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Environment






Another kind of restraint looming over us is a set of outer limits on the capacity of the earth’s natural systems to withstand the impacts of certain human activities without unacceptable damage to the biosphere or to man him. We are only now beginning to look seriously at some of these questions and there is still a dangerous level of ignorance about them. We know that some human activities have reached scales that arc having dele­terious effects on ecological • systems. We are beginning to learn that some types of environmental effects can be irreparable and irreversible and that in some systems there are thresholds at which incremental impacts may " trigger" highly disproportiona­te damage.

Modern science is so inventive that it will probably succeed in providing mankind with technologies to compensate for the destruction of natural resources. But this alone will not correct the damage to the environment done by overpopulation and un­disciplined technology. Nor will it prevent the damage to physi­cal and mental health caused by rapid environmental changes. Suffice it to mention here that most types of disease are the expressions of man’s failure to adapt to his environment, and that adaptation will become increasingly difficult as air, water, and soil are altered more and more rapidly by the new ways of life.

The waste of natural resources, the threats to health, the anni­hilation of civilized sceneries and the destruction of the wilderness all constitute many different aspects of the environmental problem in the modern world, each with characteristics of its own. In the face of potentially serious breakdowns in specific geographic areas, with tragic consequences for large numbers of people, the ad hoc responses that have characterized our reactions to these environmental emergencies in the past can no longer be tolerated. In our own self-interest we should consider the creation of disaster-prevention programs on a global scale.

There must be a world-wide program to conserve scarce re­sources. The ethics of limitless abundance must give way to the ethics of scarcity and conservation. A rise in the cost of natural resources will provide incentives for the development of techno­logies and patterns of consumption that are less energy-intensive that those presently in use, on closed-system production methods, and on techniques for recycling.

We must evolve a strategy for global environmental securi­ty - a planetary policy to avoid disaster and provide a greater sense of direction in human affairs.






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