Welsh Journals

between them) and pointing alarmingly to a link between higher un- employment and an often dramatically increased local demand for waterside recreation facilities. The information contained in this document does much to bring up to date manv existine water resources texts. As a result of changing attitudes to life and what is expected of it, and as a result of the cautionary tale of the 1975-1976 drought and the crippling inflation of that period, many previously high priorities have humbled to the general realisation that most important of all is the need to ensure adequate and wholesome water supplies in the years to come. Those who ascribe to the self-sufficiency syndrome could well heed the estimate in David Walker's paper that that money-saving allotment may use £ 15-worth of water in a season, and those who complain at high water charges should find solace in the revelation that the aver- age household uses two tonnes of water per week! Many students of water resources will find this document an invaluable postcript to their prescribed texts, and it is to be hoped thàtmany of the comm- ents, fears and facts within will soon find their way to the general public through more popular channels. Graham Sumner The Real Wealth of Nations S.R.Eyre. (1978) London: Edward Arnold. 220 pages. (20 Figures, 16 Tables, 5 Appendices), £ 7.95. The global problems of resource depletion and population expansion have been considered in a large number of books in recent years, and this new one by Eyre is one of the more stimulating and, in most senses, one that escapes the "Domesday Syndrome" trap in to which many popularised texts have fallen to their peril. Eyre has attempted to review the basis of the resources/population balance on both global and national levels, but in a manner which is distinctly different from its major global competitor, the Massach- usetts Institute of Technology dynamic "World Model" evolved by Forrester and Meadows. His approach is quantitative like theirs; but rather than attempting to consider (simultaneously) resource, population, technology, affluence etc., Eyre has chosen to concent- rate on assessing the "True Wealth of Nations" by drawing up a nation-by-nation budget of "total mineral wealth". This is a valuable approach both because the compilation of resource inventories is an essential prerequisite to future environmental management, and because the author's main interest hitherto has centred on organic resources (his "Vegetation and Soils" remains a classic text on world vegetation). The book opens with a section (19 pages) geared towards justifying the analysis. This is done in terms of a brief introductory chapter (1) on the fundamental reasons for the study, followed by a sketchy and highly selective review (chapter 2) of the concept of 'wealth' as perceived by economists, most notably Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus and a detailed, if brief, review (chapter 3) of population increase on global and national levels.