Problems of population
Prof. BERESFORD
TALK ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF POLUTION
(Tape script, slightly abridged)
Pollution is today, probably, the greatest problem that faces mankind. There is a saying in English that it is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. And human beings are, collectively speaking, fouling their nest at the increasing rate. It is an alarming picture. We are polluting the air, which we need to breathe, the earth from which we derive all our food, and the waters from which wе, of course, derive the water we need to live, to drink, and for other purposes. So all the elements that surround us — there are three elements: earth, air and water — are being increasingly polluted by the activities of man, by industrial activities, for the most part. And pollution, of course, knows no frontiers. One country that pollutes will export its pollution to others. The radioactivity, for example, that was generated by the catastrophe at Chernobyl four years ago, four or five years ago, was carried in clouds across Europe, and some of these radioactive clouds, something which have been polluted in this way, actually produced rains which fell on parts of England and Wales. And we had a problem with the cattle which, of course, are fed on the grass, which had been rained on, by this polluted water, so we had problems in a small way, even in England as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.
But Chernobyl is only one instant among many. It's a dramatic and alarming symptom of what is going on in all societies, all advanced industrial societies, not just in one. It's common to all, it's a common problem for all of us and in fact, in a sense, it takes us beyond all our ideologies. We must, in fact, look at this in a totally neutral, totally objective way, not for the blaming of one, one economic system or another. It's something which is, as I say, frowning both ends. It's really a function of advanced economic systems, of advanced, technologically advanced countries. It's basically the
TALK ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF POLUTION
(Tape script, slightly abridged)
Pollution is today, probably, the greatest problem that faces mankind. There is a saying in English that it is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. And human beings are, collectively speaking, fouling their nest at the increasing rate. It is an alarming picture. We are polluting the air, which we need to breathe, the earth from which we derive all our food, and the waters from which wе, of course, derive the water we need to live, to drink, and for other purposes. So all the elements that surround us — there are three elements: earth, air and water — are being increasingly polluted by the activities of man, by industrial activities, for the most part. And pollution, of course, knows no frontiers. One country that pollutes will export its pollution to others. The radioactivity, for example, that was generated by the catastrophe at Chernobyl four years ago, four or five years ago, was carried in clouds across Europe, and some of these radioactive clouds, something which have been polluted in this way, actually produced rains which fell on parts of England and Wales. And we had a problem with the cattle which, of course, are fed on the grass, which had been rained on, by this polluted water, so we had problems in a small way, even in England as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.
But Chernobyl is only one instant among many. It's a dramatic and alarming symptom of what is going on in all societies, all advanced industrial societies, not just in one. It's common to all, it's a common problem for all of us and in fact, in a sense, it takes us beyond all our ideologies. We must, in fact, look at this in a totally neutral, totally objective way, not for the blaming of one, one economic system or another. It's something which is, as I say, frowning both ends. It's really a function of advanced economic systems, of advanced, technologically advanced countries. It's basically the