1973 iucn yearbook

first time that they could get along without most of the energy-consuming
and mineral-wasting devices that they had earlier thought to be essential.
They found that constant use of a motor car is not essential to happiness.
They even found a challenge and pleasure in developing new and less
consumption-oriented approaches to life. In these attitudes lies hope for
tomorrow.
Droughts and Food Shortages
In general, 1973 was not a good year for conservation or the environment.
The continuation of years of drought brought misery, death and
environmental destruction to great areas of land around the Sahara
desert and a further extension of the desert beyond its normal climatic
boundaries. Uncounted numbers of livestock died, leaving the people
dependent upon them without resources, and that there were many
deaths of people themselves, not only in the well-publicized case of
Ethiopia, can hardly be doubted. In these circumstances one can only
speculate on the losses of wildlife and the destruction of natural environments.
From all indications, these were also severe. The United Nations,
in 1973, carried out emergency relief operations and launched a new
programme designed to restore the economies of the drought-stricken
region. Conservationists can only work to see that this programme does
not follow the pathways set by past and unsuccessful efforts to accomplish
this goal. Droughts are not new in the Sahel, but their effects
become increasingly severe as the balance between a depleted base of
renewable resources and increased human pressure becomes more
distorted.
In 1973 also the Food and Agriculture Organization announced that
efforts to keep up with the world's growing need for food were falling
behind, and that even in food-rich countries such as the United States,
stockpiles were largely exhausted. Furthermore, with increased oil prices,
the "Green Revolution" largely dependent on a heavy input of
fossil fuels, seemed likely to be slowed down. On the other hand, realization
of the worsening food situation and the general upsurge in environmental
awareness were reflected at governmental level, and several
more countries, notably France, established Ministries of the Environment,
or, as in the case of Brazil, a special Secretariat for the Environment.
The latter will be concerned with a part of the world, the Amazonian
hylie, where the threat of destruction to the humid forest biotope
reached a new peak during the year.
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