And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
—Revelation 9:2
4427 Polluting Air And Sea
Pollutants are the residues of things we used and threw away. The unfortunate thing is that as the earth becomes crowded, there is no longer any place to throw away anything and therefore the trashbasket of the world becomes the air above or the sea below.
4428 Solid Wastes In U. S.
Solid wastes cast off by U. S. municipalities and industries now add up to 360 million tons a year. If wastes from agriculture, mining and other areas are included, the total is estimated at 3.5 billion tons.
4429 The Individual American
Meet the average American: “Every year he will leave in his wake his share of the 20 million tons of paper, 48 billion cans and 26 billion bottles that litter the land. He will personally pollute three million gallons of water in a year. He will pour enormous amounts of gases into the air from his car and other machines.
“Measured in terms of destructive effect on the environment, biologist Wayne David estimates that 1 American is equivalent to at least 25 citizens of India. Figuring in this way, 205 million Americans are now putting a drain on the resources of the earth that would take 5 billion Indians to duplicate. And by the same reckoning, our population growth is far more dangerous to the survival of future generations than the much higher rate of China or Mexico.”
4430 Removing Billboards
The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 authorized a program to ban “visual pollution” from federal highways in non-commercial and non-industrial areas.
The total number of signs removed by the end of 1976 was about one-half the 800,000 billboards to be removed. Out of the 315 million dollars in federal funds obligated to be spent under the Act, more than 221 million had been spent.
4431 Several Environmental Acts
America, in launching its big cleanup of the environment, also passed the Environmental Policy Act in 1969. This requires each federal agency to consider the impact of any large development on the nation’s natural resources.
Then came the 1970 Clean Air Act with its five-year cleanup period, and the 1972 Clean Water Act with its ten-year period. Initial spendings however have shown that total costs may be at least three times what was originally projected.
4432 Cleanup’s Total Price Tag
The total price tag for cleaning up America’s environment—originally estimated to be 70 billion dollars—may reach up to 224 billion over a ten-year period, as follows:
To fight air pollution …$146.9 billion
To fight water pollution …$55.8 billion
To fight noise pollution &elips$9.0 billion
To fight solid-waste, radiation, and other pollutions …$12.0 billion
4433 Anybody Give A Hoot?
For 26 years, Smokey the Bear has been a uniquely successful advertising gimmick to remind Americans about the dangers of forest fires. Now the Federal Government wants to spread the word about pollution.
The U. S. Forest Service has come up with Woodsy the Owl, presumably a wise and likeable bird whose message, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute,” may have a good chance of reaching children; they in turn might be counted on to badger their parents about littering and similar offences.
4434 Unusual Collection In Church
The collection—surely one of the most unusual ever taken in a church—stretched beyond the two pulpits, out two side doors, and down a corridor. The “take” weighed nearly a ton; it was inspired by a church-school class on ecology and a young women’s adult study group.
The choir, in black and white robes, marched over and around stacks of bottles—whisky bottles and pop bottles and baby-food jars … relish and rug cleaner, beer and beets. …
The Reverend Dwight S. Large, pastor of Detroit’s Central Methodist Church, explained it all in his sermon: “We live in a moment of history when people choose death, poisoning the air and water with chemicals, and destroying the earth with sewage, pesticides, and trash. Each year we dump 28 billion bottles and 48 billion cans.”
“More important,” he continued, “action by every church and temple … might call attention to the fact that trash glass can be recycled and thus used and reused again and again.” The bottles were destined for a collection station in Ann Arbor, then crushing, melting, and reuse.
—Christianity Today
4435 First Prize To “Pick It Up!” Poster
Upon accepting an honorary doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburg, black artist Romare Bearden commented that Pittsburgh is the only place he ever won a prize—and he owed that to the acumen of his grandmother. He was a schoolboy at the time, living with his grandparents. “There was a poster contest,” he said, “in connection with a cleanup campaign. I started a poster, full of smokestacks, open-hearth furnaces and Bessemers, all pouring smoke into the Pittsburgh sky. My grandmother looked at it and said, ’That will never win a prize. You need Mrs. Rooney. ’
“Mrs. Rooney was a super at a building near us. We kids used to sit on her steps, and when we got too noisy, she’d come out with her mop and chase us. If we left any trash, she’d shout, “Pick it up!”
“So I drew Mrs. Rooney, as seen from below, mop in one hand, pointing sternly with the other, with the title: “PICK IT UP!” First prize!”
—Selected
See also: Ecology.