The signposts to environmental disaster are clear; a preview of the outcome is visible to all who will open their eyes and see.

The showcase is in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In Czechoslovakia, 40 to 60% of the forests of Moravia and Bohemia are dead or severely damaged by pollution. During temperature inversions, the sulfur dioxide level can reach 2,000 m g/m³, more than 20 times the level considered harmful to health, and visibility may be limited to two meters (Nature 344:91, 3/8/90). Clothing cannot be hung on a clothesline to dry without becoming filthy (Wall St J 3/1/90). Due to massive overuse of fertilizer, some fields are toxic to a depth of one foot. In Teplice, the average lifespan is 15 years shorter than normal, and infant mortality is double the national average (Wash Times 1/24/90).

In Hungary, people wait in line for a 15-minute turn in an ``inhalitorium,'' a closet-sized room in which they can breathe clean air. As many as 10% of the deaths in Hungary are attributed to air pollution.

In Leipzig, East Germany, drivers often must use their headlights at midday. (Wall St J 3/1/90). In Leuna, 60% of the population suffers from a respiratory ailment at any given time. The air typically contains 300 to 400 m g of SO₂/m³. (The US EPA standard is 80 m /m³, and actual levels in the US are well below the limits.)

Poland is a laboratory for studying a possible molecular link between environmental exposure to pollutants due to combustion of coal and chromosomal mutations relevant to cancer and reproductive risk (Nature 360:256-258, 11/19/92).

In the former Soviet Union, farm irrigation has reduced the area of the Aral Sea by 40% and its volume by 66%, destroying fishing and leading to sandstorms of salt and chemical fertilizers (Science 255:22-23, 1/3/92). Nearly half of the 1.5 billion acres of cultivated land is imperiled by erosion and other ills. Because of the mistreatment of animals and lack of sanitation on farms in Kazakhstan, some 300,000 cattle have tuberculosis, brucellosis, and other diseases (Wall St J 5/14/92).

The problem in former Communist countries was not the lack of environmental laws. Managers simply operated their plants in violation of the laws. The director of the Environmental Inspection Office in Halle, East Germany, said that he had 16 inspectors to monitor developments at 705 industrial facilities. (Hundreds of officials were assigned to one plant to maintain ``ideological purity.'') If a fine was assessed, it was simply paid out of the central government budget; factories didn't exist to make a profit, but to fulfill a mandated production plan. East Germans blame their pollution problems on the centrally planned economy (Science 247:274-276, 1/19/90).

Part of the problem is simply the poverty caused by socialism. Soviet citizens are more concerned about where to find sausages than about levels of SO₂ in the air. There is a clear relationship between urban SO₂ levels and average per capita income. The most polluted cities are those in countries with an income of about $1,200 per capita per year. Countries poorer than that produce little pollution, and richer countries can afford to clean up the air (Nature 357:177, 5/21/92).

In their book Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature Under Siege, Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jr., state that the Soviet people had been misled and betrayed by a government that had promised to protect and care for them (Nature 357:451-452, 6/11/92).

But the key reason for ecological destruction in Eastern Europe is the tragedy of the commons, resulting from the destruction of private property rights.

In 1787, Arthur Young made an observation about human nature: Given secure possession of a bleak rock, a man would turn it into a garden. But given nine-year's use of a garden, he would turn it into a bleak rock.

The writers of the Federalist Papers also recognized that human beings cared for the land in proportion to the security or the precariousness of their possession of that property. Furthermore, our Founding Fathers understood that property rights were the indispensable foundation for our other freedoms.

Today, private property rights are under assault; in fact, they have even been called a ``thing of the past.'' Now people are not supposed to own property, but simply to ``hold it in trust'' for the ``public.'' Rather like in Eastern Europe.

Americans are awakening to the threat to both their private lives and the beauty and productivity of the American countryside, as shown by the number of young and vibrant organizations that met in Reno, February 18-20, to discuss ``environomics.''

Environomics are ``those principles which optimize all life on the planet, balancing environmental interests with economic interests.'' And ``bionomics'' sees the economy as an ecosystem. Private property rights are a bulwark against both environmental and economic disaster.

DDP was represented at the meeting by President Howard Maccabee, Ph.D., M.D., and Vice President Jane Orient, M.D. Civil defense materials were on exhibit.

For further information about ECO (the Environmental Conservation Organization) and networking possibilities, write PO Box 9, Maywood, IL 60153.

DDP once again displayed the Arizona mobile civil defense shelter at the Maricopa County Fair in Phoenix, AZ, March 18-28. Taking charge of the display was Sharon Packer, a nuclear engineer who founded Civil Defense Volunteers of Utah. Assisting her were David Neff of Utah, along with former DDP Presidents Kenneth Lucas, M.D., of Arizona and Gerald Looney, M.D., of California. Jane Orient, M.D., Bill Anderson, and William Orient of Tucson also helped, and Physicians for Civil Defense contributed toward expenses.

The 11th annual meeting of DDP is slated for August 13-15 in the Bay Area near San Francisco. The meeting will begin with a tour of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Friday afternoon, August 13. The program is in the planning stages; confirmed speakers include Edward Teller, Petr Beckmann, and Hugh Elsaesser. Mark your calendars now!

The collection cost and market value for recyclables (USA Today 3/12/93).

cost to collect and sort (per ton) market value (per ton)

aluminum $500-$1000 $750

plastic $750-$1500 $80

steel $250-$ 300 $60

paper $ 75-$ 125 $30

glass $125-$ 175 $20