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　　Nowadays everybody must be familiar with the words 'pollution' and 'population'. They are so well known that they form subject of many a polite dinner-table discussion. The assembled company will nod its heads wisely and agree that 'Something must be done'. Or perhaps a short argument will ensue: for there are those who will claim that these problems have been exaggerated, who will laugh mockingly at the people they call 'doomsday ecologists'.

　　（1）

　　Poisonous fumes from factories have sometimes made acres of surrounding land barren. Nor is the problem confined to land. Tons and tons of untreated sewage and unfiltered chemical waste are pumped daily into rivers and the sea, and dead fish are often to be seen floating in the water and washed up on the shores of seas, lakes and streams, while lethal oil slicks floating on the surface of the sea bring death to millions of sea-birds. Meanwhile, we are cheerfully using up the world's resources, and making needless waste. Non-returnable bottles are convenient for manufactures but encourage litter are often dangerous to dispose of and above all have merely to be replaced by others. Plastic, that wonderful substance is extremely difficult to dispose of at all. Yet now we make furniture out of it, while nearly all our goods are gaily and often unnecessarily wrapped up in it.

　　（2）

　　The more people, the more consumption, the more pollution, the more wastage of resources. The more people the world has to support, the more it will have to educate to face dwindling supplies. All people have an equal right to live; but do they have a right to be conceived without number? All people have an equal right to live, so why are some starving while others have enough to eat, and more? Surely, at any rate, we must not eat more than we need, or waste what we don’t need.

　　（3）

　　People who may go outside London to seek jobs, but they find many other cities have the same problems, albeit to a lesser extent. Filth and high prices have combined to make London and some other centers depressing places to live in. Depression fosters crime and violence, and these latter are increasing. The community, at a loss, is beginning to destroy itself.

　　（4）

　　Is it surprising, then, that these three central groups of workers should be in short supply in London? Neither policemen, teachers nor transport workers are highly paid. They work long, hard and sometimes dangerous hours, for which they receive little thanks from the community at large, since their presence is taken for granted. They are only noticed to be criticized. The teachers leave: many schools can only give their children part-time education. Juvenile boredom, then delinquency, increases. There are too few policemen to cope. The bus drivers, or the underground drivers go on strike for better pay and condition, and so the whole metropolis is gradually coming to a stand still.

　　（5）

　　So, what with one thing and another, you see no way out. Like nearly all of us you just give up because you have a normal hard day’s work ahead of you and you haven't the energy even to begin to cope with anything extra. Pollution, population; these problems can wait, you say. BUT THEY CAN'T.

　　A. In London, the two monster problems have confronted each other threateningly for some time. Now, perhaps, pollution is winning. The place is grinding to a halt. People who do menial work cannot afford the high prices of accommodation, and they may be scandalously exploited by unscrupulous landlords. The population in such areas may be dense, with whole families squeezed into one room, yet the increasing number of derelict houses in the same areas tells another story.

　　B. Who is to blame? The police, say some people, for not keeping order over traffic or criminals. The teachers, say the parents, who don’t educate the kids right. Then there are the transport workers. They are to blame for the rush hours, traffic jams and the daily misery of getting to and from work on too few buses.

　　C. Yet nobody can deny that pollution is rampant. The atmosphere is filthy. The introduction of smokeless zones has prevented pollution in the air from chimneys and fires, but what of the fumes which pour out of cars, lorries and aeroplanes? By the side of motorways the air is hazy and thick with the bitter sickly smell of burnt off.

　　D. Politicians say we are not to worry. We have only to vote for them and they will put all to rights. Yet, when elected, they seem to forget about the vast, amorphous, everyday problems that surround us.

　　E. I am always concerned about where the next meal is coming from. I also care very much about my children’s education. People just don’t seem to give education the care and attention that it used to have.

　　F. This is to make us buy more, of course, and spend more. But alas, even food is in short supply, for there are too many people in the world, and our number is growing rapidly.