Emotion rather than studied reason seems to pervade virtually all discussions of environmental problems these days. "Pollution" has become a loaded word implicitly condemning what it describes. The anti-pollution lobby is vociferous and its condemnation of industry may be dangerously indiscriminate; pollution is an economic not a moral issue.
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There are 44 papers in this volume averaging 20 pages each. Additional summaries of all the papers are reprinted on special sheets presumably to save the time of the hurried reader. All papers, except one in French and one in Russian, are in English with Polish summaries. However, the paper in Russian is in Cyrillic including the title, making it difficult to absorb by readers unfamiliar with that alphabet.
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This slim book of % pages fills a longstanding need. Such was the demand for the first Checklist of New Zealand Birds published by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in 1953 that it was out of print within a few years. The many ornithologists who have expectantly awaited publication of the present revised version, and ecologists, who are often not taxonomists, can rely on a checklist prepared by a committee of this calibre.
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The Ehrlichs' book forcefully supports the thesis that the recent rapid growth of human population has resulted in resource shortages and a deteriorating social and physical environment which may eventually limit the rate of population growth, and perhaps lead to a decline in total population. Further than this, the human population explosion is vividly described as "the most significant terrestrial event of the past million millenia”, the opening statement of a prophetically significant book
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The introduction of any new standard text for secondary schools is an important event. This production, Biological Science, by a small Curriculum Development Unit of the New Zealand Department of Education, under the guidance of an editorial committee headed by Professor G. A. Knox, is an astonishing achievement. To do it justice, this review is a corporate one by several biologists, each covering different parts but paying special attention to the ecological content.
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The word "ecology" first appeared in the English language in 1873, and since then we have seen the industrial revolution, the population explosion, planless urbanisation and the colossal growth of sewage and garbage. In recent years there have been many calls for action to curb unplanned explansion, but many of the proposals have been negative—"Ban the bomb", "No billboards", "Save this lake or harbour". These are only aspects of one larger problem for which we have not yet found a really practical solution.
