[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 26, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1093]]



                  WORLD POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 26, 1999

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, in my capacity as Chairman of the 
Technology Subcommittee of the Committee on Science, I have come across 
many interesting facts about the relationship between science and the 
environment. This editorial from The Keene (New Hampshire) Sentinel at 
first seems humorous in discussing the idea that lawnmowers cause smog. 
However, as one reads further one realizes that the main point of the 
editorial is that the ever growing number of people on the Earth 
stretch the environment's resources to the point where it is ever more 
difficult to provide for the needs of the world's population. While 
written in a humorous vein, this editorial provides a strong reason to 
support international family planning programs.
                                  ____
                                  

               [From the Keene (New Hampshire) Sentinel]

                         (By Sentinel Editoral)

                              People Smog

       In what has to be the ultimate insult to the American way 
     of life, scientists studying the source of dangerous 
     chemicals in the air have determined that mowing the lawn 
     causes air pollution.
       The report, issued on April 1, seemed like a joke at first. 
     We waited for the big hoot at the end. But apparently it is 
     serious, and the problem isn't just lawnmower engines.
       ``Wound-induced and drying-induced . . . compounds are 
     expected to be significant in the atmosphere,'' said the team 
     of researchers, in a study that's about to be published in a 
     journal called Geophysical Research Letters. Among the 
     chemicals released by ``wounded'' grass are methanol, 
     hexanal, acetaldehyde, acetone and butatone. The team adds 
     that the same chemicals are also produced in small amounts 
     when people and animals eat raw vegetables.
       Okay, even one of the researchers admits this is funny 
     stuff. ``It just doesn't seem likely to me that the smell of 
     newly mown grass is toxic,'' said biochemist Ray Fall. But 
     eventually, who knows, when too many freshly cut lawns are 
     added to too many lawnmower exhaust pipes, and too many cars, 
     and too many factory smokestacks and too many wood stoves and 
     so on?
       This apparently trivial grass-clipping story, like reports 
     of so many environmental and social problems, should be seen 
     in the context of a deadly serious dilemma that's often 
     ignored by governments and news media: the world's burgeoning 
     population.
       When we read of, hear of and occasionally experience urban 
     blight, environmental pollution, traffic jams, waves of 
     illegal immigrants, filled-in wetlands and other maddening 
     challenges of modern life, we really ought to think more 
     often of the common denominator. People. People have to work, 
     play, build, heat their homes and businesses, travel from 
     place to place. And as we do so, bit by bit we inevitably 
     degrade our physical and social environments. No single 
     activity is particularly troublesome. But the more of us 
     there are, the more degradation there is. Where will it end, 
     with a standing-room-only society shrouded in a poison fog?
       These thoughts are prompted not so much by the lawnmowing 
     story, but by some alarming testimony presented last month to 
     a U.S. House committee. Werner Fornos, the indefatigable head 
     of the nonprofit Population Institute was practically on his 
     knees trying to persuade indifferent members of Congress to 
     spend a mere $25 million on international family planning 
     assistance next year.
       Fornos outlined the situation in stark terms, noting that 
     the world population grew from one billion to two billion 
     between 1830 and 1930--in 100 years--then added a third 
     billion by 1960--in just 30 years. Since then, it has doubled 
     to six billion. We publish extracts from Fornos's testimony 
     on this page today. It makes sobering reading, as we approach 
     another lawn-mowing season.

     

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