Well, the timeline was a bit off, but I think there can be little doubt that SSTs are responsible for the autism “epidemic”.

Disregarding the timeline, if you polled people in 1970, I wonder which of these they would have thought would be the biggest issue today.

ECOLOGY: a cause becomes a mass movement

Demonstrators organize to defend vanishing trees, wetlands and unpolluted air.

Unless something is done to reverse environmental deterioration, say many qualified experts, horrors lie in wait. Others disagree, but scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support each of the following predictions:

In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution.

In the early 1980s air pollution combined with a temperature inversion will kill thousands in some U.S. city.

BUBBLE TROUBLE ON TAP

By Volta Torrey

We use 320 billion gallons of water a day but by 1970 pollutants may cut our ration NOT LONG AGO, a woman in Long Island, N.Y., was filling a cooking pot with water from her kitchen tap. Suddenly the pot foamed over with crisp, white suds.

These suds, she knew, were caused by synthetic detergents that had drifted over from neighborhood septic tanks and were adulterating her well. Since the sudsy water is distasteful, she uses tap water only for cooking and washing. She buys drinking water in bottles in another town for herself and her family.

HOW SCIENCE WILL HELP US GET RID OF Our Mountain of Junk

Researchers are developing astonishing ways to deal with one of man’s stickiest problems—taking out the garbage
By C. P. GILMORE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY RAY PIOCH

Some of the most exciting ideas and devices I’ve seen and heard of lately are designed to deal with one of the least exciting substances in existence —garbage. Thousands of top scientists and engineers around the country are turning their talents toward just one goal: getting rid of the tidal wave of junk that threatens to drown us and, at the same time, salvaging at least some of the millions of tons of valuable materials that we toss into our garbage cans each year.

“Fog-Drip” May Hold Key to Drought Relief

by CALVIN FRAZER

Scientists, spurred on by last summer’s disastrous drought, are still vainly seeking a method of controlling rainfall. In some parts of the world fog is a more important source of moisture than rain, and various methods, as described here by Mr. Frazer, have been proposed to make fog yield water during arid seasons.