Kosár
That the primitive brush fire was the forerunner of the desert few would care to deny, but in many ways man's understanding of his fragile environment remains as rudimentary as that of an early nomad.
To Buffalo Bill and his fellow-hunters the bison of the Great Plains of America were so much meat for the slaughter; entire armies were mobilised, equipped with officers and chaplains, to eliminate the animal systematically. Today we might scoff at such brutal assaults, yet we continue to poison the world with our chemicals and our industrial effluent. For the conservation of wildlife is only one aspect-and the most obvious-of today's desperate need to protect the dwindling natural resources of the world from man's suicidal stupidity: suicidal because the 20th-century world population explosion makes it so.
The outstanding feature of this authoritative and ultimately disturbing book is that by treating the world as a single unit it is able to explore the unforeseen ramifications of men's actions throughout nature: to trace, for example, the historical process of soil degradation and the uncontrolled ravages of introduced animals. Professor Dorst brilliantly illumines the side-effects of the Industrial Revolution-the progressive poisoning of the earth's surface and atmosphere by vast quantities of industrial waste; and of the Scientific Revolution-the indiscriminate use of pesticides.
To continue along such ways is to render the world eventually uninhabitable. Professor Dorst shows conclusively that purely local solutions like nature reserves and national parks are not enough. What is needed is an international policy of restraint and a programme of rational land management: in short, a philosophy of conservation. Before Nature Dies defines the challenge facing us and suggests ways in which we can meet it.
