No Action Is Without Its Side Effects.

The Modern Assault On The Environment Began About 50 Years Ago, During And Immediately After World War Ii.

In Every Case, The Environmental Hazards Were Made Known Only By Independent Scientists, Who Were Often Bitterly Opposed By The Corporations Responsible For The Hazards.

As The Earth Spins Through Space, A View From Above The North Pole Would Encompass Most Of The Wealth Of The World - Most Of Its Food, Productive Machines, Doctors, Engineers And Teachers. A View From The Opposite Pole Would Encompass Most Of The World's Poor.

Our Assaults On The Ecosystem Are So Powerful, So Numerous, So Finely Interconnected, That Although The Damage They Do Is Clear, It Is Very Difficult To Discover How It Was Done. By Which Weapon? In Whose Hand? Are We Driving The Ecosphere To Destruction Simply By Our Growing Numbers? By Our Greedy Accumulation Of Wealth? Or Are The Machines Which We Have Built To Gain This Wealth-the Magnificent Technology That Now Feeds Us Out Of Neat Packages, That Clothes Us In Man-made Fibers, That Surrounds Us With New Chemical Creations-at Fault?

Perhaps The Simplest Example Is A Synthetic Plastic, Which Unlike Natural Materials, Is Not Degraded By Biological Decay. It Therefore Persists As Rubbish Or Is Burned-in Both Cases Causing Pollution. In The Same Way, A Substance Such As Ddt Or Lead, Which Plays No Role In The Chemistry Of Life And Interferes With The Actions Of Substances That Do, Is Bound To Cause Ecological Damage If Sufficiently Concentrated.