Thank you all. Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you very much. And may I thank Mr. Knowland and Miss Buxbaum and Mr. Schlesinger for your most helpful testimony. We appreciate it very much indeed. Mr. BRADEMAS. We will now hear from Garrett de Bell, who is editor of the "Environmental Handbook." Mr. De Bell. STATEMENT OF GARRETT de BELL, EDITOR, ENVIRONMENTAL HANDBOOK, WASHINGTON REPRESENTATIVE, ZERO POPULATION GROWTH Mr. DE BELL. I would like to respond to some of the questions that have already been asked by some of the Congressmen, but I will do that later and integrate it with my remarks. I am Garrett de Bell, the Washington representative of Zero Population Growth, whom I have recently started working for, as a registered lobbyist. ZPG is actively working for stabilization of the population of the United States and is seeking constructive solutions to the environmental problems that result in part from excessive population size. We lobby for legislation that makes ecological sense, support public officials whose policies make ecological sense, and work for the defeat of those who do not. I am sure that there is general agreement that education and public awareness of ecology is critical to the resolution of the ecological problems that threaten the quality of life and even the future existence of the human species. This hearing is evidence of this committee's commitment to do something in this area. ZPG applauds the purposes and intent of H.R. 14753. We will make the bulk of our testimony in the area of changes that we feel will increase the effectiveness of the bill. Zero Population Growth is concerned with the environmental problems that are a direct and unavoidable consequence of a population that already exceeds a reasonable size and continues to grow at an explosive rate. If the U.S. population is not stabilized, we will have to contend with a population of over 300 million by the end of the century. There is very little chance of solving any of our social and environmental problems if this growth continues. The relationship of population growth to environmental problems is not stressed in H.R. 14753. We suggest that the wording be modified to specifically include population and the balance between population size and environmental quality. We propose that section 2. (a) line 8 be changed to *** of its ecological balance and the balance between population size and environmental quality is in*** Throughout the bill the term ecological balance should be followed by the phrase "and optimum population size." The need for environmental education, I think, is very clear. For instance, Congressman Scheuer just made the remark we need to go to a three-child family in the population increase. Mr. SCHEUER. May I remove any concern of yours that we are not keenly concerned about population. I was the author of a bill that would execute a comprehensive reorganization of the Family Plan ning Services and that would give us a Manhattan project approach to the development of family planning needs, and techniques that are appropriate for under-developed population. Senator Tydings introduced this bill on the Senate side. And I think most of the members of the subcommittee joined in sponsoring the bill. So rest assured we are quite aware that the implications of population growth are relevant to the question of the environment. We share your con cern. Mr. DE BELL. We are quite aware of the bill and support it. The point I wanted to make is, that a three-child family would be a long way from population stability. In fact, if from now on every family in the country were a two-child family, we would still have such a rapid population increase that it would go up to about 300 million. Mr. SCHEUER. I understand from the demographers that a zero rate of population growth would be something like 2.2 children per family. Mr. DE BELL. That is true in a steady State population. Right now, we have a growing population and have been growing in the past. Mr. SCHEUER. And that a two-family rate of reproduction would give us a rather rapidly declining population. Mr. DE BELL. That is true in a population which has remained stable for a while. Our population has been growing for the last few generations, in fact since 1492. This means, each year we have a bigger age class of women at childbearing ages. To level the thing off, you have to sort of shrink it back down in all age classes, and this requires a negative rate for a while. There are two different situations in population. The population has been growing in the recent historical past versus one that has been stable. They have different age structures or percentages of people at each age. We can get into details later. Throughout the bill, the term ecological balance should be followed by the phrase "and optimum population size." We think this is critical to any area of ecological education. Now I want to get into the specifications of the administration of this act. There is one other aspect of this bill which concerns us. Section 4, approval of applications, sets forth requirements for bookkeeping, auditing, and reporting which applicants for assistance under this act must fulfill. It is an old story with Federal programs that when Federal assistance finally becomes available for a problem like this it is so wrapped up in redtape that those very groups which created public awarenes of the problem cannot qualify for grants or aid. The purposes of such supervision and monitoring are valid, but the result of the procedures actually adopted often eliminates many of the organizations which could best use the funds: small, volunteer groups of local citizens which are already devoting their own time and resources to solve the problem but which may be badly prepared to negotiate with the Federal bureaucracy. The Congress has a choice. It can write into this bill the routine language, and can require the usual paper work. It will end up providing grants to exactly those large, established institutions which have displayed total indifference in their educational efforts to environmental considerations. Or Congress can modify the usual procedures and minimize the administrative burden on applicants for aid. This will help the small, unestablished group, the group which has no auditor because it has no regular sources of funds, the group that has no fixed overhead charges because its members absorb the overhead, the group, in fact, which laid the groundwork of public concern for this hearing. Zero Population Growth fails to see the connection between intimate knowledge of the corridors and layers of the Federal bureaucracy and concern and dedication to the preservation of our world. In fact, if anything there is a connection between this type of established, bureaucratic outlook and the very educational practicesand attitude which have led us to despoil the environment. A specific example: Section 3 (a) (4) provides for grants "to local educational, municipal, and State agencies and other public and private nonprofit organizations for community education on environmental ecology, especially for adults." The current contribution of school systems and other government agencies to this awareness is virtually nil. The purpose of this bill, of course, is to provide those agencies with funds to do their part of the job. But in many cases it is not funds that are lacking, but will and interest. Even as these agencies develop that will, much will remain to be done by the citizens group. In virtually every community in the Nation such groups have begun the fight to save the environment and educate their fellow citizens. Congress ought not to deny them an important role in developing programs of environmental education. Furthermore these groups, by the very voluntary nature which makes it harder for them to qualify for grants under conventional procedures, can make better use of limited funds than well established organizations. A dollar of Federal money matched with the energy and interest of the members of such groups will go a lot farther than a dollar of Federal money which has to be spent hiring that energy and interest. Therefore, Zero Population Growth would like to suggest to this committee that it be a clear part of the legislative history of this bill that the Congress does not wish to exclude any otherwise qualified organization from receiving assistance simply because of that organizations inexperience with Federal grant and aid procedures, its lack of regular auditing staff, or its informal administrative structure. We would like to suggest that technical assistance should be made available by the Commissioner to such groups to enable them to provide the Federal Government with necessary monitoring data on the expenditure of public funds, but that such requirements should be kept to a minimum. We would like to suggest that one of the criteria to be considered by the Commissioner in providing assistance should be the past record of the organization in the problems of environmental education and public awareness, its past efforts to solve these problems, and its history of independent and voluntary efforts to advance that goal with its own resources. In a more general vein, I think it is very important that this committee consider the overall role of the universities in the environmental crisis. The problem has not been simply lack of effort in one phase or another of environmental problems. Rather the basic purpose of the universities in teaching and research has been to encourage everincreasing specialization and professionalism at the expense of the broad education necessary to a democracy that depends on an enlightened electorate. A large majority of the faculty of our large universities is dedicated by training and habit to the overspecialized type of study that has been a major contributing cause of our present state of ecological crisis. They are fond of blaming all problems on "the administration," or a conservative board of trustees, or lack of funds, but the problem has been the reluctance of the faculty to continue their own education and growth as times changed and their failure to develop, and even to allow others to develop, truly interdisciplinary teaching and research The situation here should be very familiar to you gentlemen as a very similar one prevails in the U.S. Congress, that is the committee and seniority systems which reward longevity and specialization— not ability an dedication to human purposes. The seniority system prevails in both the Congress and the universities. In both, it has prevented those institutions from effectively dealing with the problems of our times. You are familiar with the situation in Congress. I will touch on the problems the seniority system causes on the university campus. The older faculty control the committees that set course content, faculty hiring, fellowship support allocations, and degree requirements. They decide on faculty advancement primarily on the basis of professional standing as determined by output of publication of suitable specialized papers. Creative teaching interdisciplinary research or teaching, or working to develop action programs based on sound knowledge are not regarded as valuable ways for faculty time to be spent. The rewards for both faculty and students go to those who will become highly expert in some narrow area of specialization. Some of this specialized research is socially valuable and, as I can attest, some of it is of great academic interest. But in a world that is rapidly approaching disaster, we must question our priorities. After seeing how well the faculty at our universities have enforced specialization at the cost of breadth and have resisted interdisciplinary teaching and research, I would not like to see legislation which lets the fox guard the chicken coop. We should use the environmental issue to force the reform of the universities that is necessary in other areas as well as in the area of the environmental crisis. This bill should include specific provisions implementing the proposals in the publication "The Universities and Environmental Quality; Commitment to Problem Focused Education" (a report to the President's Environmental Quality Council), prepared by John Steinhart and Stacie Cherniak. This report stresses that effective multidisciplinary problem focused programs were only successful when the faculty in the program had complete control of the faculty reward structure, course content, and requirements for degrees. This is necessary to prevent the majority of specialists from undermining the creative few who are moving into the vacuum and working between disciplines. The implementation would be as revolutionary as genuine congressional reform. Funding under this act should be restricted to groups which have the degree of independence suggested in the above report. I would like to enter into the record of these hearings two further items. One is an article, "Education and Ecology," which I included earlier in my statement and which I wrote for "The Environmental Handbook," edited by myself and published by Ballantine/Friends of the Earth. The other is a bibliography on education from the same handbook. I feel the reading of a few of the books on this list might help to give Congressmen and their staff some better feeling for the reasons why so many students regard the education system in this country as inconsistent to basic human purposes. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you very much, Mr. De Bell. Maybe you could tell us what the "Environmental Handbook" is. Mr. DE BELL. "Friends of the Earth" asked me if I would put together a handbook to sort of go along with the environmental teach-in and be available as a source book for the people wanting to get an overview of the ecological problems in a one-shot package. So I put it together and Ballantine Press published it in conjunction with the Friends of the Earth. And we have something in the order of a million copies, I think the last order was 700,000, and we are trying to get a lot of information out to people to stimulate them in this area. Mr. BRADEMAS. I note the article to which you made reference, I think I am correct in saying, in The Environmental Handbook. You wrote that a number of universities in the United States are doing research work, engaged in research that you suggest, to quote you, "raping the environment." Could you elaborate on that, what you had in mind by that charge? Mr. DE BELL. Well, for instance, a lot, in the area of past control, for instance, a large amount of research is being done in the area on chemical pest control and some by private endorsement. The University of California at Davis does a large amount of work in the area. Until the recent past they have been more or less antagonistic to people who wanted to follow the more ecological sound means of biological controls of pests. In fact, members of the campus who tried to get into biological control were not regarded as contributing in anywhere near the magnitude as the people working on chemical control. A lot had to do with the fact chemical industries supplied a lot of the funds, such as for the University of California at Davis. The only thing I mentioned, I alluded to the development of things like automatic crop pickers. These sorts of things have no useful purpose. They, in a sense, are a large subsidy by the Federal Government to benefit the large agriculture business and the farmworkers put out of work are not compensated and taken care of, and become an overpopulation problem in the cities which they represent. They would like to stay on the farms and like to do farm labor, but want to do it in better conditions and better labor, and so on. They didn't like the idea of being put out of work. What I suggest is, an over-analysis of the problem would never be done in the universities at this time. Mr. BRADEMAS. Let me turn now to the bill under consideration, which I have one general question on whether you might want to make a comment. You already made some observations in respect to the ques tion, but you notice in section 3 of the bill we spell out the various pur poses for which it is contemplated that the funds could be expended. One is to make grants to colleges and universities as well as to other |