Books in Brief: The Doomsday Book

The Doomsday Book, by Gordon Rattray Taylor (World, 306 pp., $7.95). As its title indicates, this is a hard-core environmental disaster book. Besides a thorough survey of the usual culprits—pesticides, automobiles, fertilizers and, of course, atomic radiation —the reader is given an introduction to more esoteric hazards, such as man-made earthquakes caused by the weight of water in artificial lakes formed by dammed rivers. An interesting discussion of the effects of crowding on animals and on man ends with the prediction that the physiological effects of crowding may bring the population explosion to a disastrous end. The notion that lack of sufficient living space may have concrete physiological consequences (except in the most extreme cases) may be a novel one, but it is a logical consequence of the relationship between psychological wellbeing and physical health, the strength of which modern medical science is only now rediscovering. When the author moves from problems to solutions, his thinking is dominated by the cliches of the Left, both new and old. He does, however, display considerable consciousness of the fallibility of the planner and the dangers of governmental power, even while embracing both. If the author, and other ecological crusaders, would only apply the same criteria to man’s use of power over man that they apply to man’s use of power over the environment, they would indeed be great defenders of human liberty.