Earth Day goes to Nebraska town
KU students hold teach-in at high school
By KEN CUMMINS
Wire Editor
AUBURN, Neb. — While other people were staging stunts and activities to demonstrate the dangers to our environment on Erth Day, two University of Kansas students went into a small community to educate the people about the problem.
Randy Frost, Lindsborg sophomore, and Robert Fisher, Auburn, Neb., sophomore, took over several classes at Auburn, Neb. High School Wednesday to bring the problem to the attention of the students and the community.
"The whole idea came to me months ago," Fisher said. "I wrote a letter to the superintendent explaining the whole idea behind Environmental Teach-In Day and suggested that biology and English classes use the book 'Population Bomb' as a text."
When he didn't get an answer, Fisher went home to talk to them. He said he found people uninformed on the matter.
"I decided that maybe this was a symptom of the high school, that maybe the students weren't necessarily apathetic, just unaware of the problem."
"Not only is it important to get people educated and action started, but also to make people aware of the fact that this is not a fad but a new attitude, a new way of life." Fisher said.
"I called the high school and asked them if it would be okay if I came up to speak to them since they had such a shortage of information." Fisher said.
Fisher then said he realized he couldn't handle the whole thing by himself, so he asked Frost, a member of Zero Population Growth, to assist him.
Frost and Fisher put up posters around the high school and handed out leaflets. Not all the instructors allowed their classes to be taken over by the two KU students.
"The United States is supporting 66 countries that need food aid," he told the students. "The amount of surplus food has been growing faster than demand up until this year. Now these countries are needing the food at a faster rate than it is increasing."
US sends arms, ships to Trinidad
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The United States agreed Wednesday to fly small arms to Trinidad to help the Caribbean island's government deal with a mutiny and U.S. navy ships steamed to the scene to evacuate Americans if necessary.
The State Department announced that the request for light weapons was received from Trinidad government officials Tuesday night after fighting broke out between 200 army mutineers and loyalist government units.
Department spokesman Carl Bartch said the arms were being sold for cash.
The Navy dispatched a half dozen vessels and a force of Marines for standby evacuation duty which Bartch said was "strictly a precautionary measure to protect U.S. citizens."
About 1,000 U.S. citizens live in Trinidad while an unknown number of American tourists are also vacationing on the Caribbean island.
The U.S. embassy in Port-of-
Spain has a staff of approximately 20. There is a U.S. Air Force tracking station on the island manned by one officer, one enlisted man and 150 U.S. civilians.
In announcing the arms decision, Bartch commented: "We have no disposition to get involved in the internal affairs of Trinidad."
Some ground squirrels spend as much as three-fourths of their lives sleeping underground.
By 1984, Fisher said, the food aid need will just match the amount of foodstuffs the United States can produce. After this point the United States will no longer be able to produce enough food to keep these people from starving. Fisher said some experts predict that this will happen as early as 1975.
"All this information was compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1966." he said.
Frost was asked by a student in one of the classes whether wars were a control on population.
Apr. 23
1970 KANSAN 7
"They used to be," the student said, "but they're not anymore. The total number of Americans that have died in all wars has been replaced since midnight Saturday."
"Won't space technology solve the problem?" another student asked.
"With our present technology we could only send one day's population increase to another planet in a year's time," Frost told him, "and that's not enough."
In the classes he spoke to, Fisher tried to relate the problem locally. He told them that Nebraska's population was increasing two per cent annually, the same rate as the world's. This meant 30,000 people are added to the state's population yearly.
Nebraska's water fields are drying up, Fisher said, and will be gone in another 50 years. Then the state will have to get water from the Missouri River, which by then will be too polluted to drink, he said.
"Nuclear power plants use river water as a coolant," he continued. "When the water is put back into the river it is too hot for cold-blooded fish to survive in."
Fisher also told them that thermal pollution would be a problem in the future, referring to the nuclear power plant being built eight miles from Auburn.
Classes Fisher and Frost did not attend devoted their time to discussion of the issues. English classes had debates over the legitimacy of abortions. Typing classes practiced typing ecology terms and articles. The Student Council held a meeting in the afternoon to decide what actions the students could take.
"One thing you can't do is blame the problems on your parents," Fisher warned them. "People don't look forward and they just weren't aware of the problem before now."
Frost told them action would have to take place on the local level because the individual did not have the power on the national level. He said they could start with campaigns to clean up the community and to educate the people to the urgency of the problem.
Fisher also told the students they could write letters to congressmen supporting or complaining about the Congress's stand on population growth and pollution control.
Frost and Fisher estimated that they talked to over 50 per cent of
the student population.
"I think they will think a lot about it now," Fisher said, "and some of them will probably start doing something."
Compliments of Ace Johnson