Courses for survival (1)

‘A great many people are in favour of Conservation, no matter what it means’, said William Taft, the United. States President, in 1910. Not only might we say much the same today, but we could also bracket with it another fashionable term — The Environment. Both represent a great deal of confusion, and both are important. Government and industry are beset with demands for action, from organisations of increasing power and prominence. Apostles of doom clash with the proponents of proper caution; scientific and parascientific journals grapple with each other in the clouds of dust. It would be fun to watch if the stakes were not apparently so high.