The following quotes illustrate a number of trends and
conditions that your parents, spouse, next-of-kin, loved ones or
significant-other should have told you about before you came to
college.

1. Increases in the world's population.

Between 1990 and 2025, world population will increase
by 3.2 billion people [to 8.5 billion]...Of this
growth, 3 billion will occur in developing regions...
World Resources Institute, 1992

There can be little doubt that the single greatest
threat to the sustainability of the world's forests is
too many people...[global population will] double or
even triple...by the time young forests planted in the
summer of 1992 are ready for final harvest.
Kimmins, 1992 (p.225, 233)

2. Degradation of the quality of human life and natural
ecosystems.

War, famine, disease, and political upheaval are
expected to divert resources that are so urgently
needed to help stabilize the world population.. As a
result, the most fundamental environmental threat,
global poverty, will continue for the foreseeable
future.
Kimmins, 1992 (p.232)

Farmers [in the United States] use an estimated 320
million kg (700 million lb) of pesticides
annually...Society pays a high price for the use of
pesticides...[including] losses of fish, wildlife,
crops and trees; ...destruction of soil invertebrates,
microflora, and microfauna;...human poisonings; chronic
health problems such as cancer; groundwater
contamination; and contamination of human food...
Pimentel et al. 1991

...[in the oceans] chemical contamination and litter
can be observed from the poles to the tropics and from
beaches to abyssal depths.
GESAMP, 1990

Bacterial contamination from animal and human
wastes...was found in most [Kentucky] water
sources...84% of springs, 29% of wells, and 94% of
streams had fecal bacterial contamination...
Kentucky Natural Resources and
Environmental Protection Cabinet. 1992


3. Excessive consumption, especially of fossil fuels.

If consumption remains fairly constant, the current
world proven reserves of 670 billion barrels [of
oil] would last only 33 years.
The Encyclopedia Americana, 1990

We have been incredibly wasteful of materials harvested
from the forest in the past...Our efforts to achieve
sustainable production of renewable food and fibre
crops without ever-increasing reliance on fossil fuel-
based mechanical and chemical technologies have been
limited by lack of public and political will...
Kimmins, 1992 (p.232)

America is also the leading source of carbon dioxide on
earth. Each American pumps out 19.7 tons each year -
more than twice the average in Europe and Japan. The
average South American or Asian produces ten times
less, the typical African nineteen times less. Every
year the U.S. population grows by 2.6 million...the
carbon dioxide increase due to population growth is 52
million tons a year...India grows by 17 million people
a year, but it adds only an extra 13 million tons of
CO2 - a quarter of the U.S. total. China's extra 17
million people add just under 37 million tons. Overall,
population growth in the two biggest countries on earth
has at present less impact on the global climate than
that of the United States.
The Amicus Journal

4. Unjust distribution of wealth among individuals, races,
sexes, and nations.

Male and Female Earnings, 1990
Occupation Women Men

Engineers $38,686 $45,224

Professional, Mamagement $27,282 $40,832

Sales Workers $16,986 $29,852

Nonfarm Laborers $13,650 $18,420

It is obvious that there are great extremes of income
distribution in the United States...Even more striking
than the inequality of income, however, is the
inequality of wealth:

Percentage of Families Net Worth
Lowest 25% Less than $5,000
Next 30% $5,000 to $50,000
Next 35% $50,000 to $250,000
Next 8% $250,000 to $1,000,000
Top 2% More than $1,000,000

...a fourth of all households had virtually no wealth
at all ...about 20% of Americans own securities
[stocks] ...millionaire families owned half to three
quarters of the value of all stocks and bonds and
private real estate...It must be clear that the
productivity of an individual has no connection
whatsoever with the inherited property income that the
individual receives. But what about the millionaires
who have earned their fortunes? Can we explain their
wealth by their productive contribution to society? Not
very well.
Heilbroner & Thurow, 1994 (p.51,52,208,212)

Per Capita Gross National Products:

Mozambique (Africa) $80
Tanzania (Africa) $95
India (Asia) $330
China (Asia) $362
Haiti (Central America) $373
Poland (Europe) $1,844
Brazil (South America) $2,951
Australia (Oceana) $16,591
Germany (Europe) $18,989
Canada (North America) $21,071
U.S.A. (North America) $22,517
Sweden (Europe) $25,428
Switzerland (Europe) $33,401

World Resources Institute, 1994



REFERENCES

The Amicus Journal 15(4) (Winter, 1994):20-21.

The Encyclopedia Americana. International Edition.
1990. Vol. 21:831. Grollier Incorporated, Danbury, CN.

GESAMP (Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of
Marine Pollution). 1990. The state of the marine environment.
United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.

Heilbroner, R. and L. Thurow. 1994. Economics
Explained. Revised and updated. Simon & Schuster. 285pp.

Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection
Cabinet. 1992. State of Kentucky's Environment: a summary. Land,
Air, and Water (Summer):9.

Kimmins, H. 1992. Balancing Act: Environmental Issues
in Forestry. pp. 138, 205, 225, 232, 233. UBC Press, Vancouver.

Pimentel, D. (and 10 other authors). 1991.
Environmental and economic effects of reducing pesticide use.
BioScience 41:402-409.

World Resources Institute. 1992, 1994. Environmental
Almanac. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.