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Before actually assessing the danger as contemplated let us first
of all know about the certain premises raised here. To begin with let us
be clear about an industrial society. In such a society for all his needs
man look to the machines which symbolize the industrialized society.
Many of the things would have been automated, for example, the sorting
of eggs or the baking of bread. In such and many other cases man may
be working but he is only a cog in the wheel. Everything is on a mass
scale; everything follows a system; everything is made to order. The
USA and most of the West European countries come under this category.
Japan is the Eastern nation which is highly industrialized.
For all their industries, all these societies use many raw materials.
They may be forest products, the fossil fuels, or the ores from the bowels
of the earth. Their quantity is limited and the way the industrialized
societies are exhausting them, create the fear that stock may be exhausted
sooner or later.
For instance, forests are being denuded in many countries for the
manufacture of paper and furniture. It is easier to fell hundreds of trees
a day than to grow one. But the demand for paper is growing very fast
that unless some alternative to wood is found in forest based industries,
there may not be enough paper.
So too with fossil fuels whether it be oil or coal or natural gas.
The way they are being used has led to the speculation that there may
not be any petroleum by the turn of this century. Perhaps the stock of
coal may last a few decades more. Anyway in the case of coal the stock
is only limited and not inexhaustible. If forests take only decades to
come up the fossil fuels require geological ages to form and unlike trees
they cannot be made to order.
Then there are other minerals especially ferrous and non-ferrous
metals. Some of the metals are in abundance while others are scarce.
After all mines are not milch cows and even milch cows would become
dry and old.
But by the middle of the next century things may not be gloomy
after all. Science and ingenuity of man will work together to find a way
out of the impasse. Newer materials, newer processes and recycling may
have the answer. Already we are having a taste of what may come. Look
at the man made fibers and plastics. A few decades ago none would ever
have thought of them but now there is none who does not use them. In
fact they are made from things which were considered useless or which
were going to waste.
With the advent of television and other still more sophisticated
methods of communication, the need for a big bulk of paper, may be
reduced. Instead of writing letters, they may be tape recorded. Instead of
books we may have microfilms of books.
Recycling has a great promise. Since matter is indestructibly, one
useless stuff can be converted into something really useful. Nature does
it in fact as in the case of photosynthesis or keeping the nitrogen cycle
going. After man has set his foot on the moon, a lot of thinking has gone
into recycling. So we may think of a day soon when there will be not
waste material. By changing the constitution of materials they may be
made to do wonderful work. An example is fiber glass which has the
strength of steel. Then there is the sea floor which has not been exploited
as much as land. Remember three fourths of the earth is sea.
Man is the only animal who can take the challenge and if
previous history has anything to teach, it shows that man has stupendous
and fantastic capacity to survive.
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