Document rxej9J7Qp7Gm9JdNOBR4wL1O0

Biotic Energy Flows Important aspects of the energy shortage are being ignored in both sci ence and government. We tend to torget that most of the energy used by man is solar energy that has been fixed recently through photosynthesis. This energy provides food, fuel, fibers, and services that are essential for a habit able environment. Although the total mount of energy available as net pri mary production through this route has been estimated as 20 times the amount of energy in current use from fossil fuels, nuclear power, and hydropower, these flows of energy from the suit are being reduced (/). When the complex political, social, and economic systems of industrialized nations falter, as they appear to be doing at the moment, we turn immediately to biotic resources that are dose to us. We substitute Ash for beef, wood for fuel. Mounting world food shortages are contributing to the pressures on these resources. Shortages of both oil and food will get worse: worldwide demand is soar ing, and supplies are limited. Reckless efforts to "solve" an energy problem that is unsolvabie in the current con test of growth threaten to speed de struction of renewable resources. Acid rains are a good example. Relaxation of air pollution standards for sulfur will result in continuation of the trend of rising acidity in rain in the North east. There is little doubt that a decade or more of precipitation with a pH of between 3.0 and 4.2 will reduce the net production of forests and agriculture. A 10 percent lots of net production in the New England states would be the equivalent of the power output of 13 1000-megawntt reactors. Would the people of New England agree to supply such subsidy to the rest of the coun try If ihey had a choice? There is no simplo technical or social solution to the shortage of energy. Orowth In energy consumption in the pattern of past years is over for the pres ent. In addition, biotic flows of energy 1 FEBRUARY 1914 Letters are now being loit, often irreversibly; the biota b being mined. Environmental problems arc not simply those of adjust ing techniques of energy production to reduce intrusions oo the environment; they also include the preservation of the flows of energy--including food, ma terials, and services--through the biota to mao. The shortage of fouii fuels pre sents a challenge to technologists to And more efficient ways of exploiting biotic energy flows on a renewable basis. The problem warrants, but does not have, major consideration in the President's energy program. Facilities comparable to those of a major national laboratory should be devoted to the problems generated by the worldwide spread of biotic impoverishment that is caused in large degree by current rates of exploitation of nonrenewabie en ergy sources. G. M. WOODWBLL Department of Biology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 Itftfiani I. H H. WhMufcW MS O. e. LftfM. in C"rSow mT the llwytew. O. M. WuoSwcll and E. V. F*cm. Ed*. (U.S. Atomic Entriy Commhtton. Oak RJdfi. Turn. I97J>. pp. 2KI-M0; 0. M. Womlwcll, Srtrm-r MS. 42* (l*70>; Sri. Am. ass. M (S*p*. 1*70); HcSclmv*. to pm*. Virus Cancer Program As a contractor to the Virus Caocer Program (VCP), I am encouraged by the attention VCP has received in Science (News and Comment, 24 Sept. 197J, p. 1220; |4 Dec. 1973. p. 1110). I am glad to learn that at least 1 am part of a program that others fed is worth shooting at. It is. of course, un settling to learn that John Moloney still feels there is room for improvement in the VCP. Everyone knows that grants, peer group review, elucidation of basic mechanisms, motherhood, and the American girl arc beyond reproach. Orant programs are directed by trinn- nual review of the accumulated con tents of the morning's mail. In such an impartial system, scientific bias and conflict of interest arc impossible, and freedom of scientific inquiry is assured. On the other hand, contracts, targeted research, requirements for proposals, reaourccs, and services are pedestrian and often uncouth. Clear identification and contractual control of such tar geted programs permiis everyone to keep an eye on us rascals. If we assume that basic fundamental research will raise answerable questions, it scents reasonable to create targeted programs to attempt to settle matters. The answers may not be happy ones, but at least we will have tried. Arise goal-oriented pedestrians--you have only your tenure to loose! Vincent Gaours Life Sciences, Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida 33710 PCB's: Another Source? The letter concerning the presence of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) in microscope immersion oils (30 to 45 percent) from Bennett and Albro (14 Sept. 1973, p. 990) and the letter from Plimmcr and Kliogcbiel (14 Sept. 1973, p. 994) indicating a novel meth od for PCD formation have served to toke the fires of controversy and en vironmental concern. The validity of such concern is underscored by evi dence indicating the possible manu facture of PCB's at waste treatment plants that receive textile mill dis charges. In November 1972, an investigation was requested of the suspected failure of a municipal sewage treatment plant using high-rate trickling filters. Three weeks of 24-hour sampling and analysis resulted in confirmation of failure (0 to 30 percent reduction of biochemical oxygen demand). Half the flow origi nated in a textile mill which was using at least 2 ions per week of commercialgrade biphenyl as a dye carrier for synthetic fiber. The waste treatment plant was using 150 to 190 kilograms per day of chlorine gas for influent odor control and effluent "disinfec tion." two procedures that are not at all uncommon. Filter rocks were scraped and flushed with 100 milliliters of distilled water. The PCD content of the resulting suspension, after suit able extraction, cleanup, and gas-liquid M7 HONS 0 6 1 8 5 4 chromatography analytic, waa It parta par million. This system al the same lima was being subjected to signiAeaot concentrations of heavy metals coo* tributed by another industry. This prob lem has since been eliminate'!, but tbe sewage plant continues to experience operating problems. A full-scale investigation is in prog ress to determine the concentration of both biphenyls and PCB's in several water supplies and wastewater systems in the area and their effects on bacteria large quemlty of a biologically potent compound such as nltrosomethylurea is inadvisable, particularly when the amounts needed for any experiment ere measured in milligrams. Second, the shipping of such unstable com pounds (with possible hazards to postal workers and other unwitting handlers of the materials t should be stopped. When 1 have been asked by scien tists to supply nitrosoalkylureas. my solution to the problem has been to provide a recipe for small amounts of If it is "bad" that beavers cut more trees than they ean use. are Hawley snd I ter be forgiven for the waste of boreal fibers on which we print our differences of opinion? If Garrett Har din's cows demolish their pasture by being too numerous, don man have some unique quality that guarantees that he will suffer no hunger, whatever the density of his population per unit of space-energy? It would be difficult to support an affirmative answer to any of these questions. and proloaoa. these compounds. Their preparation Hawley bases his opinion upon two In 1966, the wisdom of using chlo is extremely simple and can be carried closely related biases. While it is not rine in waste treatment processes was seriously questioned (/) after an in vestigation revealed the presence of hetophtnoU in waste-water systems. out by someone with a minimal knowl edge of chemistry in an afternoon. The starting materials are safe, cheep, end readily available. denied that Hardin's rows ate subject to the Malthusian principle, Hawley excuaee men from e comparable fate on the grounds that man has a tech Reynolds U) has stated: "The means William Luinsky nology, the product of which increases by which PCB't enter the ecosystem to Oak National Laboratory, contaminate Ash and wiidlifa are still Oak Aiiigr. Trnnrure 37*30 more rapidly than does human popu lation. It is quite true, as Hawley points not clearly understood." Answers will out. that this was not sntictpaied by come only from research. Mahhus. Thera issues from this dispro Finn E. OApntiv portion the not very surprising coo- bopartmtnt of Biology. llatll Ewlip saquence that production comes to Qtorffa Stmt* University, exceed the labor force, both quan Ailoata 30303 Amoe H. Hawley's critique of ecol titatively and in terms of labor's ca ogy (2) Mar. 1973, p. I >96) makes pacity to buy. la the face of lids, tome telling points. Few scientists Hawley argues that "A decline in the J. Wmt* r*M. CiwwW M. M. *39 I. L. M. tofwU*. amomt *r\ m. M rifiis. would disagree with the implication that environmentalist and conservationist ex treme* ate characterised by emotional relative site of the labor force doe* not, however, contradict the need for large numbers of people In an indus overstatements and dkhds, without ob trially advanced society. While such a jective basis, that fail to qualify as society needs comparatively few work- UatabUlly of N-Nltroanmldes oology or as any other science. Haw era. it needs relatively move consumers." ley, furthermore, pula .his Anger un (What we really need is mors beavers The letter from A. H. Sparrow (24 erringly on the weaknesses inherent in to consume ail thou wasted trees.) Aug. 1973, p. 700) telling of an acci "The scaling down of ecology to man Totally lacking in Hawley s snslysis dent with nilrosomcthylurea comet u ageable proportions. . . The study it any correspondence between Ms no surprise to a chemist familiar with of "relations between given ipeciee and view of the organizational society ha the properties of N-nitrosamklet. Some particular environmental features" is wishes to call "human ecology" and the time ego, 1 received a call from another indeed not so brood as a systems ap ecosystem approach he seemed to And institution telling of a similar accident, proach (exemplifled by the ecosystem largely worthy. The material and with a much smaller quantity of nitro- concept). And even ecosystem studies energy input of the industrial society somcihylurea. suffer unavoidable dlflkuities stemming is not mentioned. While exponential Ths instability of N-nUraeamMas, from necessary size limitation end t not technological development might well particularly of nHraaoalkylureas, is mentioned by Hawley) their eventual have confounded the Reverend Mai- well know. These compounds must be dependence upon all of the mechanisms thus, that worthy gentleman gets the kept in a freezer, not merely under re of species-environment interaction. last laugh. Technology suffers from its frigeration. Not only do thay decom Hawley ie therefore cleeriy correct in own Malthusian malaise in the form of pose rapidly on occasion, but they can ealling attention to the supplementary diminishing reserves of fuel, strategic also decompose slowly and polymerize, value of holistic and mechanistic stud materials, and soil, as well as the ac as ) discovered once in carrying some ies. It is regrettable that these insights cumulation of wastes. Meanwhile, its deuterium-labeled nilrosomcthylurea era progressively forgotten in the re Madison Avenue March for more con serais the Atlantic. Because of this mainder of the article. sumers guarantees ever greater demand } instability, quantitative biological or The professional ecologist's inclusion for ever scarcer commodities. The first j biochemical studies in which improper of man in ecological studies is totally research effort of the new "human 1 ly stored nitrosamides are used can have dependent upon Homo sapient being ecology" should be a search for just i little meaning. Without making a chem subjected to the seme treatment as that one example of material infinity in ical analysis before use. the investiga aceonlcd every other species. Should nature. tor will not know how much of the it prove inconsequential that bald Cohneliu* H. Mucus undecomposed compound is present. eaglet are exterminated, it it neces Department of Biological Sciences. Two conclusions can he drawn from sarily more tragic to the biosphere if University of California, these episodes. First, the storage of a man is the next victim of extinction? Santa Barbara 93106 HONS 0 6 * 6 5 5 science, vot m