NEW AGE OF THE SEA — YEAGER 385 



One of the most important aspects of the population explosion is 

 the problem of living space — of sufficient room to move around in with 

 some semblance of freedom and privacy. 



Interestingly enough, the evidence is that long before food or hous- 

 ing shortages become really serious, the difficulties arising from 

 cramped living will have reached a critical peak, a peak demanding 

 dramatic measures for a solution. 



We have already begun to see the signs which are at once physical 

 and psychological. Witness the mushrooming suburbs with their 

 postage-stamp lots ; the crowded expressways ; the new traffic bottle- 

 necks that materialize faster than old ones are dissolved; the smog 

 blights ; the polluted rivers ; the disappearing trees and forest lands ; 

 the crowded classrooms; the accelerating noise level; the increasing 

 crime rates ; the high incidence of mental illness ; the diminishing art 

 of neighborliness ; the self -enforced isolation of apartment dwellers ; 

 the periodic adult fetish for "getting away from it all"; the year- 

 round emphasis on keeping children organized ; the climbing divorce 

 statistics; the courtroom dockets that are jammed with petty civil 

 suits ; and so on. 



All these symptoms, in one way or another, stem at least in part 

 from too many people living too close together. At the moment, the 

 pressures creating the symptoms may not be sufficient to cause boiling. 

 But imagine a doubling of the pressures. ^Vhat then ? 



The social scientists believe that if our heterogeneous civilization 

 is to remain reasonably healthy, in bod}'^, mind, and spirit, it cannot 

 afford to let itself be forced to live like ants. Men need space. This 

 means that the population must somehow spread out as it grows 

 instead of concentrating more and more. 



When a national park is forced to close its gates to 7,000 would-be 

 campers during a single holiday weekend, when Congress must con- 

 sider legislation to prohibit commercialization of the remaining 2 

 percent of American wilderness land in order to preserve at least a 

 small part of the country in its natural state — the imminence of the 

 problem begins to sink in. 



Serious as is the situation, however, scientists do not believe solu- 

 tions are impossible. They are depending on the sea and sea-related 

 techniques to help find them. 



The prognosticated picture is for gradually accelerating migration 

 from heavily populated countries to lightly populated ones. The 

 influx will be toward Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Alaska, and 

 South America. In fact, the move has already begun. And it is 

 receiving its greatest push, at the moment, from nations whose people 

 historically have been strongly attached to their native lands — the 

 English, the Dutch, the Danes, the French, the Belgians, even Ameri- 



