XN000022-1972-06-06 — Page 17

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Land Pollution by Sir Frank Fraser Darling, D Sc, Ph D,

LLD, FRSE, delivered to the Royal Society in London in

March 1971. Sir Frank, who is also a member of the Royal

Commission on Environmental Pollution, said:-

"How far can we call the intentional and careless

dumping of unwanted hardware and litter pollution of the

land? I would be prepared to call it such, for although it

carnot be compared with the persistence and diffusion of

organo-chlorine pesticides and their possible dangers to

health, there are direct dangers to human health in derelict

motor cars, refrigerators, mattresses, and what not.

Discarded paint cans have caused death to many cattle in

the course of history. Further, litter creates a disturbed

environment to which many of us are not insensitive.

The

random dumping which we have seen increase so markedly in

these twenty-five years causes appreciable stress. Derelict

land is far too common in a country as heavily populated

as we are. Come into London from any direction on an hour's

journey and instead of reading the paper, count the odd

bits, often quite large, of dead, ugly, derelict land.

This is shameful. I would call it visual contamination of

the land, a manifestation of pollution we could easi

change. There have been brave attempts in the Black Country,

in South Wales, and in Durham, to creat plantations and

natural scrub in derelict areas. There have been chemical

obstacles to doing this, but if all I hear is true, the

main check to growth is vandalism, pollution of the land

by people, pollution arising from an attitude of mind.

This is hardest of all to bear, for somehow the beam must

be in our own eye.

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How truly/...