Environmental Pollution, National Seed Laboratory, and Whale Killers

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/ANTIKSU
News about the world, health of the planet and the environment, including suburban water pollution in America.

This short series of reports covers news, including environmental problems with water from cities, the National Seed Laboratory, and animal endangerment.

A BOOKLET ENTITLED OREGONS BOTTLE BILL — TWO YEARS LATER reports that the state’s ban on non-returnable bottles has reduced beer and soft drink beverage-container litter by a whopping 83%. Filled with facts, figures, charts, tables, and other analytical data, the booklet — available for $2.50 from the Oregon Environmental Council, Portland, Oregon — should provide valuable “ammunition” for folks fighting to establish bottle bills in their own litter-strewn states.

THE WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY reports that street runoff from rains in large American cities washes massive amounts of toxic metals — all of which are brought to you by your friendly neighborhood industries and your own pollution-belching car — into the nation’s vital surface waters. As an example, the council notes, a single town the size of Washington D.C. flushes more than 300,000 pounds of lead . . . 425,590 pounds of zinc . . . 120,450 pounds of copper . . . 12,848 pounds of mercury . . . and “quantities of other metals” into lakes, rivers, streams, and reservoirs every year.

WOULD-BE ENTREPRENEURS SERIOUSLY SEEKING THEIR FORTUNES might well want to get in on the ground floor of what’s being called “the next century’s most promising and important industry”: recycling commercial wastes. Several companies specializing in finding new uses for corporate “trash” — everything from Saran Wrap to zirconium to old printed circuit boards — are now springing up across the country and enjoying a highly profitable demand for their services . . . and the field, as they say, is wide open.

THE IDEAS IN MOTHER EARTH NEWS NO. 34`S “HOW TO SAVE YOUR OWN GARDEN SEED” article are followed on a grand scale at the National Seed Laboratory on the campus of Colorado State University … but for different and somewhat more ominous reasons. Since 1958, the government has stored more than 90,000 different samples of seeds from around the world in special air-conditioned vaults — maintained at a constant 40 degrees Fahrenheit with a 32 percent relative humidity — “to help ensure the future of food plants” against possible famine, war, and “political disturbances”. How much seed did you say you have stored?

  • Published on Nov 1, 1975
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