American Institutions and Ecological Ideals Scientific and literary views of our expansionary life-style are converging. 
Leo Marx

Barry Commoner, for
example, gave a widely reported speech
describing the deadly pollution of Cali-
fornia water reserves as a result of the
excessive use of nitrates as fertilizer.
This method of increasing agricultural
productivity, he said, is so disruptive
of the chemical balance of soil and
water that within a generation it could
poison irreparably the water supply of
the whole area. The New York Times
ran the story under the headline: "Ecol-
ogist Sees U.S. on Suicidal Course"
(4). But it was the demographers and
population biologists, worried about
behavior even less susceptible to regu-
latory action, who used the most por-
tentous rhetoric. "We must realize that
unless we are extremely lucky," Paul
Ehrlich told an audience in the sum-
mer of 1969, "everybody will disap-
pear in a cloud of blue steam in 20
years" (5).

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