1973 iucn yearbook

desirable and essential, it is inevitable that a crisis of energy and raw
materials will arise. Yet that crisis has not arrived. The experience of
1973 was only a warning that it is coming. But this time the warning
was expressed in such a way that it was felt in the bodies and carburettors
of all members of petrol-driven civilizations. The real crisis remains in
the future, perhaps a decade hence, or twenty years, but when it comes
there will be no easy political solution.
The 1973 "energy crisis" was also a warning of a far-reaching change
in the relationships among nations. The countries that produce the raw
materials for industry have notified their customers that the days of
cheap exploitation are over. Prices for minerals and fuels are going up,
meaning a shift in wealth from consumers to producers. However, such
a price increase will set off other reactions, including a more determined
effort to develop alternative energy sources and to find substitutes for
those raw materials which are no longer cheap. The resource-rich countries
stand to gain a greater share of the world's wealth, but at the same
time industrial countries have, for the most part, the capacity to readjust
to the higher prices and still remain wealthy. Caught in the squeeze,
however, are those countries that have neither resources nor industry.
Scarcely able to pay the old prices for raw materials and fuels, these
countries see their development plans being shattered by the new
escalation.
It is regrettable that an early response of certain governments when
faced with potential fuel shortages was to set aside regulations previously
brought in to protect the environment. In the United States, for example,
the Alaskan oil pipeline was approved for construction despite the fact
that alternative and potentially less destructive means could be found for
transporting this needed fuel. In the United Kingdom a rapid development
of North Sea oil was advocated and planned with little evidence
among those responsible of sufficient consideration for the environmental
consequences. The prospect for more rapid development of
nuclear power plants without adequate environmental safeguards seemed
more likely. There seemed little doubt, at year's end, that full approval
would be given to offshore oil development even in ecologically vulnerable
areas. There was a strong possibility that destructive exploitation of
the oil shales that underlie vast areas of wild country in the North American
west was about to begin. From these signs it would appear that rather
than accept the need to reduce fuel consumption, some governments
were determined to push "full-speed-ahead" toward ultimate, final limits.
Despite this response by governments, however, there was encouragement
to be found in the attitudes of many people. Some learned for the
10