Search results

In any one place over short periods of time in the absence of modern agriculture, there is a more or less balanced population of plants and animals living on and in a given soil type. More or less because climatic conditions are not static and change with time. The flora and fauna and composition of the soil respond to these changes both in terms of the existing population of animals and plants and by genetic variation giving rise to new varieties, species, and so on. A “short period of time” could be as little as a few years.

We are growing accustomed to shock tactics of the US Administration in dealing with toxic residues in food or additives which are a hazard to man, as well as the daily press infusing sensation, even melodrama, into them, but the recent action of the FDA in calling in from the food market several million cans of tuna and other deep sea fish because of the presence of mercury has had the worthwhile effect of drawing world attention to the growing menace of environmental pollution. The level of mercury in the fish is immaterial; it should never have been there at all, but it stresses the importance of the food chain in the danger to man and animal life generally, including fish beneath the sea. Without underestimating risks of pollution in the atmosphere from nuclear fission products, from particulate matter carried in the air by inhalation or even skin absorption, food and drink, which includes aqua naturale would seem to be the greatest danger to life. What these recent events illustrate in a dramatic manner, however, is the extent of pollution.

The new authorities created by this Act, probably the most important local government measure of the century, will be voted into existence during 1973 and commence functioning on 1st April 1974. Their responsibilities and the problems facing them are in many ways quite different and of greater complexity than those with which existing councils have had to cope. In its passage through the Lords, a number of amendments were made to the Act, but in the main, it is a scheme of reorganization originally produced after years of discussion and long sessions in the Commons. Local government reorganization in Scotland takes place one year later and for Northern Ireland, we must continue to wait and pray for a return of sanity.