SOME ASPECTS OF CONSERVATION
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new equilibrium was not so different from the old, but the pace
has outstripped the capacity of the environment to adjust
amicably. Add to this the vast outpourings of the other noxious
things into the atmosphere, and we are now immersed in a mix-
ture of gases that is all but lethal.
One cannot over-emphasise the magnitude of the problem.
The world will have the products of modern technology—people
demand as their birthright a better and still better standard of
living. Developing countries see the products of our civilisation
like a developing child sees brightly painted toys. We shut our
eyes to the consequences, in the hope they will go away. But
they won't.
Our land and rivers are polluted, perhaps beyond redemption.
The use of organochlorine pesticides has brought unbelievable
short-term benefits, artificial fertilizers have filled the farmers'
granaries, but the land is poisoned by them and turns to dust
in his fingers and is blown away by the wind. Excess nitrogenous
fertilizers find their way into the rivers, along with the nitrogen-
rich sewage effluents, to give rise to such a growth of algae that
the water is deprived of oxygen and the fish die. It used to be
thought the great lakes of America were bottomless dumps for
human refuse, but they are not. It is said now, that if you fall
into Lake Erie you rot before you can drown. These lakes have
aged about fifteen hundred years in a few decades. And the
Mediterranian, too, is rapidly going the same way.
I will not dwell on these unpleasantnesses, but they must be
faced up to. There can be only one answer, and this lies in
recognition of one simple fact. The Earth is a sphere and there-
fore has a finite surface. It can only support a finite population.
One thing that must be got over to everyone on this planet is
that an upper limit must be settled and enforced. I don't pretend
to know how this is to be done, but if it is not, then I am sure we
are for the chopper before the century is out.
Nevertheless, such pessimism is no excuse for idleness. There
is a lot that can be done in a small way to conserve what we
have before it is too late, so that there will be something to
build on, when and if the major problems are solved. We pass
on, therefore, to our other priorities.
I jotted down the notes for this part of my address while
sitting in the British Museum (Natural History) within sight of
the great Dinosaurs. I wondered, had there been a race of con-
servation-minded Dinosaurs, would man have been allowed to
evolve? One can imagine, if they had developed just that little
bit more brain, they would have regarded those tiny, primitive
mammals scampering between their feet as vermin, and would
have set about exterminating them by every possible means, so
that there would be a world fit only for Dinosaurs to live in.
We men have been rather like this, and tend to want the
world our way, for have we not been given divine command to