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— '—t ■ The Herald and The Lantern Wednesday, March 12,1980

In Our Hands

When you come right down to it, the most important thing in the world is the quality of life on Earth. And each of us, as individuals, has a great deal to do with that quality or lack

thereof.

We hear and read a great deal about how germs and other lower life forms (such as gypsy moths and termites, for instance) take ,a heavy toll each year. There are even occasional stories about how animals higher up in the chain of life (such as wild animals even pets (will turn on man with fatal results BUT IT IS MAN, homo sapiens, which are more destructive than any other creater large or snf II. Supposedly using his unique power of thought, man has committed atrocities throughout history under the banner of truth, Christianity, righteousness, purity and a host of other bywords. But man's destruction of man is miniscule compared to man’s destruction of other forms of life. Since the industrial revolution, man has been generally destructive of nature to a degree unparalled in lystory. With massive machines, man's muscle power was multiplied tremendously; and while many of his machines greatly benefited mankind directly, they also began to scar the Earth and its other creatures. MAN HAS SO SCARRED the Earth through pollution and destruction of eco systems, that today the threat is beginning to infringe upon mankind itself; no longer is it just the

animals.

Perhaps' the greatest need of 20th Century Man is to attempt to redefine Progress in light of overall living; that is, in terms of the quality of life of all creatures great and small. For what harms the littlest of creatures is bound, someday, to prove deleterious for man.

Senior Power Social Security tnanager Delton Brooks called the increase in recipients here over the past several years “drastic." We call the multi-million dollars in benefits paid out “astounding” Look at those figures in this week's front page story on the number of people receiving Social Security benefits in our county, and the multi-million dollar amounts that arrive here each month in the mail. Maybe the right word is '(incredible." THERE ARE A number of things that can be'read between the lines of such a statistical report. One is Senior Power, the influence large numbers of senior citizens have — or could have — on the political process. Another is Economy, the financial impact the mostly fixed-income elderly or disabled have on the state of business in a resort economy despite their relatively low fixed incomes. Perhaps the most important word between the lines should be consideration, what these people should receive as a result of their impact or potential impact pn the political and economic

systems

QUESTION; DO THE 21,000-plus residents of Cape May County whose Social Security, Survivor or Disability benefits account for an average of $5 million-plus a month coming into this area — do these people have the proper political clout, respect and influence the numbers would dictate? Another way of asking this question is to pretend all the Social Security et al beneficiaries on the Jersey Cape were organized into one bargaining group or union. Now suppose they went on strike. The questions arc: What would be their demands; and why would they go on strike?

John H. And) u« II

William J. Adams

Mtona H7.JJ12 for

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1980 EQ SUMMARY

Quality of Life

SENATOR

GOVERNOR

BILL BRADLEY

BRENDAN T. BYRNE

315 Russell Senate

State House

Office Building

Trenton. N.J. 08625

Washington. D.C. 20510

292-6000

(202) 224-3224

SENATOR

SENATOR JAMES S.CAFIERO

HARRISON A.

3303 New Jersey Ave.

WILLIAMS JR.

Wildwood, N.J. 08260

352 Russell Senate

522-0511 /

Office Building

Washington. D.C. 20510

ASSEMBLYMAN

(202 ) 224-9724

JAMES R. HURLEY

CONGRESSMAN

P.O. Box 876, 821 Columbia Ave.

WILLIAM J. HUGHES

Millville, N.J. 08332

327 Cannon House

327-000

Office Building

Washington. D.C. 20515

ASSEMBLYMAN

(202)225-6572

JOSEPH W.CHINNICI

838 Asbury Ave.

Bridgeton Ave.

Ocean City, N.J. 08226

Bridgeton. N.J. 08302

399-0730

451-2276

Variable

WASHINGTON - The "quality of life” in the United States—as measured by seven environmental indicators—remained virtually unchanged last year as the nation, wound up a decade marked by the enactment of many environmental protection laws, the National Wildlife Federation reported in its Uth annual study of environmental trends. But new trends threaten this progress. NWF, the nation's largest nonprofit citizens conservation organization, found in its 1980 Environmental Quality Index (EQI) study that

time in more than a decade, the EQ trendline for wildlife stopped going down in 1979. This was the result of years of hard work in wildlife management, habitat protection, and pollution abatement. But conservationists worry about the future. Little was done last year to improve vast acreages of badly abused rangeland in the West. And in Congress, there was a fierce backlash against all environmental constraints on development. THERE WERE other ominous conflirt^ be tween energy and wilmife in 1979: While Congress debated

breathing air that was cleaner than it had been in a decade. But also last year, there was relentless pi,.sure on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower its air standards because many U.S. policy- and automakers claimed that antipollution costs are inflationary. WHAT ARE the costs and benefits of air pollution laws? According to the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the U.S. spent $13 billion in 1978 to clean up the air. But, CEQ added, cleaner air may be saving Americans as much as $22 billion annually in

unabated. LIVING SPACE Down. Even with a lower birthrate, the U.S. population is expanding rapidly ( it passed 220 million last year), and the strain'on living space is relentless. Despite the suggestions of an urban renaissance in many of the nation's largest cities, the 35-year-old migration to the suburbs continues, accompanied by development in scores of agricultural areas. FORTUNATELY, some states have passed their own land use laws, and last year Congress passed an Omnibus Parks bill, which

...the conversion of cropland to suburbs continues unabated ... (and) the 35-year-old migration to the suburbs continues, accompanied by development in scores of agricultural areas.

four of the seven resources that go into the in-dex-wildlife. water, soil, and forests—remained unchanged in quality over the past year. Another component of the EQI—air quality—improved in 1979, while two others—minerals and living space—declined inquality LAST YEAR was the first time since 1970 that the majority of the seven natural resources didn’t register a decline on the EQI. During 1979 there was "progress on a number of fronts," from pollution abatement and solar research to wetlands protection and wildlife management." explains the EQI report, which is published in the February issue of National Wildlife magazine. But while many past gains were consolidated. "at the political level, environmental programs and priorities suffered setbacks from which they may not soon recover," the report concludes. THE EQI is an analysis of the state of the nation’s natural resources based on a combination of objective measurements and the subjective judgments of the NWF staff in consultation with government experts and academic researchers. Five federal agencies- the Bureau of Land Management, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, and the Soil Conservation Service—now cooperate with the Federation in the collection of resources data. Here ire summaries of the 1980 EQI reports on the seven resources! f WILDLIFE , No Change. For the first

relaxing air standards so more coal can be burned, acid rain containing pollutants form industrial smokestacks and car exhaust began showing up in Wisconsin and Michigan. Last fall, the Interior Department okayed oil exploration on the Georges Bank off Cape Cod, one of the world’s most productive fisheries, while U.S. crews were mopping up a monumental leak from an offshore Mexican oil well. MINERALS DOWN. Of the seven resources analyzed in the EQI, minerals are perhaps the easiest to squander and the hardest to retrieve. This underlines the seriousness of the fact that in 1979, the U.S. moved one year closer to the end of the petroleum era without a comprehensive energy conservation program. Instead of emphasizing conservation, President Carter proposed a massive and expensive program to develop "synthetic" fossil fuels, to locate and produce more domestic oil, and to create an almost dictatorial "energy mobilization board" that could bypass many environmental safeguards. IN THE year of Three Miles Island, gas lines, and doubled fuel prices, all of the energy news was not bad. Energy efficiency in U.S. homes and apartments increased and industrial use decreased. Improved auto mileage last year produced the first drop since 1974 in gasoline demand, which accounts for 40 per cent of all oil used. AIR UP. All across the country last year, millions of Americans were

damages. WATER No Change. Many industries and communities are now moving toward, rather than away from, the Clean Water Act’s goal of "fishable, swimmable" waters by 1985. Industry is responsible for much of the clean up progress that has been made. About 85 per cent of the nation’s major industrial polluters are complying with the law. BUT THERE are rising problems. Many environmentalists claim that conventional sewage treatment plants use too much energy and don’t really get the water clean. Nearly 800 industrial polluters have failed to meet EPA's 1977 cleanup deadline and fewer than 200 have been taken to court. And every day, vast amounts of urban and agricultural poisons enter the nation’s water supplies from "nonpoint" sources. SOIL No Change. The outlook for America’s hard used soil may be better these days. For one thing, erosion in many areas apparently isn’t as bad as many experts once feared. For another, there’s a good chance that the use of harmful pesticides can be drastically curtailed, due to a strategy called Integrated Pest Management. IPM could reduce crop losses to pests more effectively than today's pesticides—without harming human health or natural ecosystems. ON THE negative side, the massive runoff of fertilizer and pesticides into streams and rivers remains one of the nation's most stubborn pollution problems. And the conversion of cropland to suburbs continues

designates two million acres as wilderness. But benefits from these efforts will be limited as long as the primary cause of the living-space crunchpopulation growth—continues. FORESTS Same. Last year the U.S. grew more timber than it cut (except in the West). The U.S. Forest Service proposed to set aside more than 15 million additional acres as wilderness, and to open up another 36 million acres to timber and other kinds of development. WHILE SOME environmentalists said that was not enough wilderness, developers complained of a lockout. But the USFS’s new five-year management plan provides for more public say-so on how forests are fun. Most important, the plan gives higher priority to watershed protection, wildlife habitatand recreation. ' But American forests may face increased pressure from the energy shortage. Spot shortages of firewood are already showing up in parts of the U.S. + + + Commenting on the report, Thomas L. Kimball, NWF executive vice president, warned that the existing "quality of life" is threatened by present trends in Congress. "As we enter the 1980’s the overriding question is this; Will we let energy and inflation wipe out our environmental gains?” Mr. Kimball said. (A free copy of the 1980 EQ Index report can be obtained by writing: Educational Services, National Wildlife Federation, 1412 16th Street, N.W.. Washington. D.C. 20036).