmentmight try to clean up existing plants, a government offi-cial said, "Given the economic situation and the energys,tuation, it will be very difficult

Canadian law is also far from perfect. While the na-tional government has set ambient air quality stand-ards, the responsibihty for enforcement and implemen-tation lies with the provinces. According to Ron Reid,staff environmentalist for the Federation of Ontario Nat-

uralists, a provincial group with 60 member organiza-tions, 'In general, it [Canada's clean air law] is reason-ably effective. The weakness comes in that it has a fairamount of flexibility, so when it's being implemented,it's easy to make tradeoffs."

And its precisely one of those tradeoffs that gotAmericans upset about Canadian emissions OntarioHydro is planning a 400 megawatt coal fired plant atAtikokan, 38 miles from the wilderness Boundary Wa-ters Canoe Area, it will not have scrubbers.

For the most part, though, it is Canada that feels vic-timized by the United States, whose industrial centersemit 30 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide a year,about four times what Canada emits. (The world'slargest producer of sulfur emissions, however, is a Sud-bury, Ont. metal smelter.) The Canadian governmentestimates that some 50 percent of Canada's acid rain iscaused by Americans. On a recent trip to Washington,Canadian environment minister John Fraser told re-porters that the U.S. sends Canada about 4 million tonsof sulfur dioxide a year, while Canada sends less than1.4 million tons our way.

"It works both ways," Fraser was quoted as saying."We are not coming down here wringing our hands say-ing you're the culprit. We've got a joint responsibility.

While sympathetic to the Ottawa government's inter-est in negotiating an acid rain treaty, Reid comments,"We believe we should be cleaning up our own back-yard. The temptation is very great politically to point thefinger at someone else."

The U.S. government has also given signs of want-ing to do something about acid rain, though it too is notabove reproach. In his environmental message lastsummer, President Carter announced the formation ofan acid rain program, which would monitor acid rainand allow various agencies and departments includ-ing the State Department, which is handling the treatynegotiations to share ideas. While this pleases en-vironmentalists, Betsy AO, project coordinator for theClean Air Action Coalition, commented on the conflictsin Carter administration policy: "It's contradictory tohave an energy mobilization board and to do a massiveacid rain initiative."

Much of the information gathered by the assessmentmay seem old hat. But Agle says, "If you're going toask people to pay substantial costs for controllingsomething, you're going to have to say what that cando." According to Agle there is some talk that it will cost$5 to $7 billion to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 50percent in the northeast, and $350 million to do thesame thing in eastern Canada.

Faced with such high cost estimates and with the en-ergy situation, the negotiations between the U.S. andCanada have now entered the difficult stage. The twosides must try to agree on specifics specifics whichenvironmentalists hope will include a plan of actionrather than merely a joint research commitment. Accor-ding to the U.S. government official working on acidrain, the negotiations are particularly difficult "becausewe have totally different systems on each side. Herewe have federal control. In Canada, they do not

6255

"The Canadian objective," he noted, "is to cut downon pollution coming from the U.S. They don't believethe new source performance standards will solve theproblem."

While there are obvious difficulties, they may not beinsurmountable. Early in the century, the two govern-ments agreed to keep the'boundary waters clean andin 1978 they signed an agreement on water quality inthe Great Lakes. There are also international waterquality agreements in Europe, and while air is moreticklish to deal with the U.S. and Canada have nevernegotiated an air treaty before European nations arealso working to hammer out an accord on acid rain andhave already agreed to monitor air.

Throughout the process, the government will be

watched by environmentalists. Twenty-five environ-mental groups will meet at a conference organized byAgle in Toronto on Nov.,1, 2 and 3 to draw up a plan ofaction. The groups hope their meeting will lead togreater awareness of the acid rain problem, to a dis-cussion of possible political and legal solutions and tothe formation of an international citizens network.

It's easy, of course, to be cynical about the treatytalks. How can the Carter administration expect any-thing from Canada when the U.S. is gutting its own en-vironmental regulations? What right has Canada to getuppity when it still builds coal fired plants without scrub-bers? But something clearly has to be done to clean upour air and our lakes. And the U.S.-Canada talks are atleast an acknowledgement of the fact that the poisonsin our atmosphere know no national boundaries.

Dilemma 4 THE ACID LAKE AND JOBS

-I he trout in Lake Law son, the state's prime fishingalea, vk, ere diminishing at an alarming late, accordingto the latest park survey. The decline in the fish popu-lation 1A,IS traced to the increased acid content of thewater. which affects the fish's ability to reproduce.This repoit gave Governor Jones great cause foialarm, because it meant that an important and scenicarea vvas threatened! The culprits, he knew, were theglass making companies and electricity generatingplant located 50 miles w est of the park. The plantsburn the less expensive high sulfur content coal vv hiLhemit large quantities of sulfur dioxide. Winds carry theparticles eastward vv hrch in turn mixes with rain waterand forms sulfuric acid. This "acid" rain then fallsover the park forest and empties into the lake.

Howe% er, the companies had been ksued specialpermits allowing them to burn the high sulfur coal.Despite their use of this type of coal, the state's air

quAity met the rigorous standards set up by the federalgovernment. If the glass companies were not permit-ted to use the less expensive coal, they would beforced to close down. Over 20,000 workers would losetheir jobs. Since glass making happens to be an impor-tant industry to the state, shutting operations would bea severe blow to the state's economy. Without the glasscompanies, the entire western section of the statemight suddenly become a depressed area. If the elec-tric power plant had to switch to the higher pricedcoal, it would have to charge its customers more forelectricity. With the cost of everything being so highalready, the residents of that area would have a hardtime making ends meet.

Should Gov ernorJones order the companies to burnlow sulfur coal? Or should he allow them to continueto burn high sulfur coal?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What responsibilities does the governor have to the people of his state? Why ? To the parkLinds and wldlife?Why?

What should be the governor's main concern? Why?

Should the plotection of natural areas and recreational activ ities be an important consideration? Why or whynot?

From the perspective of the glass workers what action should the governor take, if any? Why?

Should people have the right to expect good recreational areas? Why or why not?

In addition to recreation how might the Inv.rease of aLid rain be detrimental to the wilderness park area? lb thestate and its people as a whole?

Would the governor be treating the glass companies and its workers unfairly if the special permits are with-drawn? Why or why not?

Is there any way that the glass workers-jobs can be protected?

56

PART C An Evaluation of Possible Effects

Meet in small groups of 3 to 5 students to briefly discuss the dilemma, "Acid Rain and Jobs." Consider some ofthe "Discussion Questions" in your analysis of the situation.

\our teacher will distribute Student Handout 2. "An Evaluation of Possible Effects." (See sample on the 'next

page.) On the worksheet, list some of the possible consequences of Governor Jones' decision. If he continues topermit the use of high sulfur coals, the soil and water in the park would become more acid. If he withdraw.; thepermit, the glass companies would close and the cost of electricity would increase.

List the consequences/effects in both the immediate and futare categories.

According to your opinion. how harmful is each effect? Indicate the levelof severity with a number from I to 4

in the "Harm" column.

4 = most harmful

3 = very harmful

2 = somewhat harmful

I = least harmful

Review the readings for additional information to help you complete the worksheet. You may also wish toconsider some of the consequences of strip mining low sulfur content coal.

This worksheet may be completed individually or with your group members. If the worksheet is aone individu-ally, each person will present hisaler analysis to the group for discussion. The findings are then combined toproduce a group report.

From the results select I) Wtt the group believes are two of the most harmful effects from a short termperspective, and 2) what the group believes are two of the most harmful effects from a long term perspective. Listthese for the class to examine.

After examining the consequences with the entire class, try to reach a consensus as to what Governor Jonesshould do. What are the best reasons for supporting this decision?

657

STUDENT HANDOUT TWO

AN EVALUATION OF POSSIBLE EFFECTS

THE SOIL AND WATER IN PARKLANDS BECOME MORE ACID

. Immediate Consequences Harm Future Consequences-

Harm

I. I.

2.

. 3.

. 4.

... 5.

. 6.

THE GLASS COMPANIES CLOSE DOWN, ANDPOWER PLANTS BURN LOW SULFUR & COAL

Immediate Consequences

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Harm Future Consequences Harm

58

SAMPLE: Use the worksheet distributed by your teacherDO NOT WRITE IN THE BOOK

65

Activity 6: Unintentional Land Changes

Reading 1 1

\ The Desert Made By Manby Salah Galal

It comes as no surprise in Egypt to hear that the 1977State of the World Environment Report predicts a halv-ing of the area of cultivated land per person by the year2000. Egypt has already seen it happen once. Thearea of cultivated land per head has dwindled from0.39 feddan (approximately the same number of acres)per nead in 1930 to 0.1 today, a fall of more than 50percent.

Population increase has of course played an impor-tant part. The past twenty-five years have seen thenumber of Egyptians rise from abot.tt 20 million to 38million, and the next twenty-five years will see it riseagain to about 70 million.

But the loss of the land itself is also important. Al-though 919,000 feddan of land were reclaimed duringEgypt's first two five-year plans, more than 600,000feddan have been lost in the same period to industrialand urban sprawl alone. Just to maintain the area ofcultivated land per person at present levels means re-claiming at least 150,000 feddan each year. But inpractice land reclamation has almost come to a stand-still.

Reprinted by permission from National Parks & Conservation Magazine. November 1977. Vol. 51, No. I I, pp. 11-16,

Copyright ® 1977 by National Parks & Conservation Assoc.

6 659

Losing GroundTHE WORLDS SOIL LOSS BY

EROSION IN THE LAST 100 YRS(ESTIMATED)

25% lostby wind andwater erosion

'VI 4'

*ge

WOMA'S POTENTIALFARMLAND

s.to

SOIL LOSS BY WATER EROSION

Water bringsdown soil

19754. 4. 4, 40 .4, ^8,0.31 Hectares i, 3,

of cultivated4,4, *4, sk4.

4, 4, '4,land per person st, 4, 4, 4. st, . 4r

4, 4/ 4. Ntt 4, 4NIe 40 \L. V/

HALF AS MUCH CROP-LAND PER PERSON BY 2000 AD

2000 A.D.0.1i Hectaresof cultivatedland per person

WORLD POPULATION,4,000 M.TOTAL CULTIVATED LAND 1240 MILLION HECTARES

% Hectarelost to urbanization

% Hectare lost to erosion

\le

4,

NI% Hectareof new landbrought under cultivation

WORLD POPULATION 6,250 M.TOTAL CULTIVATED LAND 940 MILLION HECTARES

HOW LOSS OF SUNVEGETATIONCAN I CHANGETHE CLIMATE

SUN

More solarradiationreflected

'&`4.1;t:FZik47.11'.

." DUgt ANO CLOUDFORMATION

:THE CAUSES OF SOIL LOSS'

Cutting downtrees leaves soilexposed to windand watererosion

4.11eMMININI

Irrigation withoutadequate drainage

Raises water tableand waterlogsthe soil

Lifts saltsto the surfaceand makes theland infertile

200,000 300,000Hectares of arable landlost to sal inisation and waterloggingevery year

JR "Overgrazing exposesvast areas of landto erosion by wind end water 1 million hectares of

arable land lost everyyear in the U.S.A tohighways. urbanisationand industry

60

Although the control of the Lower Nile, delivered intoEgyptian hands by the construction of the Aswan HighDam, has not led to the significant agricultural expan-sion on which Egypt counted, the loss of arable land toconstruction and the encroachment of the desert con-tinues to narrow the agricultural base on which theprogress of , Egypt so heavily depends. The area be-tween Alexandria and the Libyan border, for example,used to be the well-populated and prosperous vineyardof Ancient Rome. Today it is a desert.

Every year, in North Afrida as a whole, at least100,000 hectares of land (247,000, acres) are lost to"desert-creep." South of Khartoum, the acacia scrubzone has marched 90 kilometers (56 miles) southwardin the past twenty years.

The- precise causes of "desed-creep" are complexand insufficiently understood. Sometimes it is a by-product of progress. In the Kordofan Providence of the

.. Sudan, for example, where seven hundred wells havebeen sunk since the mid-1950s, medical and socialservices provided around the well sites have concen-trated the formerly nomadic populations and considera-bly reduced their death rates. The resulting populationincrease has been more than matched by the increasein the number of cattle; in the Arab lands as a whole theincrease in human population is running at 2.5 percenta year whilst the number of goats, sheep, cattle, andcamels is increasing at 2.9 percent a year. The result ofthis animal population explosion is overgrazing and thetrampling of vegetation, which leaves the soil open toerosion and paves the way for the advance of thedesert. In additio.1, mechanization of farming has up-rooted trees and shrubs, and irrigation of sorghumfields has sluiced away water, leaving the soils brittleand exposed.

As desert conditions spread, so do the crop yieldsfall. In Kordofan the area planted with sesame in-creased sevenfold from 47,000 to 327,00 hectares(116,090 to 807,690 acres) in the twelve years from1961 to 1973. But the actual production of sesame has

not even doubled, and yield per hectare has droppedby 70 percent from 0.91 to 0.21 tonnes (1.O to .23 tons).Groundnuts tell the same dory: although the crop areahas increased fourfold, production has actually fallen.

As the land deteriorates and the yields decrease, theherders and cultivators shift farther south, and the cycle

begins again. Desert creeps into steppe, steppe intpsavannah, and savannah into forest. By this process,the trees have retreated before the march of the desert.

The problem is not confined to North Africa. Profes-sor Mohamed Kassas of the University of Cairo estima-tes that the area of manmade desert worldwide is nowmore than 900 million square kilometers (360 millionsquare miles) of once arable land. As the area of landavailable for cultivation today is not more than 30 mil-lion square kilometers (12 million square miles), 40 per-cent of the world's arable land has been lost to desert.

This stealthy march of the deserts went almost un-noticed until 1967-72, when drought struck at the coun-tries on the southern fringe of the Sahara. As the longhot years passed with no sign of rain, fears grew thatthe drought was not a freak but a sign that the Saharaitself was advancing southward.

The worst fears were confirmed: between 100,000and 250,000 people died and 2 million nomads lost halftheir livestock. The advance of the deserts whichnow cover 36 percent of the world's land surfacd andcontain 628 million people suddenly became news.

The United Nations reacted by calling a World Con-ference on the issue for August 29, 1977, and askingthe U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP) to "as-sess available data on desertification." So little wasknown about the subject that the small team preparingfor the U.N. Conference on Desertification led byUNEP's Executive Director Mostafa Tolba, virtually hadto create a new science of "desertology."

Much has already been learned. Overgrazing andtrampling, slash, and burn agriculture, and firewoodcutting; industrialization and construction; mechaniza-tion and excessive ploughing; land-tenure systems andwater rights; feeding habits and kjnship patterns; popu-lation growth; and the settling of nomads all thesefactors play a part in tie complex interaction betweendevelopment and desertification. But the common fac-tor in the pattern is the hand of man.

Nowhere is the pattern more clearly visible than inEgypt. Here in the Mariut area, the vines that (ince in-spired the lyrics.of Virgil have withered into the WesternDesert. Yet only 60 kilometers (37 miles) to the east liethe irrigated croplands of the Nile. Impoverished desertand lush delta, both are equally man-made.

661

Reading 12

Sahegian Drought'by Stephen H. Schneider and Lynn Mesiron

I4 1. fr

? 41,

A;71'

,. dr..%

The Expanding Desert

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'This exerptetl sele..tion is ieprinted from Tilt Genes,. Strateo, with permission from Plenum Publishing Col.,1977,

62

J

Sahe lian Drought: The Desert AdvancesPerhaps the most dramatic examples of the continuinginfluence of the weather on human welfare are the re-

' cent situations in Africa and India. On both continentsthe stress of drought, coupled with large populations

. occupying relatively fragile, highly variable environ-ments, has, been disastrous.

In the drought-prone area bordering the southernfringe of the Sahara Desert, known as the Saha' hu-man populations had increased by a third over the pre-

ous thirty-five years, ahd livestock numbers doublednis rapid growth has been possible mainly because of

Western intervention in the economic, political, and so-cial practices of the Sahelian nomads and sedentaryfarmers. In recent years the nomads have experiencedthe breakdown of their traditional way of life a lifethat Nicholas Wade, a writer for Science magazine,has called 'a remarkably efficient adaptation to thesemidesert environment."

A major part of the Western influence in this regionhas been technological: medical and mechanical Thelatter came partially in the form of deep water wells,designed to encourage the proliferation of the nomads'herds.

The growing herds of cows, donkeys, camels, andgoats trampled the ground as they traveled from well towell, eating everything in their path. With continuedovergrazing, trampling, and a lasting drought, vegeta-tion became scarce, and the animals were forced tocompete more intensely for the remaining bit Of forageThey, especially the goats, desperately tore Up the in-digenous plants by their roots, destroying the ability ofmuch of the vegetation to reproduce itself.

At the same time, the increase in the human popula-tion led to even more Sahelians farming still more landIn addition, the best !ands were often used to raise cot-ton and peanut crops for foreign markets, and thefarmers began tc, cultivate increasing amounts 'of mar-ginal (ecologically fragile) lands to feed the groWing lo-cal populations Traditionally, the Sahelian farmers hadwisely given their marginal lands fifteen- to twenty-yearfallow periods, but receruly they began to allow the landa meager one to five years of rest By disregarding theproven grazing and farming techniques of their andes-

', tors, the Sahelian peoples were helping to bring abOutdesertification, a process that would make much of theSahel a wasteland.

,

Desertification is extremely difficult, but not impossl,ble, to reverse. Its first signs are a slow loss of fertility inthe soil, which is followed by a rapid degradation proc-ess. The soil eventuallY loses its structure and be-comes unable to hold sufficient moisture or vegetation.

As the desert moved southward, so did the peopleand livestock, stressing the retreating fringe more andmore, creating further denudation and deforestation,and perhaps creating a self-reinforcing process Andso the degradation of the social and ecological sys-tems of the Sahel continued until they finally collapsed,

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along with the starving humans and animals whoseswollen bellies contained only water from the wellsdrilled by Western technology. By the late 1960s deser-tification had set in, and with no end of the drought insight, a major international effort was required to keepmillions of Sanelians alive. The first large-scale publicawareness that a food crisis had begun thus actuallyarose only several years after the Sahel had, in fact,been devastated. It is reasonable that climate varia-tions were not solely responsible for the disasterClearly, thoughtless applications df technology andpoorly examined social and economic priorities mustalso be deeply implicated.

The nomadic survivors are suffering not only fromphysical hardship, but also from the shock of having togive up their traditional way of life. Until Western tech-nological and economic ways were bestowed on them,these peoples lived as their ancestors did. They andtheir herds followed the rains, even across political bor-ders. Now some of the survivors live a humiliating, par-asitic existence in refugee camps, robbed cf theirherds, their possessions, and their traditions. The gov-ernments of the drought-stricken nations usually wantthem to assimilate and adopt the life of the modern Afri-can, often only for the reason that nomadic ways do noteasily adjust to taxation, census, and government con-trols. "Properly run, the Sahel should be able to raiseenough beef on the hoof for half this hungry continent,"says writer Claire Sterling. "Yet after almost fifteenyears of bountiful international aid z,nd more than boun-tiful advice, the Sahel is closer than ever to becoming awasteland."

Although it is true that normal rains at last returned tothe Sahel in 1974 and 1975, the happy future of theregion is by no means assured. Political scientist Mi-chael Glantz, who is eagaged in a multidisciplinarystudy of the Sahelian drought, has referred to the returnof the rains as The Paradox of Good News," pointingout that even worse suffering will accompany futuredroughts if the Sahelian peoples return to their "nor-mal" ways now that good rain years have come forawhile. Land management of this fragile ecosystemand stringent population control of both animals andhumans must be practiced, Glantz argues, if the uglyspectacle of the recent drought is riot to repeat itself onan even grander scale when the next drought periodbegins and provide a regional example of Boulding'sUtterly Dismal Theorem.

Similarly destructive processes of desertification,which are probably caused by a combination of humanand natural factors, have also been occurring in India,Chile, Peru, and in southern Africa.

In India desertification is only one contributing causeof that nation's serious food problem. Thus, in the stateof Rajasthan, population pressure and drought on afringe of the Thar Desert is destroying thirty ;thousandcultivable acres each year and has already taken hali

'bf the state's area.

According to Robert R. Brooks in an article in the'$aturday Review,

rk classic illustratiun of lai go scale destruction is afforded bythk spectacle of wind erosion in Rajasthan Overgrazing bygoats destroys the desert plants which might otherwise holdthe sod in place Goatherds equipped with sickles attachedto 20.foot poles strip the leaves off trees to float downwardinto the waiting mouths of famished goats and sheep Thetrees die and the soil blows away two hundred miles to NewUsitni, where it comes to rest in the lungs uf its inhabitantsand on the shiny cars of foreign diplomats

Some Theories on the Sahelian Drought Waster

A final example of how overgrazing can change the

brightness and perhaps the climate of an area is thecase of the Sahel, where a 1973 ERTS satellite photoof the drought-devastated land revealed the remark-able presence of a geometric, darkened shape (indica-ting that vegetation cover is heavier within the pentag-onal shape than without). The existence of this areaprompted an investigation, which turned up a largeranch surrounded by a fence to keep out the hungry,foraging herds of the Sahelian nomads. Even in thatsevere drought year, there was enough rain so thatsome vegetation could grow in the Sahel as long asheavy grazing pressures were absent.

Dilemma 5 TOO MANY ANIMALS

Herding, A Way Of Life

Teal is a small semi-desert country whose inhabitantsare nomads and small farmers. Throughout the centu-nes. the predominately nomadik: people existed at abare subsistence level. Their lives depended uponherding cattle and goats from one grazing pasture tothe next. In the past two decades. new deep wellswere drilled to increase water supplies. With newsources of water the herds quickly tripled. Thecountry's population rose.

The large herds soon overgrazed the land, wearingpastures down to bare roots. The thin layer of top soilonce held down by the grass blew off. Grasslandsturned into useless sandy deserts. This destructiveprocess, together with a three-year drought, created adevastating famine never before experienced. Starva-tion became rampant. Only with the help of interna-tional emergency relief did the death toll keep fromreaching massive proportions.

When the drought ended, the government decidedthat it had to take new strict measures to maintain thefragile pasture lands. It could not take the chance oflosing more land to desert. If pasture lands were kepthealthy and population growth decreased, future&oughts might take less of a toll. The government thusordered each family to limit its herds to three cows andtwelve goats. Persons disobeying the order would beexecuted.

The Sawa family with nine children and elderlygrandparents were caught in a predicament. With twicethat many animals they were just barely able to keepeveryone fed and clothed. The government's edictwould force them to starvation since they are notfarmers and owned no land. The father of the familyfelt that they could not abide by the order and wouldsimply ignore it. They would hide their extra animalswhe:. the government inspectors came around. Sincethey were constantly moving it would be nard for theinspectors to find and keep track of them anyway.

Should the Sawa family disobey the government'sorders and keep their animals? Why or why not?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Is the government being unfair to large families by issuing such an order? Why or why not?

Since the government is thinking about the long term survival of the country, should it take whatever measuresnecessary to prevent overgrazing? Why or why not?

By raising a larger herd, the Sawa family will be using up more than their share of the grasslands. Is this beingfair to everyone else' Why or why not?

What are the best reasons that you can give to support the Sawa family's decision? Why?

Shouldn't the Sawa family consider what might happen to future generations in their country if overgrazingcreates more deserts? Why or why not?

Does the father of the family have the right to endanger the rest of the family by disobeying the order? Why orwhy not?

If the Sawa family understood the importance of protecting the land from turning into desert, shouldn't they goalong with the government's order? Why or why not?

What should be the responsibility of a good government? Why?

The Government realized that people would not abide by such a law if the punishment were not severe. In thiscase was the punishment justified? Why or why not?

What should be the father's responsibility to his family? Why?

Dilemma 6Claude Anderson, a leading scientist, presented at theannual gathering of meteorologists his new theory toexplain the recent devastating drought in Atlas. Atlasis a poor semi-desert country inhabitated by sheepherding nomads. His theory was that air pollutantsfrom factories located in the neighboring industrializedcountry of Natah had created a cooling effect. This ef-fect changed the monsoon weather patterns over At-las. Without enough rainfall, grazing lands becameparched. Thus, widespread famine and death fell overthe land.

Although some of the scientists f t that his theorymight be correct, the others argued that the data wasnot conclusive. They then decided that the organiza-tion would not publish Dr. Anderson's paper. The sci-entists reasoned that the information wouid create anInternational Incident. The government of Atlas woulduse the information and demand that Natah repay it for

A NEW THEORYthe harm and suffering its people endured. Since thetwo countries are always on the verge of war, the infor-mation might provide just the reason for an all outbattle.

The other scientists ordered Anderson to keep quietand not make his findings known to the press. Thiscame as a blow to Anderson. He believed that his mes-sage was too important. All countries needed to bewarned that their industrial activity can seriouslychange climatic conditions. "Changing climatic condi-tions can lead to widespread crop failures throughoutthe world," he claimed. "It's a forecast that could savelives, and I'd stick my neck out as far as possible to getthe message across. I plan to discuss plans to stopAnderson from announcing his theory to the public.

Should the scientists carry out their plans to stopAnderson? Why or why not?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Should Anderson have the right to present his theory to the public? Why or why not?

Should a scientist present his/her discoveries even if the information might be used to start a war" Why or why

not?It is possible that Anderson's theory might be incorrect? Should that be reason enough to stop him? Why or why

not?Should Anderson be concerned about what his fellow scientists think of him? Why or why not?

What responsibilities do scientists have towards the general public? Why?

Should scientists be the ones to decide what the general public should or should not know? Why?

How important is "freedom of speech" in this situation? Why?

If you were in Anderson's place, what would you do? Why?

Who should be blamed if a war were started? Why? Can scientists be held responsible for their discoveries?

7265

Reading 13

Natural Disasters: The Human Hand'by Lester R. Brown

When under stress, natural systems become highlysusceptible to injury. Then minor or routine events canbecome major catastrophes. Moderate floods of a sea-sonal nature can assume calamitous proportions anddevastate human life, crops, and livestock. A droughtthat would normally be a hardship becomes a disaster.A minor earthquake can leave the local economy inruins.

One case study of the human contribution to naturaldisasters was undertaken by Kenneth Hewitt, who de-scribes the extensive damage a relatively minor earth-quake of 5.5 on the Richter scale caused in the moun-tains of northeast Pakistan. According to Hewitt, earth-quake damage was far greater in deforested areasThe rockfalls and landslides that followed the quake didas much harm as the quake itself: "Farms and villagesin the steep-walled tributary valleys and narrows of theIndus suffered mainly from the terrible rain of bouldersfollowing the tremors. The results were more like bombdamage. Landslides were also a major factor in the de-struction of irrigation channels and terraces here." Notonly is the damage worse, but it is often irreversible, asHewitt emphasizes. "Moreover, landslides are a partic-ularly bad way for terracing to go. The entire solid ele-ment is swept away, sdmetimes directly into astreambed and downstream before it can be recov-ered. It probably ended up in Tarbela Dam, a huge irri-gation and power project some 120 kilometers downthe Indus. Since sedimentation is the major problem int!..: economic lifetime of the reservoir, agricultural pro-ductivity was thus diminished at both ends."

Increasingly, "natural" c..Atastrophes are brought onat least in part by humans. Even when disasters are nottriggered by human activities, they can be exacerbatedby them. As Hewitt says, "the number of natural disas-ters and the degree of damage in general have in-creased in this century," and since "there is no reasonto suppose that nature is becoming more seoc,re, theorigin must be sought in changing human activities."

In many cases, the events that lead up to or consti-tute a natural disaster intertwine so subtly that the ulti-mate effect of a given activity or action is hard to pre-dict. Overpopulation in a particular watershed may fos-ter deforestation, which in turn can cause floods thatdestroy crops and that bring on food shortages, hunger,and political instability. In another similar watershed,overpopulation may lead to soil erosion, the silting of ahydroelectric reservoir, and power shortages in a citydownstream.

Nature does not always work alone to create disas-ters. Human activities can set in motion ':ilains ofevents that only seem natural. Industrial expansion andoverplowing can, for example, serve to increase theamount of dust in the upper atmosphere. As a result,rainfall patterns change and tood production falls.Eventually, the international balance of payments andpolitical relations among countries are affected. Inshort, ihe casual relationships between human andnatural activities are open-ended, and new stresses onthe earth's ecosystem pose complex economic and so-cial issues.

'This seleoon is reprinted from The TI1 eno-Ninth Do,t, 1978, pp. 64-67. by permission from Norton Publishing Co.

66 To

Reading 14

Earthquake Hazards In The Mountainsby Kenneth Hewitt

... When undisturbed, all but the steepest valley sidessupport a fairly dense forest cover up to 13,000 feet. Itis dominated mostly by the deodar, the Himalayan ce-dar. Where the forest remains, there was far less dam-age than elsewhere; in particular, there were few rock-falls. But much of the forest has been cleared and mostof what remains is overused. The incessant search forfirewood, the energy source for cooking and keepingwarm, has overreached the supply even here, althoughnot to as extreme a degree as farther out in thefoothills. The ever present herds of goats have alsotaken their toll through overgrazing and destruction ofyoung trees.

The Aftermath Of An Earthquake

Reprinted ss ith permission from Natural floton Afttgazuw, May 1976. Copy nght the Amencan Museum of Natural History. 1976.

7 67

So most farms and villages are surrounded by de-forested slopes. Many are terraced, of course, and mayrise more than 2,000 feet without a break. In the winter,bare soil and loose rock unstable debris easily set indownslope motion by the earthquake are conspicu-ous around and above settlements.

The immediate cause of damage during the earth-quake were about equally divided between the effectsof the ground motion itself and the impact of rockfallsand landslides set off by the earth tremors. Ground mo-tion caused the shaking apart of structures and, espe-cially on steeper slopes, the breakup and slumping ofthe ground itself. Disintegrating retaining walls ordownslope slumping of the soil body damaged manyterrace walls, the collapse of buildings was also due, inperhaps half the cases, to ground motion or failure.

But everything depended upon location and local ter-rain. Larger settlements, such as Pattan, are on broadriver terraces or alluvial fans where the valleys widen.Here ground motion was decisive in the amount ofdamage Apart from being less exposed to landslidesfrom steep slopes, these areas have deeper alluvialsubsoils where ground movement is generally more se-vere in earthquakes.

Conversely, farms and villages in the steep-walledtributary valleys and narrows of the Indus sufferedtiainly from the ternble rain of boulders following thetremors. The results were more like bomb damage.Landslides were also a large factor in the destruction ofimgation channels and terraces here. Moreover, land-slides are a particularly bad way for terracing to go. Theentire soil element is swept away, sometimes directlyinto a stream bed and downstream before it can be re-covered Here, it probably ended up in Tarbela Dam, ahuge irrigation and power project some 75 miles downthe Indus Since sedimentation is a major problem inthe economic lifetime of the reservoir, agricultural pro-ductivity was thus diminished at both ends.

The special and most terrifying feature of an earth-quake is that, more than any other natural hazard, itattacks our shelters and man-made structures. Nearlyall types of buildings in Indus Kohistan fared badly inthe disaster modern pukka buildings of dressedstone and mortar or concrete, as well as traditional kut-cha work in mixtures of mud, wattle, timber, and boul-ders

A few old and traditional buildings did as well as anymodern structures. If their walls and roofs were madeof sound timber, wood-frame houses of traditional de-sign fared best of all. Studies elsewhere have shownthat small timber-frame buildings do well in earth-quakes. But when individual walls and building blockscan move independently or when the material is rigidand brittle, buildings readily shake apart. ...

In terms of social and economic disruption, however,damage to terraces and irrigation systems may bemore critical than that to buildings and second only tohuman casualties in its significance. The terraces arethe main economic base for the majority of the popula-tion. A few groups specializing in herding own most ofthe livestock, a useful source of income, clothing, and

68

to some extent, food; but irrigation agriculture, withmaize the main crop, is much more critical....

For the world as a whole, an average year in the mid-twentieth century brings some thirty-two major naturaldisasters. Of these, four are earthquake triggered, ac-counting for some 14,000 fatalities. High mountain re-gions are areas of concentrated seismic risk, notably inthe western cordilleras of the Americas, the Eurasianand African mountain chains from Morocco to westernChina, and the mountainous islands of Southeast Asia.While nearly 70 percent of potentially damaging earth-quakes take place in the circum-Pacific belt, only 20percent of the mid-century (1949-69) casualties werereported here. But the Himalayan-Mediterranean zone,from Burma to Morocco, with only 14 percent of dan-gerous earthquakes, accounted for nearly 75 percentof the casualties. Clearly, there is a relaffon betweenthe relative density of human occupancy and earth-quake risk.

There are strong indications that the number of natu-ral disasters and the degree of damage in general haveincreased in this century. Since there is no reason tosuppose that nature is becoming more severe, the ori-gin must be sought in changing human activities. Inwealthy nations, the level of economic losses is in-creasing; in poorer countries, both mortality and eco-nomic loss are expanding. The disaster in Pakistanserves as an example of the extent of the problem,while at the same time offering a case study in possiblestrategies for rehabilitation.

First, the scale and frequency of such disasters inhigh mountains is not merely a result of seismic condi-tions but rather the worst expression of recent socio-economic pressures and environmental deterioration.Rapid deforestation, overgrazing, and the extension ofcropping to ever more marginal areas, all of which ac-celerate erosion, flooding, and silting of bottomlands,are spreading rapidly throughout the world's tropicaland subtropical high mountains. One of the effects ofthis convergence of environmental damage and socio-ecoromic stresses is to greatly enhance the risk frompests, disease, landslides, floods, and earthquakes.

In many regions, the processes of environmentaldamage are far more advanced than in Indus Kohistan,but it would be erroneous to imagine that this is any-thing but a matter of time. Between visits in 1962 and1975 to the Himalayan tracts of Pakistan closer to theplains, I found a staggering increase in forest damage,bar slopes, gullying, and landslides. The potential dam-age from an earthquake there is very great iiideed, notleast in the enormous pulse of sediment it would hurryinto rivers, dams, and irrigation works so vital toPakistan's survival. ...

Let us examine, for example, a strategy for rehabili-tating the Indus Kohistan area that would take full ac-count of the local habitat and economy. Remember,damage to the habitat has not yet gone so far that itcould not be restored in a small number of years. Thepeople are sturdily independent, hardworking, and notyet ready for the climactic abandonment of old waysand land that is happening elsewhere. And unless onecompares it with the rich agriculture of the Punjab

7 t...)

plains the area appears productive and could be moreso with improved labor-intensive cultivation... .

Afforestation, since it offers benefits in all areas, fromenvironmental protection to resources for improvingbuilding quality, should be at the core of any rehabilita-tion program. But it must be a mixed strategy, not linesof trees marching up and down every mountain. Af-forestation must include pure stands of timber on vul-nerable watersheds, with shelter belts and avenues

along roads and paths. There must be farm forestrywith, say, fruit and nut trees carefully selected andplanted to improve terrace stability and provide addi-tional income without interfering with grain cultivation;trees whose leaves will provide fodder, but also areasfrom which grazing must be excluded; commercial lum-ber stands for eventual export and avenues of quick-growing trees in villages and on farms to provide forlocal constructional timber.

Dilemma 7 COURTING DISASTER

As earthquakes go, the earthquake that shook Atar onthe morning of January 12 was a moderate one, regis-tering only 4.9 on the Richter scale. But the damage topeople and land was more devastating than any otherrecorded earthquake. Entire villages came crashingdown the terraced mountainsides. Rockfalls and land-slides killed thousands of people and many thousandsmore cattle, goats and buffalo. Farms were destroyed.Buildings were crushed, and the major road into thearea was blocked.

The earthquake had other far reaching effects. Irri-gation systems that watered the valley outside the di-rect earthquake zone were damaged. Soils were car-ned into the dam that provided electric power and wa-ter. The increased soil sediment into the lake behindthe dam would lead to more rapid aging of the lake andthreaten future water supplies.

How a mild earthquake could wrought such damag-ing tolls on human lives and property was readily ex-plained by the experts who came to survey the disas-ter. NNith a very large and poor population, nearly ev-ery acre of land in steep, mountainous Atar was usedto its limits. Dense forests had long been stripped for

building materials and firewood for cooking and heat-ing. The mountainside had been cut one tier after an-other for small marginal farm plots. The combinationof treeless mountains, weak retaining walls of the ter-raced farms, and loose rock and soil had set the stagefor massive landslides when the earth trembled.

Soon after the earthquake, the stoic and hardy peas-ants soon began the process of rebuilding their moun-tainside villages and planting crops on the slopes.However, they were again creating the same condi-tions that made them so vulnerable to the earthquakedamage.

Pintot, a peasant, when asked why he was returningsimply shrugged and said, "I have no other land and Imust feed myself and my family. This was the firstearthquake in a hundred years so we wouldn't bearound for the next one".

Yet, as the mountain repopulates, the remaining for-ests will further diminish and erosion will increase.One solution to the problem is to keep the people fromliving and farming the area. Should the governinenttake act'on to stop the people from returning? Why orwhy not':

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Does government have the right to dictate what people do on their own land? Why or why not?

What responsibilities should government have toward the safety of its people? Why?

Since earthquakes are a natural occurrence, is it possible to really protect people from the effects?

If good farmlands are so scarce in the country, is there anything that the government can do?

The activity of the fanners who live in the mountains may be creating dangers not only to themselves but to thepeople living below. What responsibilities do they have to other people?

Should the farmers think about how their activities might affect the environment in the future? Why or why not?

Why do you suppose that people continue to do things even when they know the dangers?

If scientists discover how to better predict earthquakes, will warning people about an earthquake solve the

problem? Why or why not? How might people be affected if they know about the next earthquake in advance?

7669

7 Activity 7: Directions For The Future

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it)

In this module you have examined some of the effects and consequences of human activities on theresources of Earth. Possibly you have considered some alternative ways in which people can use land andresources with greater care. If you were able to influence the way human society conducts its activities,what directives might you issue?

As a final activity, write a short essay describing ways that society should more wisely act in order tobetter protect our environment from harm as well as to provide adequately for everyone now and in thefuture. Assume that you are writing from the viewpoint of a leader in the future, issuing a code of behavior/conduct that you wish people to follow. You may wish to cover several topics or develop a single topic ingreater depth and detail. In either case the important objective is to offer practical solutions that areattractive and desirable to the people of the society. It may be necessary to explain the benefits that can beachieved when people make certain changes in their present way of living.

In developing your essay consider the following questions or concerns.

What aspects of the environment do you like? Dislike? What changes do you want to see?

What types of activities might create the greatest potential harm to people and the earth?

Will your code be fair to everyone?

What are society's most important needs and how can they best be met?

Is it possible to have all our modern conv eniences and products of technology and still maintain ahigh quality environment?

What human activ ities need to be changed? Will such changes be difficult to accomplish?

Some possible topics might include:

Use of wilderness lands

Urban development

Suburban development

Housing

Energy sources

Pollution

Food production

New technologies

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