It was a time of destruction of lives and futures and of rebirth and rebuilding. In his lively style with a wide sweep of insights Peter Lindenfeld recounts his personal and often intimate experiences, a microcosm of life during a time spanning nearly a century. The seemingly stable atmosphere of his childhood in Vienna is destroyed by the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. The forced exodus leads him to North America, first to Vancouver, then to New York and a life that melds his original culture with that of his new environment, creating a richness-in science and music, and in intellectual and political life-that transcends both.

The Symposium on the Global Effects of Environmental Pollution has performed an important task; it has helped to determine the world-wide impact of certain types of local pollution and has uncovered certain unsuspected effects that might hold dan gerous implications for the future. This Symposium should help to make the world aware of a crisis that is becoming more ominous and that involves the developing as well as the developed countries - the crisis of the human environment. The causes of this crisis are not difficult to discern. There has been an unprecedented increase in the world's population, an ever-increasing rate of urbanization, and in many countries, a continuous process of industrialization. Essentially, advancing technology has made it possible for a minority of mankind to achieve affluence and holds out hope for improving the well-being of the great majority. But, because it has not been integrated into the natural environment, this very technology - in industry, in agriculture or in transport - is having many undesir able and potentially catastrophic consequences. Our air, our water and our soil are in grave danger. Many species of animal and plant life have become extinct or are facing extinction. The loss to mankind is grave and even the future oflife on earth may be in danger. The challenge is to find ways of repairing the harm already done and to prevent further harm.