Paul and others, Guess I can say that I was there and heard the same statements. I didn't have enough money to go to a psychologist (smile), so I just assumed that the statements were their best guesses about world conditions. When they didn't come true in the required time I wasn't too dismayed, as it seems like Congress did enact some pieces of legislation that attempted to reduce the possibilities, e.g., the clean air and water acts, the endangered species acts, etc.
In any case, although we haven't had to move away from the coasts, we do know that bottom trawling has ruined huge amounts of area of the oceans, fish catches are down and although there is still a cod in the Boston state house, not much cod is commercially landed in Massachusetts, a huge are of the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River is considered to be a dead zone, etc., etc., etc. I could go on and on. The rivers in NH are now swimable, but they weren't when I first got here in the late sixties. That's due to a number of factors, including the fact that many of the companies that polluted the rivers went bankrupt, but more because the Federal Government made a huge investment in local and regional treatment plants. I don't think they did that just because it caused them to feel good, but more because some of us pushed them on the matter by saying that if we didn't correct the problem it might be our last days as a species. Sure that's a bit of an exageration, but none-the-less, it did convince the public to write their congress people and action was taken. Cheers, Larry PS All the hills I roamed as a kid in Belmont and San Carlos, California, are now filled with huge homes. Most are not owned by ecologists but many have big SUVs in their driveways. Thank goodness that I still have that environment in my backyard in NH where perhaps the ratio of ecologists/environmentalists is a bit higher than that of California and perhaps we're able to exert more influence on our peers allowing the state and others to preserve our forested environments. -- Larry T. Spencer, Professor Emeritus of Biology Plymouth State University ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
