Wert tee A Ue DIU BON: eBoy L, eter oN 39 
BOOK REVIEWS 
BLACKWATER RIVER 
by William Hillen 
W. W. Norton and Co., 1972 
What can you say about a former 
conservation officer with the Brit- 
ish Columbia Department of Rec- 
reation and Conservation who kills 
cougars? What can you say about 
a writer who deplores the disap- 
pearance of wildlife, but contri- 
butes to the problem thru the use 
oi guns needlessly fired, and the 
use of the Poison 1080? - 
Hillens has retreated to a cabin 
far north of Vancouver and knows 
these woods and the wildlife and 
the fish intimately. I found his 
admission that he had killed two 
cougar kittens out of three very 
offensive especially when he gives 
no reason for the miserable deed. 
He admits that outside Mexico, 
British Columbia is the only area 
where cougars may be found in 
large numbers. However, his ob- 
servations on the lifestyle of the 
cougar, the wolf, and other animals 
make interesting reading. 
—Raymond Mostek 
POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT 
AND PEOPLE 
Edited by Noel Hinrichs 
McGraw-Hill, 1972 
$2.95 paperback 
“This is a book for the reader who 
already knows that population 
growth and the degradation of the 
environment have to be checked 
before they destroy the world — 
his world — as a habitation for 
human beings,” writes Noel Hin- 
richs in his Introduction to “Popu- 
lation, Environment and People,” 
a Council on Population and En- 
vironment book of which he is the 
editor. 
The work consists of original 
essays by 24 experts, from Paul 
Ehrlich to George Wald, from 
Philip M. Hauser to Stewart L. 
Udall. Their material is divided 
into four parts: “The Basic Prob- 
lem,” “The Human Factors,” ‘‘Pos- 
sibilities for Action,” and “The 
Larger Context.” 
While academic studies of over- 
population usually deal with num- 
bers and graphs, this book rests on 
the premise that population prob- 
lems become truly intelligible to 
the layman, and acquire emotional 
value when they are considered 
from the point of view of their 
effects on the life of people. Adopt- 
ing this point of view, the contrib- 
utors deal with overpopulation 
not as numbers of people, but 
rather with regard to its effects 
on the quality of the physical and 
human environment. 
Numerous examples show how 
human and environmental health 
suffer from the synergistic effects 
of increased population size and 
technological insults. Solutions are 
offered ‘for the interruption — and 
ever the reversal — of the present 
destructive trends through tech- 
nical, social and political measures. 
Emphasis is given to the need for a 
