AND THE
MEEC DID INHERIT
OUR MINNESOTA EARTH
JOHN M C K A N E
A comprehensive
ban on hunting will be continued
throughout
Minnesota's forest zones this year. The restriction also applies to all forms
of recreational usage on forested
acres.
The all-inclusive
controls were decreed for the third consecutive
year
by authority
of the Minnesota
Environmental
Emergency
Council
(MEEC).
MEEC described the potential for vegetation
loss on forest lands as
"too hazardous to risk accidental
conflagrations."
The agency indicated that the current ban on the commercial
harvest
of timber will be extended for an indefinite
period.
The decrees were invoked
because of the unprecedented
timber
kill
along North American
coastal regions—first
symptom
of the
International
disaster.
Vegetation
losses over vast land areas fore-shadowed
the air pollution
catastrophe
of five years ago. Coastal air inversions
during this period
claimed 37 percent of California's
population,
as well as the lives of
over four million Americans
in the five-state New England
area.
Comparable
population
declines were experienced
by European
countries. Fatalities over the Asian land mass, while extensive, were difficult
to document
due to the lack of sophistication
in computing
procedures.
MEEC
was founded,
along with comparable
sister-state
agencies,
under the "Planetary
Control Authority"
vested in the United
Nations
Environmental
Crisis Council
(UNEC).
Extraordinary
powers were assigned to UNEC's
world-wide
network
following
the so-called "Lead Effluent
Phenomenon."
Discovery that the long-term lead buildup in the world's oceans had drasJ A N U A R Y • F E B R U A R Y 1970
1
tically reduced plankton levels merely accentuated the impact of massive
coastal vegetation losses occasioned by air
contaminates.
UN EC estimates that plankton supplied some 70 percent of the earth's
oxygen. This factor underscored
the urgency of the United
Nations
order that all agencies, including Minnesota's
MEEC,
should
"take
whatever steps necessary to protect the oxygen producing potential of
the remaining vegetation on the earth's land surfaces."
Meanwhile, an international team of ecologists is seeking solutions to
the global lead dilemma.
On related matters, particularly the critical food-population
imbalance,
the UN secretary-general
termed the incidence of world starvation
"tra4
CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER
gic in terms of normal values . . . but a blessing when related to the
harsh realities of resources versus numbers . . . and bringing this ratio
into a more realistic
configuration."
In recent dispatches, UN headquarters
also expressed guarded optimism over the "improved status" of the planet's cloud cover.
Weather trends in the early 197O's first prompted
an
exhaustive
analysis of cloud conditions via Weather Satellite
Stations.
Aerological findings disclosed that the planet's "normal" 31 percent
cloud layer had increased most significantly—"by
as much as three to
four
percent."
Subsequent
appraisal
J A N U A R Y • F E B R U A R Y 1970
revealed
that the surface-to-atmosphere
yield of
contaminants
was responsible for the cloud increment,
and associate
world-wide weather cycle repercussions.
Contrary to expectations,
inverse cyclic trends occurred in the planet's
biosphere.
The cooling cycle brought record-shattering
precipitation
and temperature recordings. Minnesota, by way of example, recorded 65 inches
of snowfall in December, over double the 1969 high in the past decade.
Since Minnesota-based
businesses have demonstrated
special
sophistication in the space sciences, JJNEC assigned a considerable portion of
atmospheric technology to state firms.
All funding for NASA (National Space Agency) has been diverted for
"intensive application to an air space not more than seven miles above
the earth's surface." (This zone is defined as the "life-support
band" of
the planet's
atmosphere.)
Major Minnesota
corporate
structures,
including
Honeywell,
3-M
Company, IBM, Control Data, Green Giant and scores of
electronic
enterprises have again substantially increased budget allocations to "environmental priorities" for the forthcoming
fiscal year.
Production of "material goods" has been reduced to basic needs at all
levels of national
endeavor.
In this regard, Minnesota
has filed a strongly worded objection
to
current terms of the federal Population Relocation
Act.
Conceived to relieve congested areas and minimize
environmental
hazards, the Act consigned for Minnesota relocation a total of 1.3 million citizens during the upcoming
biennium.
Governor Nielsen termed the consignment
"totally unrealistic . . .
Pressure on our existing resources has already surpassed
tolerable
levels . . . We will insist that computer programming
be reappraised."
A sampling of revised "population ceiling adjustments" for state cities,
as announced by the Bureau of Relocation,
included:
Blue Earth, 43,500; Morris, 52,000; Marshall, 74,800; St.
Cloud,
233,300;
Thief River Falls, 28,700;
Willmar,
102,000;
Rochester,
340,000; Grand Rapids, 27,300; Mankato,
112,500; Winona,
224,000.
An obvious consequence of the ceiling revisions will be a sharp curtailment in the number of Reproduction
Permits available to Minnesota
citizens during the forthcoming
calendar year.
Little if any response is anticipated so far as the Governor's plea is
concerned. Similar protests from Upper Midwest states on
in-migration
quotas have been summarily
rejected.
To accelerate Minnesotds
land reclamation
campaign, MEEC
has
authorized the razing of three more metro-area suburbs. Located
in
Washington, Dakota and Scott counties, the housing developments
were
constructed in the mid-1960's on soil types classified as
A-productive.
Companion Quality Zoning Control measures included the disclosure
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CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER
"Spirit of Man — Above Sea of Smog"
(The Great Arch . . . St. Louis)
J A N U A R Y • F E B R U A R Y 1970
5
>
that all state flood plain clearance has been consummated.
Renovation
of an additional 538 lakes has been initiated over the past six months.
With isolated exceptions, all lakeshore structures within 1,500 feet of
water surfaces have been
removed.
By Minnesota Department
of Economic Priorities authority
relating
to protein production, sport fishing under the lottery system faces further
limitations.
This Department
also indicated that the policy on so-called
seasonal
"tourist visitations" will remain essentially unchanged.
(Certified
proof
of "visitation need" must be provided at Minnesota
Border
Control
Stations.)
Public reaction to various decrees has been described as "generally
passive."
This area of concern, MEEC indicated, has been substantially
minimized by "total curriculum involvement
in conservation
instruction
at
all levels—including
the compulsory
adult indoctrination
sector
under
Department of Education
authority."
In routine dispatches this week, MEEC
announced:
*A Duluth man was apprehended for invasion of a Minnesota
Zone
of Silence with a mechanized
vehicle. Equipment
confiscated.
Presentence investigation
pending.
(Note: Statutory revisions have designated all State Parks as therapeutic Zones of Silence.)
*A New Ulm industry was "locked and sealed" for violation of Environmental Quality Control
standards.
*Two Red Wing commuters were indicted on two counts: (1) Driving
a conveyance
without an approved contaminant
control device
and,
(2) Metro-Area
Intrusion; Private Conveyance Restricted Zone.
Driving
privileges revoked. Equipment
confiscated.
*Three violations of Reproduction
Act
provisos.
With regard to the latter offense, MEEC expressed general
dissatisfaction with regulations pertaining to reproduction
control. The agency
indicated it will seek "more meaningful penalties" during the
upcoming
session of the 1981 State
Legislature.
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