Happy Future Days

If its population continues to expand at the present rate, by the year 2000 the U.S. will find itself supporting some 300 million people. Will the country's natural resources be able to stand the strain? Having asked itself the question, a Ford Foundation study group called Resources for the Future spelled out a 1,000-page answer that bristles with confidence Come the turn of the century, says th report,' U.S. resources will easily be able to support U.S. citizens on the lush leve of living they will have learned to expect.

That bright view of the future include some basic assumptions: 1) the cold wa will worry along at its present intensity draining goods and manpower into defense against a catastrophic war that will no occur; 2) the U.S. will continue to foo the bill for expensive space exploration and aid to foreign countries; 3) most important of all, the nation's technology will continue to improve, for freedom from want is not in the cards for a static society. Some sample predictions:

sb FOOD. In the year 2000, Americans may eat less than they do now. But they wil demand more of such expensive items as meat, fruit and dairy products. Filling this demand will be no problem if agricultural techniques already known are applied more widely.

sb WATER. Every part of the country will have to watch its water supply but for different reasons. In the humid East and Pacific Northwest, there will be enough water for all reasonable demands. The main problem will be to keep it from being wasted or polluted. In the arid West, where irrigation agriculture absorbs nearly all the available water, cities and industries can continue to grow only by taking water away from a few farmers.

sb ENERGY. Demand for energy is expected to triple by the end of the century. Oil and natural gas will gradually decline in importance as the most productive fields are exhausted. Large coal reserves may take their place, and oil shale and lignite may be used. Atomic energy will provide at least half of all U.S. electricity in the year 2000.

sb MINERALS. U.S. steel requirements will increase 200% by the end of the century, but iron ore will still be in good supply. Though much of it will probably come from rich foreign deposits, low-grade U.S. ore can be used at slightly greater cost. The same principle applies to aluminum, which will increase steadily in importance. If high-quality foreign bauxite, which is now used as aluminum ore, becomes unavailable, the U.S. can turn to low-grade domestic deposits, or even to plentiful aluminum-containing clay. Other imporant metals, such as copper, can be extracted in any reasonable quantity out of low-grade domestic ores at somewhat higher cost. In only a few metals, including in and manganese, is the U.S. really deficient, and it would take only moderate technical ingenuity to get along without them.

This bountiful future will not arrive automatically; it must be worked for intelligently. "The main escape hatch rom scarcity," says the report, "is technological advance across a broad front, and behind this have to be large, varied, effective programs of research and development in science, engineering, economics nd management. And backing this up las to be a strong system of general education at all levels."

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