Evening star., 1947-09-14
At the End of Our Tether?

A long time from now, according to some
scientists, the human race may become
extinct through natural evolutionary
process-maybe in hundred million years
or so. This estimate, however, makes no
allowance for what, can happen if man
goes berserk with atomic energy. Given an
all-out war with -weapons-not to men
ton psychological weapons-our complete
extinction, the extinction of all bipeds
everywhere on the face of the earth, could
be roughly comparable to the swiftness,
totality and f1nality of death in an airplane
crash.
To begin with, in a purely theoretical
sense, it is by no means inconceivable that
the atomic age might be developed to
point where madness among men could
set off flaming, radioactive atmospheric
chain-reaction capable of converting the
world into a dead planet, with no life of
any kind left upon it-like the moon But
the most learned of our nuclear physicists
-Einstein, for example-have been at
pains to emphasize that such finish is
extremely remote. They take more con-
servative view; they hold that should there
be total A-weapon war in another gener-
alton or two, perhaps two-thirds of the
human race would be annihilated, but the
remaining third could try to build a new
civilization What this overlooks, however,
is the possibility cited the other day by
DR.. H. J. Muller of Indiana University
namely, that the effects of radioactivity on
the genes of the survivors might operate
as delayed action time bombs" eventually
wiping out all the survivors descendants;
in short, Wiping out the whole of mankind
by making it sterile.
The genes-keys to heredity-are tricky
things, and DR.. Muller has won a Nobel
Prize because of his great knowledge of
them. The possibility he warns about
(another possibility is that excessive
atomic radiation might cause hereditary
changes leading to race of monsters) is
real enough to explain why the United
States has launched special long-term
study of the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. The fact may be difficult to
comprehend, but 1t is fact, nonetheless:
We are living in an age when it is no
longer fantastic to think in terms of the
relatively sudden and absolute disappear
dIlCe VI dill IluIldHIIy. LIZ. MulleE is
only one of many authorities who have
spoken out convincingly on this score The
dinosaurs passed away, and man can, too
and at far faster rate. If we do not
master the atom for peace, if we have a
total A-Weapon war; some lower animal
who may gradually develop brains and
learn to talk and to invent things-may in
herit the earth almost overnight in terms
of geological time.
To George Bernard Shaw and kindred
spirits, all this may seem to be desirable
prospect. But to any one who thinks that
the society of man is worth perpetuating,
the whole. thing must be disconcerting, to
put it mildly In pessimistic moment not
long before he died, H. G. Wells warned
that our race was at the end of its tether,
on the brink of doom. That may be too
alarmist view; still, if the world fails to
establish effective atomic control, the
apocalyptic prophecy may turn out to be
as true as many another made by Mr. Wells
in his lifetime-and much sooner than
we may care to imagine.
Will Mr.. Gromyko and the Kremlin please
read, and will Russian newspapers please
copy?