'Superfund works as a federally operated insurance program for

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industries that contaminate SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1990 7 environment, the equivalent of about 100 Hiroshima bombs would be contaminating this country every year."

Even the term "disposal" is misleading when applied to nuclear wastes. No current method of "disposal" exists to prevent radioactive elements from being released into the environment. For all practical purposes, the pollution that is generated now will be permanent. Radium has a half-life of 1620 years, and one type of poisonous iodine produced by nuclear reactors has a half-life of 17 million years.

Clearing the land for profit Real estate and banking interests, developers, and construction companies are responsible for the large-scale loss of open space, parkland, and wilderness areas in recent years.

These profit-seeking corporations act to prevent the building of low-cost housing in the cities, while contributing to urban sprawl and disrupting the ecology of rural areas. The government is complicit in this rape of the land.

One government policy pays farmers not to grow in areas with high rainfall. Yet it subsidizes farm irrigation in states with low rainfall—thus wasting billions of dollars to support wealthy growers.

The Forest Service is building roads into backcountry areas and turning public forests into lumber. One analysis showed that the government actually subsidized the lumber industry with over $1.2 billion in five years.

The Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management all promoted policies that poisoned coyotes, weasels, minks, foxes, and badgers. Carrion birds fed on their carcasses and also died. These policies were for the benefit of sheep owners who have over 8 million sheep on public land.

William O. Douglas has documented how the Forest Service uses herbicides extensively in its brush-control program. Largescale spraying then drifts off target, affecting trees. Douglas reports that forests that have been sprayed are more likely to be flammable. It has been suggested that the Forest Service adopt as its motto, "Only we can prevent forests."

"There will be no going back"

This review can only begin to describe the damage that has been done to the environment. There is not enough space to cover the buildup of trash and the wasteful packaging practices of big business, or the worldwide extinction of species by the whaling and fishing industries and the ivory trade. Nor is there space to deal with the deliberate development of a deadly nuclear arsenal and chemical warfare.

The first article in this series discussed the major threats to life on this planet, but these phenomenon merit additional consideration. Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defense Fund disclosed on the "ABC Nightline" show that scientists have been predicting the Greenhouse Effect (global warming) for over 200 years.

Dr. Oppenheimer told moderator Ted Koppel, "The important point is this, that the changes are irreversible, and that there's a lag between the emissions of the gases and the full manifestation of their consequences. So we can't move into the world, casually look about, and decide we don't like it and go back. There will be no going back."

Dr. Oppenheimer said that he thinks there is still time to act. "But if we don't start today to limit the emissions of these gases, we're going to be building an irreversible change, and we're going to be leaving for the next generation a world which is moving the earth.

downhill toward uninhabitability.

While the dangers of global warming have been known for two centuries, the discovery in 1985 of the gaping hole in the ozone layer in the Antarctic took scientists completely by surprise. How many other deathdealing processes have been set in motion that might take us by surprise? How many other startling revelations are being kept hidden from us?

Given the technology currently available to us, it would be possible to build a heaven on earth. Funds now given over to the U.S. military budget could be used to radically rehabilitate the environment. And yet we are reaping a whirlwind of destruction and death.

Can capitalists reform their ways?

Many people share the dangerous illusion that, as the problem intensifies, the ruling jor ecological faults in the capital equipment of this country. He says that this investment would be roughly one-half of the expenditiures for durable equipment and structures for the period from 1946 to 1968.

Restoring our damaged ecosystem would cost additional hundreds of billions of dollars. Commoner states: "Perhaps the simplest way to summarize all this is that most of the nation's resources for capital investment would need to be engaged in the task of ecological construction for at least a generation."

The ruling class, however, instead of embarking on a major program of ecological rehabilitation has chosen to invest its capital in new technologies and production that clearly intensify the deterioration of the environment.

Perhaps the end justifies the means for some. Is there perhaps a certain amount of illness and environmental degradation that must be tolerated in order for masses of people to get the cheap products they desire? This attitude could not prevail if people were informed of the extent of the suffering that the destruction of the environment has created in terms of human health and lives. The next article in this series will review the horrible legacy of disease that the polluters have left to the planet and its inhabitants.

By Kwame M.A. Somburu et al. Send $2 (includes postage) to 3435 Army St., Rm. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Make checks payable to Walnut Publishing Co.

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A key pamphlet on the Black struggle