"Fool's Paradise" Warns Udall
Interior Secretary Stewart Udall says that it is wrong to call many of these products pesticides. "BIOCIDES" — life killers — would be a more appropriate term, he says.
On another occasion, Udall told a Pest Control conference:
"Blithely we carry on our multibillion dollar programs in the pesticides field with wholly inadequate research. . . We could be building our own fool's paradise. The day of reckoning may not be tomorrow, but who knows about the day after?
"Every organism tested, in the farthest stretches of the open oceans and from pole to pole, bears traces of the chemicals that man is using to control pests. How much of these poisons can be tolerated? No one really knows the answer now," Udall concluded.
Experts Alarmed
Space simply does not permit more shocking case histories of what man is doing to completely befoul and besmirch the beautiful, perfect environment a loving God originally gave him.
Before us are many more articles from top news sources, scientific journals and thoroughly documented books.
We haven't even touched on the subject of food additives — the artificial sweeteners, the preservatives, the stabilizers, emulsifiers and so on. Suffice it to say that some 2,400 food additives are in commercial use today! About 400,000,000 pounds are used each year in the U.S. alone. That's about three pounds of chemicals per person, per year. Many of these substances are admittedly of unknown or questionable nature.
And radioactive fallout?
A recent report states that fallout from past nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere will continue to increase each year until 1975. This rate is based upon the assumption there will be no more nuclear explosions. A risky assumption, indeed.
Can Mankind Halt the Slide?
Will mankind be able to stop before it's too late?
Remember, President Johnson says Americans have no more than ten years left to clean up the air over the United States. Remember, too, Senator Nelson warns that the nation has ten years left to clean up the U.S. water supplies — or it will be too late!
Remember, too, that polluting agents are destined to increase. Secretary Gardner says: "What little progress we have made today will have been wiped out by 1980 when our population, number of automobiles and need for heat and power generation will have doubled."
Industry, as a whole, has written a dismal record regarding pollution. Will it suddenly change? Will it begin to comply 100 percent with regulations laid down by governmental bodies, instead of waiting to be practically bludgeoned into action on nearly every single issue?
Will municipal and state governments begin to cooperate wholeheartedly with federal agencies in waging a do-or-die attack on every facet of pollution? Will they give up jealously guarded sovereignty in order to do so?
Will states begin wholeheartedly to cooperate among themselves on solving common problems? One poignant example might serve to illustrate this problem.
A mutual control pact between Illinois and Indiana was signed in May, 1964 to create an interstate pollution control board. But, being an interstate agreement, this pact must be cleared through Federal channels. The bill has been pigeonholed in the U.S. Congress ever since. Yet this nonexistent pact has been labeled a "milestone" in interstate air pollution control.
What about those in agriculture?
Will farmers finally realize what they are doing to the soil and water and stop using such powerful poisons — "biocides," as Secretary Udall calls them? Even in California, which has several vocal health organizations warning of the pesticide hazard, only five percent of the agricultural land is farmed without pesticides.
Where Does This Leave Us?
Even if — which isn't possible — the United States were able to turn back the tide within its own borders, the world's air supply and the oceans of the earth would still become polluted beyond repair, and that's a fact! Indeed, it may already be too late!
Barry Commoner of the Washington University Department of Botany told the Natural Industrial Conference Board:
"If we choose to allow this huge and growing debt to accumulate further, the environment may eventually be damaged beyond its capacity for self-repair."
Did you catch the significance of that last statement? The earth's environment damaged beyond the ability of either man or nature itself to rectify it!
Will the American public be willing to underwrite the fantastic multibillion dollar cost to clean up the environment it continues to pollute?
All this in TEN YEARS?
Looking at what little results have been so far achieved, any rationally minded person will have to answer these questions with a resounding "No!"
The Only Answer
It's high time our peoples got off the fence of doubt and smug skepticism and realized that all the absolutely monstrous problems facing mankind today are beyond human ability to solve.
No body of men is going to put a stop to the runaway population explosion! No group of scientists is going to prevent the proliferation of atomic weapons — now threatening to spread to many small nations.
No government, no board of top industrialists is going to be able to clean up our polluted planet in time! Too many commercial interests are involved — and their well-paid lobbyists are on the job day and night.
But Almighty God will change all that.
The soon-coming Government of God will solve these pollution problems.
A desperately needed WORLD GOVERNMENT is coming. But it will be the government of God, not of selfish, competitive, lobbying, carnally minded human beings.
Pollution the Penalty of Sin
The natural, carnal mind of man is hostile to God and His holy, just and righteous law (Rom. 8:7). It wants to go the way of unrighteousness, of uncleanness, of pollution — of SIN.
We have all sinned and been filled with spiritual corruption and filth. We have all broken God's law. And every time a physical penalty has been exacted. The penalty may not have been immediate and obvious but it was there nevertheless.
In our greedy effort to GRASP and SEIZE everything we could get our grimy hands on, we have broken God's law with reckless abandon. We didn't care about the welfare of our fellowman — or our children of future generations. All we cared about was getting the almighty dollar or pound NOW.
We broke God's law, which says, "Thou shalt not covet." We broke God's law which says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
And all the while the penalties kept piling up. Miserable, empty lives. A wretched society. A physical environment so contaminated that scientists are now talking about extinction by pollution!
Christ told the scribes and Pharisees of His day: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. . . Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Matt. 23:25-26).
Yes, the only way to get rid of physical pollution is to first get rid of the spiritual pollution in man's heart and mind.
God knew mankind would paint himself into a blind corner if he persisted in following the way of his human nature — the way of lust, greed, and total unconcern for the welfare of his fellowman and society at large.
The prophet Isaiah graphically foretold of our day:
"The earth is drooping, withering. . . and the sky wanes with the earth, FOR EARTH HAS BEEN POLLUTED BY THE DWELLERS ON ITS FACE . . . Therefore a curse is crushing the earth, alighting on its guilty fold; mortals are dying off, till few are left" (Isaiah 24:4-6, Moffat translation).
The prophet Hosea, who was a contemporary of Isaiah, gave a detailed prophetic warning. It is found in Hosea 4:1-3 (Moffat):
"Israel, hear the word of the Eternal, for the Eternal has a charge to bring against the dwellers of the land;
"No fidelity, no kindness, no knowledge of God in the land, nothing but perjury, lying, and murder, stealing, debauchery, burglary . . ."
What better description of life in the English-speaking world! We and related Europeans are the modern-day descendants of the people of Israel. The prophecy is directed to our nations today.
And now the last half of verse 3: ". . . even the beasts and birds AND THE VERY FISH WITHIN THE SEA ARE PERISHING."
Nothing could more aptly describe what we are doing both to ourselves and to nature, to the abundant physical blessings a benevolent God bestowed upon us because of the righteousness of one man, Abraham.
Just as humanity is about to perish, God Almighty will step in with a strong hand. He will send Jesus Christ back to the earth to rescue the last remnant of mankind from nuclear insanity, pollution and all the other crises threatening human survival.
"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22).
Utopia At Last!
Then will begin the most fantastic "mop-up" operation in the entire history of this world.
An entirely new age will dawn. "And he [God the Father] shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
"Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:20-21).
The message of all the inspired prophets who have ever spoken is that of the coming Kingdom of God, the restitution of the rule of God upon this earth.
Adam rejected that rule. He and his wife were cast out of the Garden of Eden, the most beautiful spot on a fabulous earth. All mankind has followed in the footsteps of Adam ever since.
But the "times of restitution" are nearly here.
An amazing prophecy in Ezekiel 47:1-12 tells how the waters and the land surface of the earth are going to be purified. Cleansed not only of manmade pollution, but from the effects of the terrifying end-time plagues by symbolic "living waters" (Rev. 8:7-11; 16:3-4).
The Perfect Society
Once purified, the earth under Christ's rule is going to stay that way. Of the resettling of the nations of Israel, God prophesies:
"This land that was desolate is become LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited" (Ezekiel 36:35).
This same glorious way of right living will spread over the entire earth.
In the final analysis, the problem of pollution boils down to PEOPLE POLLUTION — too many irresponsible, crowded people, too many industries, too many cars in tightly confined areas. And too few willing to do their part in properly disposing of wastes.
But in the World Tomorrow people will no longer be jammed into ugly, slum-infested cities.
Tomorrow's cities will be spread out. There will be a lot of greenery (Amos 9:14). Livestock will be with man — in the suburbs of cities (Zech. 2:4; Ps. 144:13). Strange as it sounds to "modern" ears!
The oxygen-carbon-dioxide balance — now seriously threatened because of the burning of fossil fuels — will be restored. The internal combustion engine will be greatly improved, if not totally replaced by other motive power.
Tomorrow's world will be a QUALITY SOCIETY. Manufactured items will be built to last, not to be discarded after short use. (Such a practice today greatly compounds our refuse and pollution problem)
People will once again enjoy a deep breath of dean, fresh air, taste the sparkle of pure, clear water, enjoy the mouth-watering succulence of nonpoisoned foods, rub their hands in rich, fertile, nonsprayed soil.
To find out more what this New Age will bring, write for our free new booklet. It's entitled, The Wonderful World Tomorrow — What It Will Be Like! No other booklet we've ever published explains in such intriguing detail what is in store for all men everywhere once we learn that God's ways, not ours, bring happiness!