Week's Watch

> Rwanda, a nation in east central Africa, has an area of only 10,000 sq. mi.--and seems to be too small for both elephants and men. Its population, now 4 million, has been increasing rapidly, creating a desperate demand for farm land. As starving tribesmen cultivated new forest acreage, less and less land was left for the local herds of elephants. Result: hungry pachyderms have been raiding the peasants' shambas, often devastating the small subsistence plots in the process --and further reducing the food supply. Rwanda's President, General Juvenal Habyalimana, therefore ordered that the elephant herds be "culled." To date, some 106 of Rwanda's estimated 140 elephants have been gunned down by riflemen. Another 26 specimens were shot with tranquilizer darts and taken by helicopter and truck to safety in Rwanda's Kagera National Park. The remaining elephants were still being hunted last week. When they are found, they will be killed.

> Oregon last week heeded the warning by scientists that some gases in aerosol sprays can destroy the ozone layer in the stratosphere that protects earth from an overdose of the sun's ultraviolet rays (TIME, Oct. 7). The state legislature banned the sale after March 1, 1977, of aerosol cans that use chlorofluorocarbon compounds as propellants--mainly hair sprays, oven cleaners, insecticides and deodorants. Opponents of the measure claim that there is no hard evidence that the chlorofluorocarbons actually damage the ozone layer. But the Oregon lawmakers preferred not to wait for final proof, and the bill is expected to be signed by Governor Robert W. Straub.

> If any community has reason to be sensitive about offshore oil exploitation, it is Santa Barbara, Calif., scene of a disastrous oil spill in 1969. But last week the voters of Santa Barbara County, by a narrow 35,500 to 34,700, turned down a chance to keep oil development out of their area. In a referendum, they approved construction of a $30 million plant to process oil and natural gas from new offshore sources. An important factor in the vote was the threat by the plant's proponents that the project would be built anyway--in offshore waters beyond the county's jurisdiction--if Santa Barbara rejected their plan. In addition, the promise of the plant's potential contributions to the nation's energy supply and the local economy helped outweigh environmental fears.

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