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-. GREEN PAPER ON ECOLOGY - ( . 4 yo . 5 Soviet aid, has already begumfilling up with silt, brought! disease (a leech that thrives * in large bodies of warm, still water), disrupted many villages, caused hunger by alter- ing the flood patterns of the Nile and thereby d#srupting crop planting seasons, and _ destroyed the sardine fishing industry by killing the phytoplankton the sardines feed on. The same future is in store for the Mekong River region in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where a U.S. sponsored dam is being planned to produce vast amounts of electricity for an area which at present has little need for electricity at all. It seems only logical. that foreign industries will have to move in to use the vast emounts of electricity that will be produced, . 7 ? > dt Migs These "unforeseen international ecological boomerangs” are not a series of blunders or —— mistakes but are the necessary ends of political and economic systems that have their security totally dependent on endless growth and expansion. These systems are forever looking for new markets, new consumers, new resources. If overpopulation is measured in terms of the destructive impact of a given population on its environment, the United States, with about 6% of the world's population and using up more than 60% of the earth's non-replaceable resources, is the most over-populated nation in the world. T£ our economy continues to expand, world population growth could be stabilized and we would still find that we are on the verge of using up all the non-replaceable living ‘and non-living resources in order to maintain economic security. It is becoming clear that we must work towards zero population growth, zero GNP growth and then a reduction in GNP, an end to economic exploitation, economic and political w= decentralization, and a redistribution of wealth and resources. These changes must be 1 significant in the next few years if we are to survive. —_— —V ——_— eee ae Se eee ee a ly at — The need for rapid ecological change is also closely related to the struggle of oppressed people for their own Liberation. The Vietnamese people must be allowed to restore their culture and their former relationship to their land which, before the saturation bombings, Napalming, forced urbanization, and massive defoliation, were ecologically sound. The U.S. Government and American industries must return to the American Indians all the land, wy water, and hunting and fishing rights that were stolen from them. Black people must be supported in their struggle to create communities and environments which they can relate to and which they can have creative control over: conmunities that are free of rats and roaches and the dangerous poisons used to kill them, communities that are free of lead poisoning and garbage, communities that provide adequate and humane housing without over- crowding, plenty of parks, easy access to cheap mass transit, communities that are controlled by the residents, not by absentee landlords, absentee polluters or outside police forces. Women must continue and gain support for their struggle to free themselves: = — from the restricting and degrading roles of baby-producer, sex-object, housekeeper, and mindless consumer. Precautions must be made against those who will present subtle forms of genocide as ways to stabilize world population, against those who would place the burden of a stabilizing economy on the poor instead of on the rich, and against those who would have the consumers, rather than the polluters themselves, pay for clean air and { water. : | em Ecology is inherently radical (i.e., "having roots"), and, while it points to fundamental ~——— Changes Tn our economic, social, and political systems, it also points to changes in the quality of our lives and our sense of community. What does it mean to be alive? Does it ‘mean increasing our control over other people and nature itself, an endless ego-trip? Do we have to specialize our activities and concerns - whether itn offices, families, or universities - to the point of losing our perspective, our sense of wholeness, our wonder: Can we renew our relationships with each other and nature with a feeling of mutual respect —— equality, interdependence? Are we willing to drop out of or begin radically transforming m—-—- a way of Life and a system that is oriented towards death, specialization, alienation, ww greed, manipulation, exclusion, and competition? Do we have enough courage to lead lives of simplicity (not asceticism), celebration, and sharing? Are we willing to “take time” em wake awe ane haadae taaathear avan 8f Te masne nactartings imnartont naliticral or moave-