Pollution, 1970

 Water pollution is a serious problem.  Lake Erie, in the next ten to twenty years, will be gone because of water pollution.  The bed of the lake was once a protective rock base.  The chemicals that were dumped into the lake dissolved this rock bed causing sand and silt to slowly fill up the lake.  Because so much pollution has been poured into the lake, the process of silt replacing water CANNOT be stopped.  In a few years, Lake Erie will be a large mud hole.  The loss of life will be those people that depend on Lake Erie for water.  Some of the cities affected will be:  Buffalo, N.Y.; Cleveland, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; and Toledo, Ohio.  The cost for the next five years to clean up the water is estimated to be 26 to 28 billion dollars.  This would be about 5 1/2 billion dollars per year or about the same amount as the money appropriated in the 1967 budget for space exploration.  Isn't it worth it?  I think so.  Water pollution messes up the balance of nature.  A Washington, D.C. newspaper said about the Potomac River, "Boating is still o.k. as long as you don't fall overboard--the main peril is not drowning, but gulping in the rich content of decay and disease with which the river is loaded."
 Air pollution is a very serious problem, also.  Here are some facts on air and water pollution.  Smoke and fumes, some of which are poisonous, come from U.S. factories, heating plants, auto exhausts, jet aircraft engines, etc., at a rate of approx. 142 million tons per year or 20 million full-grown elephants.  Air pollution causes things to happen to the weather such as "magnifying storms".  Air pollution causes tracheal bronchitis.  Air pollution also causes asthma, lung cancer, and emphysema.  The Reserve Mining Co. on Lake Superior's north shore dumps 67,000 tons of waste every day.  Food, textiles, paper, chemicals, coal, oil, rubber, metals, machinery, and transportation dump 25 trillion gallons of waste into water each year.
 A lot of people talk about pollution, but you have to have action to stop it.  Although I have cited two problems with pollution, there are many more.  There is moral, economic, social, and political, too.  IF WE DON'T STOP POLLUTION, THE FUTURE WILL BE A THING OF THE PAST.