18 



Mr. Studds. The gentlewoman from Oregon. 



Ms. FuRSE. First, I would like to welcome Dr. McMahan from 

 Portland. Certainly you are well known and your institution is 

 also. 



The question I would like to ask you is, since we don't know how 

 many endangered plants there are, how about a worldwide regis- 

 ter? Is there anything that you can use on a global level? 



Ms. McMahan. I have not looked worldwide. There are some ef- 

 forts to do that. There are worldwide agencies, particularly the 

 International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which keep a 

 register of endangered plants around the world. The numbers are 

 very high. I cannot speak to that. 



Someone estimated around the world perhaps 50,000 plants that 

 are known now to be at risk of extinction. I may be off, but the 

 number is very, very high. 



There has been some effort to look into the medicinal value; 

 whenever you look at the potential medicinal value of a target list, 

 it is always high. That simply reflects nature where the medicinal 

 value is very high. 



The problem, of course, is that we are dealing with up to perhaps 

 20 percent of the world's flora, including flora in this Nation, 

 whether that be Hawaii which is a little higher or Michigan or 

 Ohio. The 20- to 50-percent range is what we find for endangered 

 plants. 



This reflects the value of these plants, the fact that all plants 

 have these chemicals that are useful. It is hard to come up with 

 numbers. 



Certainly, other people are looking at it. Certainly, they are very 

 important. 



Mr. Studds. I want to express again both my appreciation to you 

 all and my regrets that the noise you hear up here is summoning 

 us to the Floor. So we must leave this matter of cosmic conse- 

 quence to vote on something of absolutely no significance whatso- 

 ever. 



It is sort of the paradigm of our existence here. Some of you have 

 the luxury to go back to your respective lairs and think. "That is a 

 process about which we have heard but have not participated in re- 

 cently. 



I want to thank you for a very sobering and very humbling hour. 

 While you will go back, as I say, to your respective professions, we 

 will at least have, for the remainder of the year, to remind us of 

 what you have said, these extraordinary photographs on the wall. 



I hope that they will serve that purpose. I also hope, as I said 

 before, and I mean this very, very seriously, that each of you who 

 have very different professional associations and very different re- 

 gional associations and personal ones, will utilize whatever ones 

 you have to try to convey the gist of what you are saying. 



Dr. Eisner, I understand what you were saying. You have no 

 choice. No thoughtful human being has any choice other than to 

 look at the larger picture and the longer run here. It is an intellec- 

 tual and perhaps even a moral imperative. 



That does not, however, make any easier the immediate political 

 chore that has to be accomplished in order to allow us to do this as 



