ECOSCIENCE BY ANNE AND PAUL EHRLICH

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Paul Ehrlich (Bing Professor of Population Studies and Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University) and Anne Ehrlich (Senior Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford) are familiar names to ecologists and environmentalists everywhere. As well they should be. Because it was Paul and Anne who — through their writing and research — gave special meaning to the words "population", "resources", and "environment" in the late 1960's. (They also coined the term coevolution , and did a lot to make ecology the household word it is today.) But while most folks are aware of the Ehrlichs' popular writing in the areas of ecology and overpopulation (most of us — for instance — have read Paul's book The Population Bomb ) . . . far too few people have any idea of how deeply the Ehrlichs are involved in ecological research (research of the type that tends to be published only in technical journals and college textbooks.) That's why it pleases us to be able to present — on a regular basis — the following semi-technical column by authors/ecologists/educators Anne and Paul Ehrlich.

ENERGY: THERE AIN'T NO FREE LUNCH

Nothing enrages the oil companies' publicity hacks more than the statement we've often made: "Giving inexpensive and abundant energy to Americans today would be like giving a machine gun to an idiot child." However, that view — as much as it may conflict with the corporate cheerfulness of the multinationals — simply reflects our own concern about the energy-intensive assaults that this society has launched (and continues to launch) upon Earth's life-support systems (for a detailed discussion of such problems, see "The Snail Darter and Us" in MOTHER NO. 57, page 128).

If humanity hopes to preserve the planet's vital interrelated support systems (instead of paving them over or plowing them under), two important decisions must be made: How much energy should we mobilize, and how should we mobilize it? Such decisions can be intelligently made, however, only if one has a complete understanding of the costs that accompany the benefits of each energy technology.

It's a well-known economic principle that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" . . . and that maxim applies to the energy field as well. No source of energy — no matter how clean or abundant it may be — comes without its costs, which must be taken into consideration right along with the technology's positive effects. So, to guide you in the continuing debate over energy use, we'd like to present a "score card" of the liabilities of a number of potential power sources.