Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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Man has just begun in earnest what may be the most important battle of his existence. It is not a battle in the usual sense. He is not fighting other men. Nor is it a battle of the jack London va- riety - man against nature. Man is in a battle with himself, fighting his own greed and selfishness. And, however maudlin it may sound, the struggle is in every sense to the death. For through his blind avarice man is destroying his environment and it, in turn, will de- stroy him. Throughout time man has taken what he wanted from the earth. The food for his belly has come from the mountains and forests. But man has not given in return for what he has taken. He has slowly stripped his surround- ings of their immediate worth and left only his excrement. If you look you can easily see the success man has had in taking from the earth. There are millions of chrome- plated cars and thousands of shiny air- planes in which to ride. There are a multitude of housing developments and apartment complexes in which to live. Gigantic shopping centers and supermarkets offer almost everything conceivable to make life easier. But if you look you can also easily see the price man's success has exacted. The polluted air is becoming unbreath- able andthe water undrinkable. Beside the glorious highways are hugh junk yards replete with garbage. It is true that man has conquered the wilder- ness, yet, he has left a wasteland. People are becoming aware of the crisis. At one time in history the fight was carried on by a handfull of what we then considered to be 'square' conser- vationists. Now the movement is del- uged by concerned people who are organizing for the battle. Its popularity will only be a blessing if it does not fade. Dr. Kenneth E. F. Watt, professor of Zoology at the University of California, 32 4' G gtk 7 ' tzefis X X6 61,5 ci K Y Yaesu! GW' x xffklll g t ts 5, ...,. . I -' ' in A Q 1'at'lx' , 3 X XR XXX xg Y ...EG ,ig ix.. X X ti. g x POPULATl0l i it I 2 qwtgkx. Q 3 4 .XY ' V R M U RACE T0

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told the students at Swarthmore Col- lege in the Spring of 1970 that, The history of movements like this is not very promising. We had great move- ments on civil rights and the Vietnam- ese war. The problems are still with us but the movements have died away. In the last year the environmental issue has come to the fore at Indiana University. The Environmental Action Day, otherwise known as Earth Day, was held at I.U. on April 22, 1970. The day's activities included rallies, clean- ups, teach-ins and traffic bans. The two main features of the day were speeches by Democratic Senator Gaylord Nel- son, a nationally famous environmental leader from Wisconsin, and Dr. Elvis 1. Star, former I.U. President and now president of the National Audibon Society. Later in the Spring the University Physical Plant was critized of careless spraying in Dunn Meadow. Again the accusation was raised in the summer by the residents of the Redbud Hills housing complex who felt their child- ren had been endangered. That inci- dent was complicated by contradictory evidence as to what chemicals were being sprayed. Dr. F. Douglas Martin, Assistant Professor of Zoology, said his tests indicated a combination of dield- rinaldrin, several times more harmful than DDT, was being used. However, the State Board of Health's tests indi- cated Malathion, a relatively low toxici- ty pesticide was being used. The conflict was never completely resolved although the physical plant was vindicated. What the incident did point out was the lack of any central authority over environmental matters in the University bureaucracy. lt seemed that james C-oodpasture, director of the University Environmen- tal Health Service, should have some authority in the situation. But it be- came apparent that he only has an ad- visory power. 33