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February 1974
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents.
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 30 cents
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Although opinion varies about the "crisis of
the environment," its seriousness, its causes
and its probable solutions, there is general
agreement on the present urgency to bring into
balance the exploitative demands on the Earth
and the necessity of maintaining (or restoring) a
stable and healthy ecosphere. This environmental
concern has become an integral and persuasive
factor in national and international affairs. Within
the past five years, two Federal agencies—the
Council on Environmental Quality and the En-
vironmental Protection Agency—have been cre-
ated to assess and administer environmental pro-
grams. Congress has legislated a decisive and
wide-ranging body of environmental law; and most
States have set up departments to deal with prob-
lems of the environment. The increasing inter-
national awareness of man's fragile ecological
niche was signalled by the U.N. Conference on
the Human Environment held in Stockholm in
June 1972.
The latter was of historic importance for it
marked the beginning of a transition in the atti-
tudes toward the future uses of the environment.
Despite ideological, political, economic and re-
ligious differences, the delegates of 114 nations
agreed on an Action Plan and a Declaration of
Principles based on the common realization that
the Earth is a closed ecological system and that
man continues to modify it only at his peril.
This perception is especially acute in a period
of high technology when man's ability to intrude
upon and divert the natural order presents a mag-
nitude of change that is unprecedented. It is
conjectured that the changes in man's interaction
with his environment in the last 60 years are
greater than all the changes that have occurred
from the time of man's first arrival on the Earth
to World War I. Further, some of the most serious
ecological problems—air pollution from radio-
active particles, the uncontrolled fouling of the
oceans and waterways—can only be solved on a
worldwide basis. Without histrionics, the question
faces us—the future of the Earth is in our hands;
how shall we decide?
The issues raised by environmental concern are
manifold, diverse and of great complexity. It is
to these that this bibliography is addressed. Its
primary focus is on books that present policy
issues and interdisciplinary concepts, rather than
those that deal narrowly with particular problems
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and their technological solutions. The listing is
designed to provide the nonspecialist with a wide
spectrum of views and opinions; some reflective of
the physical sciences and technology, others of
the economic, sociological and political realities
that dictate whether new technologies will or will
not be used, whether innovative or restrictive
policies will be imposed.
Although the tides cited are written by authors
competent in their fields, contrasting and at times
conflicting points of view are presented. Some
books are optimistic about our present and future
capability to solve, or at least ameliorate, the
abuses represented by physical pollution, the de-
pletion of natural resources, the excesses of popu-
lation growth and the exacerbating imbalances
between the rich, industrialized nations and the
poorer, developing ones. Other books listed here
are frankly alarmist about the present, and pessi-
mistic about the future.
No volume provides a synthesis or reconcilia-
tion of these disparate assessments. The environ-
mental field lacks an Aristotle to impose a philo-
sophical order on the vast body of scientific
information and speculative thought that exists.
And to date, no book of incisive insight, of bench-
mark importance, comparable to Darwin on evo-
lution, Einstein on relativity, or Freud on the
interpretation of dreams, -has surfaced.
The limitations of this listing are ameliorated
somewhat because most of the books included
have extensive bibliographies of their own. Inter-
ested readers will find numerous other easily ap-
proachable information sources.
The U.S. Government (both executive agencies
and Congressional committees) has been prolific
in publication of documents on natural resources,
wildlife, conservation and environmental policy;
these are indexed in the 17.5. Government Publica-
tions: A Monthly Catalogue available from the
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
20402. The Natural Resources Library of the
U.S. Department of the Interior publishes a semi-
monthly listing of publications, including books
and periodicals. Subscription to this Environ-
mental Awareness Reading List is available
through the National Technical Information Serv-
ice, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield,
Va. 22151.
Among others that have prepared extensive
reading lists are the Conservation Library Center
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(1357 Broadway, Denver, Colo. 80202), the
Sierra Club (1050 Mills Tower, San Francisco,
Calif. 94104) and the American Library Asso-
ciation (500 Huron Street, Chicago, 111. 60611).
The National Wildlife Federation (1412 16th
Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036) publishes
an annual Conservation Directory that lists all
major international, national, interstate, state and
citizen organizations active in this field. Many of
these groups have published bibliographies tailored
to their special interests. Further, many profes-
sional, trade and industry associations offer publi-
cations hi their specific fields of resource manage-
ment and industrial processes. Some of these
associations publish newsletters as well.
Reflecting the mounting interest and concern
about the environment, magazines, newsletters
and occasional papers have so proliferated that
they are impossible to list in a modest bibliogra-
"phy. Some are wholly devoted to ecological inter-
ests, others are magazines of general interest that
have regular departments on the environment. A
public, school or college library can provide access
to services that review and document current peri-
odical, newspaper and other literature of interest.
And, of course, all that is significant about the
environment has not been said or written in the
last few years. In 1864, George Perkins Marsh
published his now classic Man and Nature: Or,
Physical Geography as Modified by Human Ac-
tions, in which he developed the thesis that it was
the duty of each generation to use the environment
in a way that did not impair the natural endow-
ment of future generations. Or, as Thomas Jeffer-
son expressed it in a letter to James Madison,
"The earth belongs always to the living generation.
They may manage it then, and what proceeds from
it, as they please during their usufruct."
The tenure of successive occupants of Earth is
brief. But, with care, the tenure of mankind may
be long. And to end with a cautionary word—
from Joseph Wood Krutch, preeminently a natur-
alist and a man of letters, in his warning to the
spring peepers, "Don't forget we are all in this
together"—a message at once simple and very
complicated.
Ruth A. Hussey
Editor
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Bibliography of
Selected
Reading
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Anderson, Walt, editor. Politics and Environment:
A Reader in Ecological Crisis. 1970. Goodyear
Publishing Co., Pacific Palisades, Calif. (362 pp.,
$8.45).
This is an intellectual grab bag with something
for everyone concerned about the environment
and the measure of man and his society. Some
30 essays, written by scientists and publicists rep-
resenting a diversity of disciplines, are marshalled
under six major categories.
Though the viewpoints presented are various,
central to all is recognition of the interrelated
problems created by this century's unprecedented
technological expansion, coupled with the expo-
nential growth of the American population and
economy. The ecological consequences of this
enormous growth on man, and this immense
utilization of natural resources are analysed in
their endless manifestations—physical, biological,
sociological, economic, and—in the end—political.
The argument here is that the time is long-past
for piecemeal solutions to individual ecological
disasters and the time has come for a national, and
ultimately an international commitment to a policy
of environmental control.
Most of these essays have been published in
popular and scholarly periodicals or as chapters
in books; no one of them provides a final solution,
but pertinent questions are raised.
Bausiun, Howard T., editor. Science for Society:
A bibliography (3rd Edition). 1973. American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
Washington, D.C. (92 pp., $1).
This bibliography prepared by the AAAS's
Commission on Science Education is designed
for both teachers and students of secondary
schools and colleges, and for lay groups concerned
with the social problems of scientific and tech-
nological advances. .Listings are grouped under:
Reference; Science, Technology, Society; Re-
sources and the Environment Education; Health;
Conflict and Population. The citations are about
evenly divided between books and periodical lit-
erature, and the range of selection is extremely
wide.
Brooks, Paul, The House of Life. 1972. Houghton
Mifflin Co., Boston (350 pp., $8.95).
Rachel Carson would have been pleased by
this testament to her work. Miss Carson, who
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died in 1964, was an intensely private person, so
this is an intellectual and literary biography rather
than a personal one. The focus is on the five
books published between 1941 and 1965, Under
the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, The Edge of
the Sea, Silent Spring, and The Sense of Wonder,
and on major periodical articles, unpublished
manuscripts, interviews, and correspondence. Since
there are generous excerpts from all these sources,
this is both an excellent introduction to her work,
and a poignant recollection for those who have
long admired her life and writing. Special atten-
tion is given to the genesis, the writing and the
violent reaction to Silent Spring, her most famous
and controversial book. Mr. Brooks believes that
Miss Carson's work provided the same kind of
excitement for environmentalists that Einstein's
did for physicists and Darwin's for biologists.
Chisolm, Anne. Philosophers of the Earth: Con-
versations with Ecologists. 1972. E. P. Dutton &
Co., Inc., New York (201 pp., $8.95).
This is a layman's guide to ecological thinking
as practiced by leading scientists, activists and
publicists in the United States, Great Britain, and
Europe. It is based on lengthy interviews with
16 men, among them Lewis Mumford, Rene
Dubos, Kenneth Boulding, Sir Frank Fraser
Darling, Charles Elton, Barry Commoner, Donald
Kuenen, Paul Ehrlich, Norman Moore, and Jean
Dorst. Although their individual disciplines differ
and their styles range from a strict concentration
on field studies to the wide-ranging populariza-
tions of the ecological crisis, they share a common
concern that man's actions are impinging more
and more on the biosphere, and that the time is
now for a critical assessment of the consequences.
Of singular interest is the author's tracing of the
development of each man's career and his ideology.
Cole, H. S. D.; Freeman, C.; Jahada, M.; Pavitt, K.,
editors. Models of Doom: A Critique of Limits to
Growth. 1973. Universe Books, New York (244
pp., $2.95).
This book by 13 Sussex University scientists
attacks the arguments of Dennis Meadows and his
collaborators at MIT in Limits To Growth (see
page 13). The Sussex scientists argue that the
MIT group's methods, assumptions, data, and
predictions are faulty, that their world model has
a built-in Malthusian bias and does not reflect
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reality. They charge that a major limitation to the
MIT approach is that it excludes politics, social
structure, and human needs and desires. They
believe that changing social and political values
will significantly affect exponential growth, that the
collapse of the world?s ecosphere which the
Meadows' group postulates, is needlessly alarmist,
and that his policy recommendations would be
impossible to implement.
Daly, Herman, editor. Toward a Steady-State
Economy. 1973. W. H. Freeman & Co., San Fran-
cisco, Calif. (332 pp., $8.95 cloth, $3.95 paper).
Increasingly the debate of growth vs. non-
growth occupies center stage in economic and
political colloquies. These essays argue that un-
controlled growth is irrational, destructive of our
environmental patrimony, and will be ultimately
fatal. The traditional view that growth is the pri-
mary measure of progress, is dismissed as an obso-
lete myth. Evolution towards an economic system
with rational consumption of goods and resources
is advocated. Contemporary concern about the
energy "crisis" gives pertinency to Mr. Daly's
contention that today the energy industry is ab-
sorbing an ever-increasing capital investment, but
that its relative productivity is diminishing and its
percentage of jobs in the economy is dropping.
Thus, more growth means relatively fewer jobs.
Going beyond economics, Mr. Daly proposes that
we develop methods of income distribution inde-
pendent of the "income-through-jobs" link.
Dasmann, R. F.; Milton, John P.; Freeman, P. H.
Ecological Principles for Economic Development.
1973. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., London, New
York (252 pp., $5).
This title was commissioned jointly by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature &
Natural Resources (IUCN), Merges, Switzerland,
and the Conservation Foundation, Washington,
D.C. It is written from the ecologist's point of
view for those concerned with development, either
at a national level or in connection with the aid
programs of the international agencies and private
foundations.
Properly implemented, the authors believe the
objectives of conservation and development should
coincide if the long-term well-being of the human
race is given equal consideration with man's im-
mediate needs. Particular emphasis is on eco-
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systems currently subject to heavy development
pressures: for example, those known to be espe-
cially fragile, such as high mountains, coastal
areas, and islands. Diverse problems related to
dams, irrigation, and other major river-basin de-
velopment, power-plant siting, forestry, livestock
and agricultural projects, and the promotion of
tourism, are examined. The authors contend (and
cite past instances to show) that, if ecological
factors are excluded from the initial planning
stages for man-modifications of ecosystems, con-
sequences that ensue frequently are the reverse
of what was intended.
DiBlasio, Kathleen M., editor. Conservation Di-
rectory, 1973. The National Wildlife Federation,
Washington, D.C. (184pp., $2).
This directory is published as a Conservation
Education Service of the Federation. It provides
a detailed and extensive listing of organizations
and agencies and of public interest and citizen
groups concerned with environmental protection,
natural resource use, and the preservation and
management of wildlife.
Disch, Robert, editor. The Ecological Conscience:
Values For Survival. 1970. Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
Englewood Cliffs, N. J. (206 pp., $2.45).
This collection is based on the joint premises
that man-made changes in the biosphere threaten
the integrity of the life-support system essential
for human survival, and that the complexities of
the environmental crisis constitute the most seri-
ous problem facing man today. These problems are
delineated, and sometimes explained, by a galaxy
of experts and publicists of the scientific and the
social/economic disciplines. They range from
well-known ecologists like Barry Commoner, Paul
Ehrlich, Ian McHarg, and Aldo Leopold, to social
critics at large such as Lewis Mumford, Buck-
minster Fuller, Paul Goodman, and Lawrence
Slobodkin; the more esoteric ranges of the en-
vironmental conscience are explored by Thomas
Merton and Alan Watts.
Final conclusions are few hi this thoughtful
selection of readings. But, despite diversity of
viewpoints, there is general agreement that, though
science can reveal the depths of our present eco-
logical crises and point the way to some of the
technological correctives, only social/political
action can resolve it. It is one of the lessons of
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history, that every major advance in the techno-
logical competence of man has generated revolu-
tionary changes in all the primary structures of
society, and the values and attitudes held by each
of us.
Dorfman, Robert & Nancy S. Economics of the
Environment; Selected Readings. 1972. W. W.
Norton & Company, Inc., New York. (426 pp.,
$4.75).
Pollution is a by-product of regular economic
activities, and this volume offers a sophisticated
and scholarly examination of how the flow of-real
income can be maintained without abusing the
environment. It consists of 26 papers, written by
distinguished economists (among them Mishan,
Kneese, Coase, Leontief, Galbraith, Dales, Lands-
berg, and Friedman) divided into five groups. The
first group blocks out the problem by pointing
out the main economic issues. The second devel-
ops the concepts and methods of economic analy-
sis as they apply to environmental problems. The
third section presents the pros and cons of various
policies for environmental protection. The fourth
explores the reasons for the accelerating abuse of
the envkonment in the last 30 years, and the con-
cluding section explains the methods and difficul-
ties involved in making quantitative assessments
of environmental damage and costs of abating it.
Together these papers survey the key aspects
from an economic point of view. However, no
attempt is made to delineate an overall philosophy
of balancing economic costs against environmen-
tal degradation nor is a coherent program of
action recommended.
Freeman, A. M.; Haveman, R. H.; Kneese, A. V.
The Economics of Environmental Policy. 1973.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, London
(184pp., $4.45).
Here the achievement of environmental quality,
or its lack, is presented as an exercise in efficient
economic management of material resources. The
authors believe the competitive market system has
served reasonably well in parcelling out resources
to individual (and corporate) owners but fails to
work for "common property" resources, i.e., the
aLr, river systems, the oceans, federal lands and
their undeveloped resources, and other large eco-
logical systems. To correct this, they feel, environ-
mental resources must be given the same cost-
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accounting as anything else that goes into the
Gross National Product.
The economic rationale of existing and pro-
posed environmental legislation is examined and
found wanting. The authors state that to bring
environmental resources back into the economic
system so that they can be subject to the same
kinds of constraints that now influence the use of
other resources—land, labor, and capital—will
require major rethinking not only of our economic
imperatives, but of our political and legal estab-
lishments as well.
No firm conclusions are reached, but the au-
thors pose the hard and unresolved questions of
how much cleaning up of industrial pollutants is
actually going to be done, and who is going to
pay for it; essentially political decisions.
Gillette, Elizabeth R., editor. Action for Wilder-
ness (Sierra Club Battlebook series). 1972. Sierra
Club, San Francisco, Calif. (222 pp., $2.25).
This is a critical assessment of the intent and
the administration of the Wilderness Act passed
by Congress in 1964 to establish the "National
Wilderness Preservation System." (The Sierra
Club believes that the Act itself is flawed serious-
ly because it requires lengthy Congressional ap-
proval of every wilderness area added to the
System.) Individual chapters cite both successful
and failed campaigns for designating "wilderness
areas." Others explain the techniques for making
a wilderness study to develop a wilderness area
proposal and for organizing public support. Still
others are regional case studies. In the concluding
chapter, Russell E. Train (former Chairman of the
Council on Environmental Quality and now Ad-
ministrator of EPA) discusses President Nixon's
1971 proposal for the World Heritage Trust. Much
of the text is based on the proceedings of the
Sierra Club's Twelfth Biennial Wilderness Con-
ference (1971), and the views expressed are
strongly conservationist. It is an action manual
for the already converted.
Goldman, Marshall I. The Spoils of Progress: En-
vironmental Pollution in the Soviet Union. 1972.
The MIT Press, Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, Cambridge, Mass. (372 pp., $7.95).
This examination of environmental law and
practice in the USSR reveals that it has environ-
ment-related problems as extensive and severe as
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our own. While state ownership of production re-
sources eliminates some forms of environmental
disruption, it also exacerbates others, such as pol-
lution caused by the rapidity of industralization,
concentration of heavy industry over a small area,
or, since industry is state-owned, the identity of
interest between plant manager and local govern-
ment official because for both the criterion is in-
creased production. The USSR has a set of model
pollution-control laws, but the author says com-
pliance is indifferent and enforcement ranges from
weak to non-existent. As in America, rapid indus-
trialization and unrestrained growth are eroding
the Soviet environment. Ironically, as the author,
an economist and associate of the Russian Re-
search Center at Harvard, points out the Russians
now find themselves in the unenviable position
where they must increase their rate of growth
in order to generate enough resources to provide
for pollution control.
Graham, Frank, Jr. Man's Dominion: The Story
of Conservation in America. 1971. J. B. Lippin-
cott Co. Philadelphia (339 pp., $8.95).
Earth Day, 1970, was not without precedents;
the conservation movement has long been implicit
in American life. This book recounts the history
of that tradition from the 1880's to the passage of
the Wilderness Act of 1964.
Although today's environmentalists are primari-
ly concerned with man and his survival under the
duress of global pollution, the earlier conserva-
tionists usually had specialized concerns—preser-
vation of a particular place, a species, or a threat-
ened natural resource. Using whenever possible
their own words, Mr. Graham presents the thought
and activities of such early battlers as Guy Brad-
ley for the preservation of the Everglades, Gifford
Pinchot who persuaded President Theodore
Roosevelt that natural resources were not always
expendable, John Muir, the celebrant of the Si-
erra, Steve Mather who promoted national parks,
and many others. The intramural controversies
within the movement are detailed as well.
Hardin, Garrett. Exploring New Ethics for Sur-
vival: The Voyage of the Spaceship Beagle. 1972.
The Viking Press, New York (273 pp., $7.95;
$1.45 paper).
The author, professor of Human Ecology at the
University of California, is a prolific writer on the
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environment, and his essay, The Tragedy oj the
Commons, written in 1968, has become a classic.
This is a further elaboration of the thesis that
there are too many people making too many de-
mands on the common resources. It is cast as a
fable, the voyage of the Spaceship Beagle
searching for habitable planets in other solar sys-
tems some 200 years in the future.
The reason for this journey is that man had
exhausted the finite capacity of the earth to sup-
port his exorbitant numbers and demands. Unfor-
tunately, the ethical misconceptions and false
economies that made this planet uninhabitable con-
tinue within the space capsule, and soon the
plight of the voyagers is comparable to the one
they left behind. Within this science-fiction frame-
work, Mr. Hardin offers a wide-ranging exposi-
tion of the population-environmental-quality-of-
life complex. Believing there are no easy answers,
radical alternatives to our present life are advo-
cated.
Helfrich, Harold W. Agenda for Survival: The
Environmental Crisis—2. 1971. Yale University
Press., New Haven, Conn. (234 pp., $10).
This title—and a similar book that preceded it
(The Environmental Crisis: Men's Struggle to
Live With Himself)—is derived from the two-
year Yale School of Forestry symposium on "Is-
sues in the Environmental Crisis." The 14 papers
reflect the theoretical and practical work of well-
known authorities from such diverse fields as the
applied sciences, sociology and economics, indus-
try, conservation, architecture and urban design,
law, and politics. This holistic approach is used
because the total-environment theory of the "new
conservation" movement demands an overview of
man and his many activities that are determining
tomorrow's habitat.
Crucial issues explored include the need for
worldwide pollution control, the uses and abuses
of pesticides and other chemicals, the strategies for
the recovery of urban areas, the responsibility of
Congress and other government institutions, the
role of citizens groups, and cost accounting for the
achievement of a clean environment.
Inglis, D. R. Nuclear Energy—Its Physics and Its
Social Challenge. 1973. Addison-Wesley. Reading,
Mass. (395 pp., $4.95).
This is a heroic attempt by one scientist to
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cover all applications of nuclear energy, from in-
ternational weaponry to domestic power reactors.
It can be construed as a kind of environmental
impact statement on the increasing reliance on nu-
clear reactors in this present-day energy crisis. The
problems of power reactors are identified and
emphasis is placed on the potential for serious
accident and genetic damage. Dr. Inglis believes
that the danger from the fast breeder reactor is
underestimated by Washington experts. He rec-
ommends a moratorium on nuclear-power-plant-
reactor development and siting.
Consideration is given to nuclear weapons, their
mechanics, their accident potential, and their
stockpiling by the major world powers. The argu-
ment here is that U. S. policy should be to work
for an amplification of the "Limited Test Ban
Treaty of 1963" so that all nuclear explosions
would be banned by treaty. Although this book
has been written for the general public interested
in the environmental consequences of the increas-
ing reliance on nuclear energy, supplementary
chapters on scientific principles and background
material drawn chiefly from the disciplines of
chemistry and nuclear physics are included.
James, Bernard. The Death of Progress. 1973.
Alfred A. Knopf, New York (166 pp., $5.95).
A professor of anthropology, the author exam-
ines critically the cult of progress; its development
as a secular substitute for earlier religious-ethical
beliefs, its long reign in western society, and its
present dubiety. Belief in the supremacy of prog-
ress as the measure of a society's worth, he argues,
has resulted in the moral and ecological predica-
ment of our present world culture. Our progress
culture (the first to depend upon high technology)
is seen as destroying irreversibly the very planet
that sustains it. The author warns that unless
rational limitations are placed on present over-
reaching demands on resources and living space,
"natural correctives" (that we will term eco-
catastrophes) will impose then: own drastic ones.
Present courage to break with the idea that
endless materialistic advancement is not only good
but possible, and that what technology has abused
it wUl correct, is the first order of business in
Dr. James' scenario. Supportive evidence is drawn
primarily from the social philosophers rather than
the scientific disciplines.
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Kahn, Hennan & Bruce-Briggs, B. Things To
Come: Thinking About the 70's & 80's. 1972. The
Hudson Institute. The MacMillan Co., New York
(262 pp., $6.95).
By inclination every environmentalist is a "fu-
turist" in one way or another. Mr. Kahn is one of
the best known of bold speculators about the
future shape of our society. This book overlaps
and continues the themes of his famous book, The
Year 2000 (1967). While the earlier book was
concerned with long-range prospects, this looks at
the short and middle-range prospects of mankind.
Although the societal (and value) scenarios and
technological forecastings are multiple and diverse,
central to all is the belief that it is necessary and
possible to study the future even though the fu-
ture does not yet exist.
One chapter, "The 1985 Technological Crisis—
The Social Effects of Technology." covers many
issues but makes three major points: (1) It is
possible that many different technologies will
break down simultaneously; (2) many crises are
of a greater magnitude than those coped with in
the past; and (3) because both pollution and tech-
nology tend to grow expotentially, we often do
not know about problems until they are critical
and there is little time to prevent damage. Both
the authors are eminent in the socio-economic
and historical disciplines but in a sense this is an
"organizational" book: The product of The
Hudson Institute's on-going study (begun in the
mid-sixties) of the future of the U. S. and the
world.
Leavitt, Helen. Superhighway—Superhoax. 1970.
Doubleday & Co., New York (324 pp., $6.95).
This is a thoroughly documented book by a
long-tune critic of the Federal Interstate Highway
System. The author disputes the claims of the
"highway lobby" that America's continued sur-
vival and well-being depend on the extent of its
freeways. While acceeding to the need for a na-
tional network of good, high-speed roads, she
views the present system as a perversion of scale
and- priorities. She examines interests with a stake
hi the preservation of the current system (the
automobile manufacturers, oil, rubber, cement
companies, and the construction industry! among
them), and the institutional means by which they
preserve it. Also discussed with detailed case his-
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tories are the penalties paid by the majority—
urban congestion, suburban blight, polluted air,
and fragmented communities.
Mrs. Leavitt argues that, until freeways are
treated by planners as a single aspect of a bal-
anced transportation system, and the Highway
Trust Fund is opened to permit the development
of urban transportation needs, we will remain
trapped by the consequences of a concept that
has proven counterproductive of its professed end.
Lewis, Richard S. The Nuclear-Power Rebellion.
1972. The Viking Press, Inc., New York (313 pp.,
$8.95).
Essentially this is an account of growing citi-
zens' concern about, and organization against the
atomic industrial establishment. With the prolifer-
ation of nuclear power installations, there is
mounting local anxiety about the long-term radi-
ation effects and the accident hazards posed by
nuclear power plants scheduled for nearby con-
struction. The author, a long-time science journal-
ist and presently editor of "Science and Public
Affairs: the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists," criti-
cizes the Atomic Energy Commission for its con-
flict-of-interest role as both promoter and regu-
lator of atomic energy and its alliance with industry
and privately-owned utilities. Documented are
AEC's shifting relationships with environmental-
ists and others concerned about our growing re-
liance on a "hazardous" technology and the sci-
entific establishment's internal controversies about
AEC's safety and health standards, its issuance
of plant licenses, its technical and industrial pro-
cedures, and the little-publicized accidents and
near-accidents in atomic plants.
Lewis, Richard S. editor. The Environmental
Revolution (A Science and Public Affairs Book).
1973. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Sci-
ence, Chicago (164 pp., $3.50).
This volume presents many of the ideas and
viewpoints that have appeared in "Science and
Public Affairs," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scien-
tists, in the last four years. Although reflective of
the multi-disciplines of the physical, the biologi-
cal, and the applied sciences, the unifying concern
is long-term human survival. This bounty of in-
tellectual fare is organized under five major cate-
gories—Statements of Concern, Our Endangered
World, Manipulating the Environment, Energy
11
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and the Environment, Suggestions and Remedies.
All the contributors are distinguished.
McHale, John. The Ecological Context. 1970.
George Braziller, Inc., New York (188 pp.,
$7.95).
The author, director of the Center for Tntegra-
tive Studies in the State University of New York
at Binghamton, offers a sophisticated and techni-
cal treatment of the consequences and implica-
tions of man's interaction with the environment.
Focusing primarily on the "life-support" systems
of the physical environment—energy and mate-
rials—the discussion revolves around the inquiry:
What are the physical operational parameters for
the planet—the ecological or housekeeping rules
that govern human occupancy? Included are phys-
ical limits and contraints in the overall ecosystem,
relevant human (biological) limits, and irrepara-
ble resource limits. Through graphic documents,
charts, depiction of ecological systems and cycles,
and verbal description and analysis, the author
establishes the "state of the art" in ecological
terms, and furnishes a good foundation for en-
vironmental planning. A "selected reading" list
includes many titles on specific technical aspects
of the environment.
Maddox, John. The Doomsday Syndrome. 1972.
McGraw-Hill Co., New York (291 pp., $2.95).
This is another entry in the controversy about
growth, its possible limits, and the future. Mr.
Maddox is the editor of Nature, the prestigious
British journal of science, and this book was writ-
ten primarily to contravene the widely publicized
"Blueprint for Survival" (Ecologist, January
1972). That article argued that the world cannot
sustain continuous expansion much longer and
proposed a carefully controlled program of growth.
To Mr. Maddox, many contemporary scientists,
politicians, and other critics active in the environ-
mental movement are false prophets of doom.
Optimistic about the present and the future, he
marshals evidence to show that the environment
has .been treated more badly in the past than
would now be permissible, that the extinction of
some wildlife species, though regrettable, poses
no warning for human survival, and that the scale
of man's disruption of the ecosphere is puny com-
pared to the dimensions of natural phenomena.
The Malthusian projection of catastrophe by over
12
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population will be averted, he believes, because the
improved standard of living that accompanies in-
dustrialization, will in itself, lower the fertility
rate of developing nations.
Meadows, Donella H. and Dennis L.; Randers,
Jorgen; and Behrens, William V. The Limits to
Growth. 1972. Universe Books, New York (207
pp., $1.25 paper).
The assumption that growth is inevitable, neces-
sary, and desirable, long persuasive in Western
thinking, has recently, come under critical attack.
This book, like the earlier British study, A Blue-
print for Survival, examines the interrelationships
of basic factors that determine growth—popula-
tion, agricultural production, natural resources, in-
dustrial production, and pollution. It concludes
that if population, pollution, and resource con-
sumption continue to increase rapidly, conditions
could become so disastrous that a sharp drop in
population and living standards would result
around mid-next century. The study, done by a
research team at Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, was commissioned by The Club of Rome
(a prestigious international group set-up in 1968
by the Italian economist and industrialist Dr.
Aurelio Peccei). Computer simulations on a glo-
bal scale were used to predict the effects of future
interaction of the "survival factors." Although
some of the assumptions, and, consequently, some
of the conclusions have been criticized as unreal-
istic and "alarmist," it is virtually the only study
that deals with growth problems far out on the
space-time graph.
Metzger, H. Peter. The Atomic Establishment.
1972. Simon and Schuster, New York (318 pp.,
$8.95).
This is a muckraking critique of the Atomic
Energy Commission (AEC) and its legislative
overseer, the Joint Committee on Atomic Ener-
gy. The author believes that instead of the intended
adversary relationship, the latter has become the
apologist for the AEC which operates essentially
without review or restraint. Mr. Metzger, a bio-
chemist, charges that the AEC has pursued in-
appropriate technological adventures, has become
a secretive agency, and has been less concerned
with public safety than with the vigorous promo-
tion of nuclear power. The author seeks to pro-
mote public questioning of present nuclear reactor
13
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construction, and of AEC's behavior in other
areas. Among them are nuclear weapons acquisi-
tion and testing programs, effects of radioactive
fallout, uranium mine radon, waste storage irregu-
larities, and a range of derelict "atomic gadgets."
Montague, Katherine and Peter. Mercury (Sierra
Club Battlebook Series). 1971. Sierra Club, San
Francisco, Calif. (158 pp., $2.25).
This book discusses the pervasiveness of mer-
cury in the environment and its known and sus-
pected biological effects on man. The enormous
amount of mercury, casually dumped into the en-
vironment, has produced many public health
questions but no reassuring answers. Case his-
tories involving toxic damage to the living and the
unborn are cited. Federal agencies (among them
the USDA, Interior, HEW) are criticized for
their past failure to set strict standards and con-
trols on the discharge of mercury from industrial
and agricultural sources, and for failing to de-
velop sensitive monitoring procedures to detect
mercury in air and water. The authors believe
that the dangers of mercury pollution are so great
that an accountability system for mercury (and
other persistent toxic substances) is needed. The
appendices include major industrial uses of mer-
cury, a State-by-State pollution survey, and a
selected bibliography.
Neilands, J. B.; Orians, Gordon H.; Pfeiffer,
£. W.; Yennema, Alje; Westing, Arthur H. Har-
vest of Death. 1972. The Free Press, Division of
the MacMillan Co., New York (304 pp., $10).
The 1968 convention of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science established
a "Scientists Committee on Chemical and Bio-
logical Warfare," to assess U. S. policy and prac-
tice in Southeast Asia. This book is the examina-
tion by five scientists (botanist, biochemist, zoolo-
gists) of the military uses of chemical agents
against the flora, fauna, and the population of
that region. The scientists' concern is legitimate
here, since agents used, i.e., herbicides, for one,
are derived from basic discoveries of science.
Whether the complex ecosystem of Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Laos will recover, and when, the
authors believe is a matter of scientific specula-
lation. An assessment of the effects of defoliation
on plant and animal life require long-term, in-
tensive studies.
14
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Passell, Peter and Ross, Leonard. The Retreat
from Riches: Affluence and Its Enemies. 1971.
The Viking Press, New York (185 pp., $6.95).
Economics has moved onto center stage as the
controversy grows not only over whether a high
consumption society is compatible with a healthy
ecology, but, and perhaps more importantly, who
pays for industrial growth and its consequent
pollution.
The authors, two Columbia University profes-
sors, examine the axioms of growth and anti-
growth, and come out, resoundingly, for growth.
Economic growth, they claim, is the best and per-
haps the only way to cure America's environ-
mental, sociological, and economic ills. It need
not degrade the environment, since pollution re-
sults from a perverse system of incentives to in-
dustry. If industrial firms were forced to pay for
their abuses, poisoning the air and fouling the
water, management would acquire technologies .to
clean up polluting sources.
Mr. Passell and Mr. Ross question projections
used in Limits to Growth (see page 13). Their
answer to the "natural-limit" to growth theory
(i.e., all resources are finite) is that most new
technologies and scientific breakthroughs will
provide substitutes for scarce materials, produce
others by recycling, and unlock new sources of
energy infinitely.
Reilly, William D., editor. The Use of Land: A
Citizens' Policy Guide to Urban Growth. 1973.
Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York (318 pp.,
$3.95).
"The Task Force on Land and Urban Growth"
was created by the Citizens' Advisory Committee
on Environmental Quality in the summer of 1972.
Chaired by Laurance S. Rockefeller, its members
were chosen from government, business, and aca-
demia. Their report offers a realistic appraisal of
what can be done in the foreseeable future to
influence the development and redevelopment of
cities, suburbs, and remote areas, to achieve a
balance between the forces of conservation and
the urgencies of growth. An even-handed assess-
ment is given. The study is based on careful analy-
sis of major and recent land use reports, exami-
nation of State'and national legislation, enacted
and pending, and comprehensive field studies of
Florida, New York, Colorado, and California.
Although the report reflects a variety of present
15
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discontents, the authors believe that changes in
planning and control can be achieved, and will
result in a qualitatively different America. Recom-
mendations are made for enactment and imple-
mentation of national land-use policy, and legisla-
tion providing Federal recognition, guidance and
financial assistance to States that undertake the
reform of their land-use laws and institutions.
Ridgeway, James. The Last Play: The Struggle
to Monopolize the World's Energy Resources.
1973. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York (446
PP., $10).
The thesis here is that the energy industry is
dominated by an international cartel of giant com-
panies, most of them located in the United States,
whose intent is to monopolize (and exhaust) the
world's energy resources for corporate profits. A
"citizens" guide to the major energy institutions
provides organizational profiles and histories of
over 40 corporations, the resources they control,
how they operate, to whom they sell, and the
cohesive interlocking relationships that control
them. Mr. Ridgeway, a former contributing editor
of The New Republic, and author of two earlier
books on ecology and corporations, argues that
the politics of the energy trusts are destructive not
only in their wasteful exploitation of natural re-
sources, but in their contribution to the current
"energy crisis" psychology. The author proposes
a scheme to alleviate the energy crisis that would
require the expropriation of this Nation's energy
resources by "democratic processes" and the dis-
mantling of the current apparatus through which
the energy cartels operate. The arguments offered
are controversial; the documentation cited is
impressive.
Rocks, Lawence and Runyon, Richard P. The
Energy Crisis. 1972. Crown Publishers, Inc., New
York (189pp., $2.95).
Written in 1972, a year before threats of ener-
gy shortages became dramatic, this book argues
with great urgency, that the most profound issue
we face is an impending power shortage. The
authors believe energy capabilities and their con-
sequences will supercede all other environmental,
ecdnomic, and political issues before this decade
has passed.
Contemporary energy sources (oil, gas, coal,
and the atom), estimates of their probable dates
16
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of exhaustion, and the consequent affect on our
standard of living are analyzed. Alternative power
systems are surveyed.
In comparing the energy situation hi various
nations, the authors find the USSR the only sur-
viving superstate; China an energy pygmy; Can-
ada relatively strong; Japan the most vulnerable
of nations; and Western Europe with energy
needs more pressing than those of the United
States. And until a self-sufficient synthetic fuel
capacity or fusion power is developed, the authors
believe the Middle East will hold oil-needing
America, Western Europe, and Japan in thrall.
Rosenbaum, Walter A. The Politics of Environ-
mental Concern. 1973. Praeger Publishers, New
York (298 pp., $3.95),
This is a political scientist's assessment of en-
vironmental concern as an increasingly persuasive
factor in deciding questions of public policy. Few
policy matters before governmental bodies now
seem immune from environmentalists, who have
identified "battle fronts," where political action
is imperative. Concurrently, industry has begun to
invest substantial capital and to show the stirrings
of environmental sensibilities.
Mr. Rosenbaum believes that the Environmen-
tal Era in American politics is here. He argues
for the development of a comprehensive, long-
range planning process that will reflect environ-
mental necessities at all major decision-making
levels, both private and public, rather than the
current incremental approach. He details the in-
terplay between various and competing interests
and the role of the Council on Environmental
Quality and EPA.
Major credit is given to organized environmen-
tal groups for mobilizing public discontent with
environmental degradation, for proselytizing to
increase the political strength of these public in-
terests, and for bringing sustained pressure on
government and the Congress to remedy or pre-
vent ecological ills. However, there is substantial
agreement among environmentalists that the Fed-
eral Government must become the Nation's com-
prehensive planner; must establish priorities for
environmental protection, must calculate and cre-
ate the "trade-offs" to be made, and must plan
resource use and conservation several generations
ahead.
17
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Sarnoff, Paul. The New York Times Encyclopedic
Dictionary of the Environment. 1971. Quadrangle
Books, New York, Chicago (351 pp., $10).
To think about and understand the environ-
ment involves an amalgam of information from
a diversity of fields—agronomy, biology, botany,
chemistry, engineering, geology, geography, medi-
cine, metrology, oceanography, physics and atomic
physics, zoology, business administration, eco-
nomics, political science, public health, and others
as well. Each of these has a jargon of its own.
This reference work is: first, a dictionary that pro-
vides understandable definitions of environmental
terms; and secondly, an encyclopedia that ex-
plains and illustrates scientific concepts, tech-
nological problems and solutions, causes and ef-
fects of environmental degradation, and the state-
of-the-art of pollution control. Mr. Sarnoff's work
is illustrated with photographs, drawings, dia-
grams, and understandable data-tables. The alpha-
betical arrangement of terms makes specific refer-
ence easy, but for the reader with time, perusal
straight through from A to Z is an education.
Simon, Anne W. No Island Is An Island: The
Ordeal of An Island. 1973. Doubleday & Co.,
Inc., Garden City, N. Y. (250 pp., $8.95).
In part, this is an unabashed celebration of
"one of the Nation's more blessed outposts" and
its beaches, cliffs, dunes, moors, marshes, and
ponds. It is also a clinical examination of the
land-use controversy, focused here on a 100-
square-mile island off the coast of Massachusetts.
On Martha's Vineyard, in microcosm, the Ameri-
can dilemma is laid out plainly, how should land
be used?
Mrs. Simon (a long-time Vineyard property-
owner) presents it all: the many faceted struggle
of developers vs. environmentalists, summer resi-
dents vs. day-trippers vs. islanders, township au-
thority vs. State and Federal government, land-
owners vs. regulators. Much of the book is or-
ganized around three questions: what is the cost
of growth in terms of the natural amenities; how
should growth be directed; and should further
growth be permitted within the fragile ecosystem
of an island.
The author concludes that if Martha's Vine-
yard is to be saved from haphazard development,
it (and the neighboring Nantucket and the Eliza-
beth Islands) must become a part of a regional
18
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development in which the Federal presence is an
active partner. Mrs. Simon believes that time is
running out for her beloved Vineyard, and for
most islands off both the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts, unless ecologically sound regional land-
use policies are imposed.
Small, George L. The Blue Whale. 1971. Colum-
bia University Press, New York, London (248
pp., $9.95).
The blue whale is the largest now-living crea-
ture and perhaps the biggest that has ever graced
the earth (some cetologists believe that whales
have existed for 50 million years). They have
been hunted with such rapacity and improvidence
that there is very real concern that the blue whale
(and other cetaceans) may soon become extinct.
It is to this biological disaster, and the evolution
of the modern whaling industry that has made it
likely, that Dr. Small (professor of Geography,
City University of New York) addresses himself.
The whaling policies of various countries are de-
tailed and contrasted; ranging from Norway's ex-
ercise of restrictive control over its whalers, to
Japan's consistent flouting of even the most rudi-
mentary conservation practices. Fortunately,
Amercan activities have been negligible for many
years and ceased entirely in 1971. The failure of
the International Whaling Commission to restrain
the excessive slaughter of whales is treated in de-
tail. The author argues that if all cetacean life is
not to be destroyed, the traditional concept of
"freedom of the seas" must be put aside and sole
authority to harvest whales must be given to an
international body, perhaps under the U.N. This
book is more than a natural history of the whale
and a historical account of the whaling industry
and its economics. It poses hard questions; what
is the nature of a species—man—that knowingly
and without good reason exterminates another?
When will modern man learn that he is but one
form of life among a multitude of other forms,
each of which is in some way related to and de-
pendent on the others?
Stacks, John F. Stripping (Sierra Club Battlebook
Series). 1972. San Francisco, Calif. ( 140 pp.,
$2.25).
The basic question raised is whether strip min-
ing of coal is an economically and environmental-
ly sensible way to meet the Nation's energy needs.
19
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The answer given is an unequivocal "no," and the
why is explored in chapters that describe the
doomsday landscapes and acid-polluted streams
left in the wake of giant machines; the careless
dispossession of people; and the coincidence of
the development of new and vast earth-moving
technologies with the accelerating demand for
cheap coal that makes strip mining so very profit-
able. It pays handsomely, the author points out,
because the final costs of production (the en-
vironmental and social damages involved) are
not borne by the coal strippers and the major
energy consumers, but randomly by the public.
The ineffectuality of State laws in regulating
stripping and enforcing reclamation, the lack of
a strong Federal regulatory program, the equivo-
cal role of the Department of Interior in its leas-
ing of Federal land and water rights, and the
sometimes cynical ploy of industry in advertising
idyllic scenes of reclamation are examined from
the conservationist's perspective.
Strong, Maurice F. Who Speaks for the Earth?
1973. W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York (171
pp., $6.95).
During the U.N. Conference on the Human En-
vironment (Stockholm, June 1972), The Inter-
national Institute for Environmental Affairs spon-
sored the Distinguished Lecture Series. Men and
women of international reputations were invited
to speak their minds, free of national interest or
political constraint. Each lecture was devoted to
a major environmental issue, including some
which were treated only tangentially by the Con-
ference. This is a collection of those lectures.
In the initial lecture, Barbara Ward presents
the conceptual and intellectual framework for the
Conference, putting the complexities of the hu-
man environment in a broad social, political and
moral context and in historical perspective. Rene
Dubos believes that as we enter the global phase
of social evolution each of us will recognize two
countries, one's own and the planet Earth. Thor
Heyerdahl pleads the vulnerability of the oceans
and man's terrible abuse of them with toxic pol-
lutants. Gunnar Mydral, warns that there are
limits to a growth whose component elements all
form an exponential curve, and of the hard choices
involved in reconciling the disparate needs of the
developed and the developing countries. Carmen
Miro interprets the interrelations between popu-
20
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lation variables and other social and economic
factors. Lord Zuckerman argues that science and
technology are not despoilers of the environment
but that all future environmental improvement
depends upon the wise application of- scientific
and technological progress. In contrast, Aurelio
Peccei, more pessimistically is haunted by the
vision of six or seven billion people crowding the
globe by the year 2000 or thereabouts, and the
problem of settling them and providing for their
needs. All seven lectures, diverse as they are, are
informed by a humane concern for the predica-
ment of man.
Thibeau, C. E.; Taliaferror, P. W.; editors. Direc-
tory of Environmental Information Sources. 1972.
The National Foundation for Environmental Con-
trol, Inc., Boston (457 pp., $25).
This reference work identifies and describes
major organizations, both governmental and pri-
vate, that are sources of reliable information on
the environment. Executive departments and in-
dependent agencies of the Federal Government
and legislative committees of the Congress are
listed with descriptive material on their functions
and responsibilities, and major personnel are
identified. In the private sector, information
sources are grouped as citizens organizations, pro-
fessional, occupational and trade associations,
with details of membership, primary interests and
purposes, and officers. Comparable information
is given on educational institutions with signifi-
cant study programs on the environment. Addi-
tional information sources include bibliographies,
other directories, conference and symposium pro-
ceedings, documents, and reports. Indices and
topical cross references are provided.
It is a guide for all those concerned with the
application of political, social, and technical ef-
forts for the betterment of the environment.
Toffler, Alvin, editor. The Futurists. 1972. Ran-
dom House, New York (322 pp., $3.95).
Twenty-two essays, written by men and women
from nine different countries, represent the multi-
ple viewpoints current in the futurist movement.
Mr. Toffler defines "futurists" as a growing school
of social critics and planners, philosophers, scien-
tists, and environmentalists concerned with the
alternatives facing man as "the human race col-
lides with an onrushing future." Some of the
21
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essays focus on possible futures, others on proba-
ble ones, and still others on preferable futures.
Implicit to all is the belief that we can foresee some
of the alternatives and reach judgment as to where
they will lead us if adopted.
The editor attempts no synthesis of views pre-
sented or hard conclusion about the future.
Among the contributors are Margaret Mead, Ken-
neth Boulding, Buckminster Fuller, Erich Jantsch,
Arthur Clarke, Herman Kahn, Paul Ehrich, Ar-
thur Waskow, Daniel Bell, John McHale, and
Marshall McLuhan.
Vayda, Andrew P., editor. Environment and Cul-
tural Behavior: Ecological Studies in Cultural An-
thropology. 1969. American Museum Source-
books in Anthropology, Natural History Press,
Garden City, N. Y. (485 pp., $4.50).
The purpose of the 23 anthropological studies
collected here is to make cultural behavior in-
telligible by relating it to the material world in
which it develops or occurs. The selection of
articles is characterized by diversity in the demo-
graphic and geographic areas, types or levels of
economy, and the variety of adaptive behavior
described.
This book ranges in discussion from second
millenium agricultural practices through the pot-
latch system of certain North American Indians
to the intrusion of smog as part of the ecosystem
hi Los Angeles. Dr. Vayda is professor of An-
thropology at Columbia University. Most of the
articles have been published in scholarly journals,
and bibliographies follow each chapter.
Ward, Barbara and Dubos, Rene. Only One
World: The Care and Maintenance of a Small
Planet. 1972. W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., New
York (225 pp., $6).
Although not an official document, this report
was commissioned by the Secretary-General of
the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment
to provide factual background and a conceptual
framework for the Conference. The result of a
unique experiment in international collaboration,
it represents the opinions of a committee of sci-
entific and intellectual leaders from 58 countries.
They provide an accomplished profile of the world
and of the sciences, technologies, and social insti-
tutions that are having an unprecedented effect on
the environment. The authors, one a renowned
political economist and the other a microbiolo-
22
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gist, impose balance and stylistic coherence on the
frequently contrasting views of the relationships
between man and his habitat. Analysis is made
of the two worlds that man inhabits, the biosphere
into which he is born, the technosphere of his
creation, and the critical imbalance between them.
Whitten, Rep. Jamie L. That We May Live. 1966.
D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., Princeton, N. J.,
Toronto, London (251 pp., $6.95).
The author, a long-time Congressman and now
chairman of the House of Representatives' Ap-
propriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, En-
vironmental and Consumer Protection, discusses
his concern over what he feels are unjustified
public fears of chemical pesticides. The public
alarm over pesticides and their use, he points out,
started with the unwarranted cranberry scare of
the 1950's and was greatly heightened in 1962
by the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring. Mr. Whitten became involved when these
events prompted requests to his subcommittee for
millions of dollars for further research on pesti-
cides and pest control. A result of this involve-
ment was Mr. Whitten's conviction that a defense
was needed of the pesticides' role in our environ-
ment. He became a defender.
The book amply demonstrates that pesticides
are to be credited with remarkable advances in
agriculture, with all the attendant benefits to con-
temporary man. Also emphasized are the tremen-
dous benefits pesticides have brought in public
health (control of disease-carrying agents), for-
estry, and household management.
The author addresses a number of controversial
issues regarding the effects of pesticides on hu-
mans, fish and wildlife, and other "non-targeted"
forms of life.
Who's Who in Ecology. 1973. Special Reports,
Inc., New York (291 pp., $50).
The result of two years of planning and re-
search, this directory gives biographical informa-
tion on scientists and members of the academic
world whose main focus is on ecology and its re-
lated disciplines. Included also are other indi-
viduals from politics, government, and public af-
fairs who have close personal involvement with,
or have made outstanding contributions to, the
improvement of the environment. This is the pre-
mier volume of a continuing series.
23
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Wood, Nancy. Clearcutting. 1971. Sierra Club,
San Francisco, New York (151 pp., $2.75).
This is another in the Sierra Club's Battlebook
Series, and its advocacy is explicit in the sub-
title, "The Deforestation of America." Its argu-
ment is that the U.S. Forest Service is involved
too often and too closely with the timber industry.
The industry believes clearcutting—total cutting
of all "harvestable trees" in any area—will en-
courage rapid growth of second, third and fourth
crops of trees.
Mrs. Wood argues that clearcutting is an eco-
logical disaster. In its wake, she contends, comes
land erosion, siltation and sedimentation of
streams, the end of wildlife, and the perversion
of verdant mountains to barren moon-scapes.
There is also scientific opinion that disruption of
age-old soil conditions in the forests could leave
the land barren in less than 200 years, and there-
fore unable to support merchantable saw-timber
for 5,000 or more years. A formidable prospect,
not only for the ecologist but for the economist
as well.
A major recommendation is that the Forest
Service be placed under new leadership, new prin-
ciples, and a new department—a Department of
Natural Resources. Other recommendations in-
clude imposition of immediate moratoriums on
clearcutting and timber exports, and the re-direc-
tion of forestry practices to conserve and perpetu-
ate the interdependent resources of trees, wild-
life, soil, water, and air.
World Health Organization. Health Hazards of
the Human Environment. 1972. World Health Or-
ganization, Geneva, Switzerland (387 pp., $11.25).
The World Health Organization, a U.N. affili-
ate representing the public health and medical
professions of over 130 countries, has compiled
this wide-ranging survey of environmental haz-
ards to human health. The human environment
is considered here as those external physical,
chemical, biological, and social influences that
have a significant effect on the health and well-
being of both the individual and the communities
of people. Discussion ranges from the poor sani-
tary conditions and communicable diseases that
plague developing countries, to the more indirect
physical and chemical factors and psycho-social
influences that effect economically advanced and
industrialized nations.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SELECTED READING
The following are brief reviews of titles in
EPA's first edition (1971) of An Environmental
Bibliography. This pamphlet is now out of print.
American Association for the Advancement of
Science. Science jor Society. 1971. Commission
on Science Education, (AAAS), Washington,
D. C. ($1; 10 for $7.50)—A bibliography on the
application of science and technology to human
problems with emphasis on environment and
population.
American Association of University Women. A
Resource Guide on Pollution Control. 1970.
Washington, D.C. ($1.25). Delineates major en-
vironmental problems, indicates the resources
available for correction and suggests citizen action
programs.
American Chemical Society. Cleaning Our En-
vironment. The Chemical Basis for Action. 1969
and Supplement. 1971. Washington, D.C. (Orig-
inal Report, $2.75, Supplement, $1). Report on
the current status of the science and technology
of environmental improvement which includes a
list of priority recommendations for action.
Brodine, Virginia. Environmental Workbooks.
1970-71. Scientists' Institute for Public Informa-
tion, New York (Single copy $1; set of eight
titles, $5). A series of workbooks on various
environmental problems designed for the con-
cerned citizen but written by- SIPI scientists.
Caldwell, Lynton Keith. Environment: A Chal-
lenge to Modern Society. Natural History Press.
1970. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, N.Y.
($7.95). An assessment of the new patterns of
individual and social action needed if man is to
contend with increasing environmental problems.
Carson, Rachel L. Silent Spring. 1962. Houghton
Mifflin Co., Boston ($5.95). Also, Fawcett Pub-
lication, Inc. ($.95). Focuses on the damage
done by massive use of chemicals to control pests.
Commoner, Barry. Science and Survival. 1966.
Viking Press, New York ($4.50; paperback
$1.35). Presents a case against the unbridled ap-
plication of science and technology to the ma-
nipulation of the environment and biological man.
Commoner, Barry. The Closing Circle; Man,
Nature & Technology. 1971. Alfred A. Knopf,
Inc., New York ($6.95). Discusses the environ-
mental crisis as the result of man's social mis-
management of the world's resources, and the
post-World War II development of a new and
destructive technology.
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Congressional Quarterly. Man's Control of the
Environment. 1970. Washington, D.C. ($4). A
general survey of the major fields of environmen-
tal pollution but with emphasis on legislation.
Cooley, Richard A. & Wandesforde-Smith, Geof-
frey. Congress and the Environment. 1970. Uni-
versity of Washington Press, Seattle, Wash.
($8.95). Examination of the public policy issues
inherent in efforts to improve the quality of the
environment, and a collection of case studies of
recent legislation.
Council on Environmental Quality: Report of the
Council on Environmental Quality. (1970, 71,
72.) U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing-
ton, D.C. ($1.75). The first, second and third
reports to the Congress on the state of the Na-
tion's environment.
Davies J. Clarence. The Politics of Pollution.
1970. Pegasus, Division of Western Publishing
Co., Inc., New York ($6). A discussion of the
political process and its role hi the shaping of
the Nation's environment.
DeBell, Garett. editor. The Environmental Hand-
book. 1970. Ballantine Books, Inc., New York
($.95). Prepared for the first national environ-
mental teach-in, this handbook focuses on major
problems and suggests programs for community
action.
Dorst, Jean. Before Nature Dies. 1970. Houghton
Mifflin Co., New York ($8.95). (Transl. from
the French.) Examines the impact that man has
had on wildlife throughout the world and his be-
lated efforts to correct the damage.
Dnbos, Rene. So Human an Animal. 1969.
Charles Scribner's, Totowa, N.J. ($6.95; paper-
back $2.25). A continuation of earlier explora-
tions into man's relation to his natural environ-
ment and his adaption to the new environments
created by scientific technology.
Enrich, Paul R. The Population Bomb. Sierra
Club/Ballantine Book, Inc., New York ($.95).
Assessment of the impact of unbridled population
increase upon a finite environment.
Esposito, John C. Vanishing Air. 1970. Grossman
Publishers, Inc. Order from: Viking Press, New
York ($7.95 hard cover; $.95 paper). A Ralph
Nader study group report on air pollution.
Fanning, Odom. Opportunities in Environmental
Careers. 1971. Universal Publishing and Distrib-
uting Corp., New York ($5.75). Discusses disci-
plines which will be required in the next decade
to solve problems of the environment.
Fortune Magazine. The Environment: A National
Mission for the Seventies. 'Perennial Library,
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1970. Order from: Harper & Row, Scranton, Pa.
($1.25). A reprint of 13 articles devoted to the
environment which were first published in For-
tune magazine.
Graham, Frank, Jr. Since Silent Spring. 1970.
Houghton Mifflm Co., New York ($6.95). A
tribute to the late Rachel Carson and a case his-
tory of the continued controversy over the use of
pesticides.
Guggisberg, C. A. W. Men and Wildlife. 1970.
Arco Publishing Co., Inc., New York ($12.50).
An examination of the historical impact man has
had on wildlife, his sporadic efforts to conserve
and protect endangered species, and a survey of
national parks and nature reserves throughout the
world.
Hardin, Garret, introduction by. Science, Conflict
& Society: Readings from Scientific American.
1969. W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Calif.
($10 hard, $5.75 paper). Anthology of articles,
papers, reviews and letters to the editor basic to
an understanding of man and the complexities of
his environment.
Hawkins, Mary E. Vital View of the Environ-
ment. 1971. National Science Teachers Associa-
tion, Washington, D.C. ($1.50). Brief presenta-
tion of the major environmental concepts on
which educational programs can be built.
Jarett, Henry, editor. Environmental Quality in a
Growing Economy. 1966. The Johns Hopkins
Press, Baltimore, Md. ($1.95). Essays by 12
distinguished scholars who examine the current
state of economic research into the problems of
the environment and assess the public attitudes
that affect social, political and private action.
Johnson, Huey D. editor. No Deposit—No Re-
turn: Man & His Environment, A View Toward
Survival. 1970. Addison-Wesley Co., Inc., Read-
ing, Mass. ($4.95 paper). An edited anthology
of papers presented at the 13th National Confer-
ence for UNESCO.
Krutch, Joseph Wood. The Measure of Man.
1954. Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., New York ($1.95
paper). An appraisal of the unique quality of
man and his interaction with his environment.
Love, Sam. editor. Earth Tool Kit: A Field Man-
ual for Environmental Action. 1971. Pocket
Books, New York ($1.25). Prepared by the or-
ganizers of Earth Day, a presentation of grass
roots community action to combat the degradation
of the environment.
McHarg, Ian L. Design With Nature. Published
for the American Museum of Natural History
Press, New York ($19.95; paper $5.95). A re-
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capitulation of the pollution and destruction that
has gone on and of what must be done to create
a balances and self-renewing environment.
McPhee, John. Encounters With the Archdruid.
1971. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York ($6.95).
A three-part series reprinted from- The New
Yorker on David Brower (long the voice of the
Sierra Club but now the leader of Friends of the
Earth).
Mumford, Lewis. The Myth of the Machine: The
Pentagon of Power. 1970. Harcourt, Brace &
World, Inc., New York ($12.95). A persuasive
argument that man can direct the environment
within which he lives and shape technological
change to his and society's advantage, rather than
endure the consequences of unbridled growth.
Nader, Ralph, introduction by. Water Wasteland.
Zwick, David & Benstock, Marcy. 1971. Gross-
man Publishers, New York ($7.95). Nader Task
Force Report on Water Pollution.
Nash, Roderick. The American Environment:
Readings in the History of Conservation. 1968.
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Mass.
($2.95 paper). A collection of 36 essays (1832
to 1967) providing a historical perspective on
conservation and its changing concepts.
National Geographic Society. As We Live and
Breathe: The Challenge of Our Environment.
1971. National Geographic Society, Washington,
D.C. ($4.25 plus 400 postage). Explores the
reticulated web of life that sustains man, assesses
the ecological damage that society has created,
and, presents the programs, technological and
individual, that are applicable now to reverse the
trend toward environmental disaster.
National Wildlife Federation. Conservation Direc-
tory, 1971, Washington, D.C. ($1.50). A direc-
tory of organizations, agencies and individuals
(private and public) concerned with natural re-
source use and management and the preservation
of wildlife.
Nicholson, M. The Environmental Revolution.
1970. McGraw-Hill Co., New York ($10). A
scientific approach to the vast ecological changes
that have occurred in recent years.
Ottinger, Berry Ann. What Every Woman Should
Know—And Do—About Pollution. 1970. BP
Press, New York ($1.95). An examination of
the. "mess" society has created in the global
household with practical suggestions on how to
reverse environmental degradation.
President's Council on Recreation and Natural
Beauty. From Sea to Shining Sea: A Report on
the American Environment—Our N&tural Heri-
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tage. 1968. U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. ($2.50). Case histories on the
American environment which examine the past,
the present and the possible future environment of
the Nation.
Revelle, Roger and Hans Landsberg—editors.
America's Changing Environment. 1970. Hough-
ton Mifflin Co., New York ($6.95). A collection
of 19 papers which explores the causes, dimen-
sions and possible solutions for the distortions in
today's environment.
Saltonstall, Richard, Jr. Your Environment and
What You Can Do About It. 1970. Walker & Co.,
New York ($6.95). A review of environmental
problems with guidelines for citizens action pro-
grams.
Sanders, Howard and Josephs, Melvin. Chemistry
and the Environment. 1967. American Chemical
Society, Washington, D.C. ($5.00). An assess-
ment of the environment from the perspective
of chemistry's contribution to understanding
the solid earth, the oceans, the atmosphere.
Sax, Joseph L. Introduction by Senator George
McGovern. Defending the Environment. 1971.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York ($6.95). Dis-
cusses how to take environmental controversies
into court, use of established procedures and the
creative application of basic legal principles.
Scientific American. The Biosphere. 1970. W. H.
Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Calif. Volume 223,
#3, September 1970 ($1). This is the full text
and the original illustrations from Scientific Amer-
ican's annual single issue.
Scientific American. Man and the Ecosphere.
1971. W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Calif.
($5.75). A collection that analyses the state of
the ecosphere and its interaction with man.
Shephard, Paul, editor. The Subversive Science:
Essays Toward on Ecology of Man. 1969.
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston ($5.95). A broad
perspective on man and his relation to his en-
vironment by a group of noted scientists.
Wilson, Carroll L. Man's Impact on the Global
Environment: Assessment & Recommendation for
Action. 1971. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
($3). A report from a conference of distinguished
scientists who examined the status of governmen-
tal and nongovernmental preparations for the 1972
U.N. Conference on the Human Environment.
Wilson, Thomas W., Jr. International Environ-
mental Action: A Global Survey. 1971. Dunellen,
Inc., New York ($12.50). An assessment of
worldwide response to the environmental crisis
from political, social, economic, and legal aspects.
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