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The article comments on the points made by professor William A. Koelsch in his paper "The Historical Geography of Harlan Barrows." This commentary has three main purposes to support the point made by Koelsch, in his informative and thought provoking paper. To suggest that Koelsch has tried too hard to absolve environmentalist Harlan Barrows of any leanings whatsoever towards environmentalism, since in several cases these leanings have sounder support than Koelsch supposes and to suggest that historical geography in general might benefit more, not less, from attention to environmental influences.

This paper reviews the sequence of events leading to the historic first use of the Federal Air Pollution injunctive authority in central Alabama, including Jefferson County (Birmingham), as well as the subsequent development and implementation of local episode abatement plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of parallels exist between the development of social indicators and of simulation models. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of these parallels and to place them in their respective places vis-a-vis decisions dealing with complex and changing environmental problems. After delineating the role of social indicators and simulation in environmental decision-making, the paper closes with a number of areas where caution and concern are especially important. The principal conclusion is that decision-making for complex environmental problems must be synthetic in nature, and must ultimately rely on well functioning democratic political processes, since political decisions are inherently synthetic. We must avoid simple decisions dictated by technical expediency (unless of course the body politic prefers such decision models and is made aware of alternative technical opinions). In an arena of open political debate and sound technical discussion, the paper concludes that environmental decisions can be taken that respect both the ecosystem and its human inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper includes a discussion of the nature of environmental impact assessment. Then the role of environmental assessment as an instrument for controlling economic growth is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the instrument are discussed in detail, including the problem of bias from the incentive structure built into the bureaucracy. An appendix shows some of the problems in the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act which instituted the environmental assessment requirement.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of planning the construction and expansion of a sewage treatment facility operating on a river. It is argued that any model for solution of the problem must take explicit account of the many uncertainties with which the problem is fraught. An expository model of this kind is constructed and its solution discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is comprehensive health planning? How should it be done? Who should be involved and how? The three papers presented here concern themselves with these and related questions in relation to environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise that man resides within a bounded and closed natural environment, an environment with relatively fixed dimensions, has been discussed in many forms for at least three centuries. The idea of a "spaceship earth" has recently caught the imagination and interest of both economists and environmentalists in particular, and the public in general. A basic tenet of this viewpoint is that whatever has been produced, consumed, not recycled and discarded within the sealed" spaceship earth" is still here and will continue to be. Of course, energy dispersion may be offset by nuclear fusion or breeder reactors so that what was previously discarded may be completely reused without seriously impinging on the earth's natural energy reservoirs. Economically and technically-feasible extraterrestrial transportation systems, destruction of wastes by symmetrical anti-wastes, or increased efficiencies in solar energy conversion also may become realities. However, such energy-augmenting technological changes, at least at this time, appear to be in the very distant future. What is of pressing current importance, if we accept the premise of a nearly sealed capsule earth with relatively fixed dimensions in terms of mass-energy and waste assimilative capability, is how rapidly economic growth should proceed. Rather than attempting to dissect the "spaceship earth" premises regarding limited energy reserves and assimilative capability, we take these as given in this paper. We then construct several simple paradigms of an economy confronted with a bounded, closed natural environment and then we analyze how such an economy should optimally produce and consume over time. The next section of the paper deals with an extremely simple model of waste generation, based on the conservation of matter-energy principle, and with the consumption behaviour of the economy's inhabitants assumed to be predetermined. In subsequent sections, the model is generalized to an optimal control problem where consumption and waste generation are allowed to be regulated, and an attempt is made to integrate the non-mutually exclusive processes of resource extraction and waste generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the need to bring environmental health into the framework of comprehensive health planning. The author discusses how this can be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of environmental programs and planning authority among a wide variety of agencies with varying interests creates a fragmented situation as well as an administrative dilemma. This problem and what was done about it are discussed in this paper, which indicates the need to develop more such approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents reports of research discussed at recent conferences related to environmental studies. Report that, at a conference on rural environmental engineering held in Warren, Vermont, land treatment of wastewaters was discussed; Report that, at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America held in Los Angeles, California, the understanding and control of noise was the dominant theme; Report that, at a conference on pollution criteria for estuaries held at Southampton University in Southampton, Great Britain, the effects of water pollution on fish and humans were discussed.

The article introduces several papers on the role of the biologist in the preservation of the biotic environment, presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences and published in the current issue.

Are recycling and reclamation of waste materials significant ways of dealing with the problem of waste disposal? This review of the subject puts this important issue in perspective and suggests a national approach as well as some reasons why it is not used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the application of microeconomic model to regional environmental quality management. In a very simple and schematic view, the regional environmental quality problem has three major components: the human economy, in which goods are produced and consumed and residuals generated, and from which residuals are discharged, perhaps after change in form or amount; the natural world in which the discharged residuals interact with each other and with resident chemicals and living organisms and are diluted, transported and transformed. and the resulting levels of environmental quality--in the form of ambient residuals concentrations, species populations, and aesthetic effects. Macroeconomic models in this field are those which concentrate on the individual dischargers of residuals and on the costs to those firms, households, and municipalities of reducing or modifying the mix of their discharges. The regional model that will be constructed is similar to the earlier models designed for optimization subject to ambient quality standards. The framework is, in principle, capable of dealing with various types of environmental models from the simplest linear transformation functions to simulation models of ecological systems.

The article reports on the study which assesses the utilization of conservation administration as a social science approach to address the several problems affecting the environment. It provides an evaluation on how animal behavior and ecology contribute to the development of problems affecting the environment, including anthropology, geography and political science. A discussion of the case study conducted at the Rocky Mountain National Park is also presented. It reveals that conservation administration plays significant role in identifying the various factors that will help promote the conservation of natural resources.

The article comments on the need to teach conservation in elementary schools in the U.S. Schools have become very much aware of the need for teaching conservation but instructional policies deter them from pursuing the right goals. It is true that teachers teach students terminologies about environmental conservation but there is not a carry-over into everyday life. In the article, various means of conserving the natural resources are presented including the suggestion to implement a gasoline conservation program.

This section presents the author's opinion on an article about natural resources constraints to economic growth published in the May 1973 issue of the American Economic Review. The first assumption is that the opposition with which we are concerned is that between economic growth as a purely quantitative concept and natural resources as a constraining factor. This rules out concern with population growth per se, and therefore with living space as a constraint. If population is controlled, as it eventually will be, the living space constraint either disappears or is greatly ameliorated. The second assumption is that the scope of the inquiry must initially be global, not local, regional, or national. Man-made barriers to mobility and trade often block efforts to escape from localized constraints, but, because they are manmade, either they can be removed or their consequences eliminated. It is undoubtedly correct that if we are eventually to be faced with the onset of classical diminishing returns, the absolute rise in real unit costs will be preceded by a relative rise in the cost of extractive outputs, and that this in turn will be a consequence of our inability to develop resource-saving technologies and substitutions. There is reason to hope that a combination of preventive and recycling measures may reduce the flow of negative output sufficiently to prevent the continued buildup of pollution in its many forms, but these measures are not without their costs.

The article reports on the involvement of the public in environmental policy development in the U.S. Federal legislation has required the public to get involved in the development of policy about programs affecting the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act of the Congress has directed federal agencies to develop procedures to insure public information and understanding. A publication by the Environmental Protection Agency states that participation is most effective when concerned individuals share their efforts in environmental actions.

The article offers information on the relativity of arms control and the protection of the environment. Warfare is identified to be detrimental to the environment. In the preparation for war, nonrenewable resources are consumed. Various pollutants are created during manufacture and testing of war materials. These materials offer adverse effect to the environment and other natural resources. The United States for example has continually made use of technologically sophisticated and expensive weaponry. It is proposed that the simplest way to prevent ecological damage through military exercises is to prevent war itself.

The article presents an examination of transportation energy use and conservation. The reasons considered for examining transportation energy consumption are presented, which include the fact that transportation of people and good consumes one-fourth of the total U.S. energy budget. Other reasons are the facts that world oil reserves are limited, U.S. transportation is dependent on oil as a fuel, use of petroleum present environmental problems, and that transportation contributes to urban congestion, inefficient land use and noise.

The article presents a speech by Robert S. McNamara, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, delivered at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden on June 5-16, 1972. He examines the relationship of economic development with preservation of environment.

The article discusses the environmental hazards brought about by the electricity generating plants that give-off sulfur oxide pollutants in the U.S. The author enumerates the effects on the environment of sulfur oxide pollutants and gives proposals for its prevention. He agrees with the conservationists that the increase in electric power consumption should be curtailed, but as an engineer, he hopes for the development of more efficient uses of electricity. When planning for power generating plants, management must look for areas presently served by electric utilities and adopt planning concepts that will help meet the electric power requirements and minimize adverse effects on the environment.

The article focuses on the ill effects of nuclear energy pollution to the environment and the health hazards it brings to the people in the U.S. Nuclear energy has advantages useful for the growth of the economy but the destruction it has caused on the environment must be considered. In this article the authors, Patricia Lindop, professor of Radiation Biology and Joseph Rotblat, professor of Physics, both from the University of London, have established in their study that radiation pollution destroys ecology not only in the national level but includes the international level. Both have challenged the government to create a study combining all experts globally, urging them to establish relevant data on the health hazards brought about by nuclear pollution.

The article presents an analysis regarding the fundamental concepts which consider many factors on the damages caused by air pollution. There are several categories in which the air pollution can cause damages such as the agriculture, livestock, land values, social affects, property and material such as bridges, towers and fences which will become rusted because of the pollution. However, the most undoubtedly important of the several categories is the human health which involves different kinds of illnesses. An observation was conducted regarding the regulations against air pollution, and it is stated that the regulations could also lead to economic losses. The estimation on the damages caused by the air pollution is concluded to be far higher in monetary terms and of health.

This article focuses on the environmental effect of nuclear weapons, thermal, and mass fire. The larger yield weapons raise the possibility of high altitude detonations that would maximize fire effects. It is becoming increasingly clear that a major concern of any effective civil defense program must be to find means of minimizing thermal radiation and fire effects. Among the best known examples of large scale fires are London in 1666, Moscow in 1812, Chicago in 1871, and San Francisco in 1906. It is noted that even before the introduction of atomic weapons at the end of World War II, total devastation had been inflicted a number of times by conventional fire attacks on cities in Germany and Japan.

The article focuses on the rational policy of air conservation which is urgently needed to apportion the limited air supply to the various users and to develop administrative machinery to apply such policies. The possibility of more widespread use of radioactive processes as a prime energy source raises a serious problem of air conservation, since in order to use nuclear power plants economically and safely. Air conditioning reflects man's ability to determine what a good air supply may be and to provide it in bounded volumes such as buildings. It is possible to think, plan, measure and act upon the existence of air sheds in somewhat the same way as learning to consider entire river basins as units in the planning and conservation of water resources.

A supranational government of the deep oceans is an urgent need of our times--exploitation of its resources, commercial pollution, and use for military ends must be controlled. This article describes proposals for such a governing body (particularly the Borgese Model and variations of it) and their legislative, executive and judicial aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Sixth Semiannual Report of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The report is devoted to a detailed and readable description of the research in biology and medicine which is supported by AEC. It is inferred that the commission is charged by law with exclusive control of materials, equipment and processes which are unique and not yet understood. The commission has every reason to assume extensive responsibilities for further development and study of atomic energy. The Medical Board of Review, composed of scientists and educators, recommended that the commission should expand research on the biological effects of radiation, take primary responsibility for protecting health against atomic energy hazards and encourage circulation of scientific information.

The article discusses the significance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) in the struggle for man's survival. It explains that the extinction of the human race from this planet by environment pollution, ecological instability, psychological imbalance if not by nuclear holocaust has become the fundamental menace. These crises call for a reappraisal of the priorities of science as needed by man. UNESCO, a U.N. agency charged with promoting peace and the welfare of mankind through education, science and culture developed new mechanism conversant with a global vision of the problem include an international science foundation, an institute for the study of man and society, and international environmental agency and an international space agency.

This study determined the additive and interactive effects of different aspects of alienation on attitudes toward pollution control for residents of an Illinois community which was concerned with a sewage treatment issue. A sample of 218 community residents of voting age was obtained and administered questionnaires during May, 1971. Powerlessness and anomie, while not additive, were found to act interactively to explain opposition to pollution control. Furthermore, this relationship was characterized by a ‘saturation’ or diminishing return effect. Alienation produced negativism toward the issue up to a certain point, with a subsequent increase serving to lessen the issue opposition. The interaction effect was found to exist controlling for respondent socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the emergence of conservation areas in Great Britain and discusses its impact on the regional planning of the area. The three principal objectives of the conservation movement are mentioned. These goals are the preservation of aesthetically valuable architecture, buildings with historic interests and threatened biological species. It also discusses the different aspects of community conservation. Information about the current conservation policies and practices in Great Britain and the so-called flexible conservation policy is presented.

Focuses on an approach for the protection of the environment from industrial pollution. Emphasis on chemical process industries; Analysis of the factors affecting industrial activity; Examination of the economic repercussions of pollution control.

This article presents a reply from Jerome L. Stein to the comments made by Abba Lerner regarding the previous article published in this journal. Stein views that optimization requires that there be a uniform national price for pollution damage. However there will not be uniform effluent fees among localities: prices per unit of pollution will differ among localities. This distinction was not sufficiently clear in my article. On the other hand, Lerner would leave the localities in complete charge of pollution control; and there would not be a single price for pollution damage among localities.

Man's relationship to the natural environment and nature's influence upon human life are among the oldest topics of speculation. Until modern times the major reason for concern was the prospect of "diminishing returns." It was thought that population and economic growth would press against natural resource limits, and that economic welfare would fall to subsistence levels. !n modern times in developed nations the prospect of "diminishing returns" has been avoided. Population increase has abated to rates which promise stability in population numbers. Technology, capital accumulation, and improvements in labor force have yielded "increasing returns." Per capita output grows at 2 or 3 % per year. The modern concern is quality of environment and quality of life. The technology, industrialization and agglomeration which have yielded increasing returns of goods per capita have side effects. These are pollution and crowding, increased needs for public goods, expanded monopoly in the market places, and dilemmas of choice from affluence. The task for modem societies is to bend their enlarged technology and productive power to improving quality of environment and, more generally, quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses issues regarding protection of the biosphere, in line with the Soviet Union's efforts in the field of international relations toward environmental protection. Role of the biosphere from a geological standpoint; Effect of technical progress on the biosphere; Contribution of the rapid urbanization to industrial production.

Current ocean law negotiations reflect conflicts between two old and competing approaches: the view that the coastal state should control activities in any large adjacent ocean area, and the view that most of the ocean should be left open to the free use of all nations. Both approaches are laissez-faire, leave the distribution of benefits to arbitrary factors, and are based on national exclusivity. In the negotiations this conflict is exhibited in competing claims regarding navigation, mineral resources, fishing, environmental protection, and strategic uses. A possible resolution has emerged in the concept of the whole ocean as a common resource of humankind, according to which no individual state has a right to benefit from the ocean except pursuant to arrangements sanctioned by the community, and rights to benefit are determined not arbitrarily but by membership in the community. The regime now likeliest to be produced by such an approach includes (1) a narrow territorial sea and various navigation guarantees, (2) a wide coastal band coupling coastal state managerial functions with permanent international prerogatives, and (3) purely international management of the deep seabed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steps leading to development of the Environmental Protection Agency's effluent limitation guidelines for the textile industry are reviewed. Through a cooperative effort, the textile industry obtained the latest available information on the nature of its process effluent and on effective treatment technology. Industry and EPA scientists worked closely together to develop a responsible, workable solution. The textile industry has demonstrated responsible leadership that should set an example for other industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The glass industry uses millions of tons of raw materials per annum and is concerned essentially with high temperature melting processes. General pollutants include sulphur dioxide and particulate matter but do not appear to constitute a hazard to health. Manufacture of special glasses may cause emission of toxic substances such as lead and may be scheduled under the Alkali Act (U.K.). Allied industries such as pottery and clayware also involve high temperature processes. Auxiliary operations such as grinding and polishing of glass have liquid effluent problems. The policy of the glass industry is to co-operate with other industries which have common problems involved. Technical work on pollution requires special emphasis on methods of measurement and analysis, detailed studies of production processes, and the design of pollution control equipment.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a summary report of the Council on Environment of the American Public Health Association. The Council's responsibility and charge are discussed. The appointment of task forces in areas of environmental concern is being planned by the Council. Among the areas are the Operation Watchdog, Energy Requirements and Public Health, Noise Control, and Space or Land Use. Objectives of the task forces are also mentioned. Future plans and problems encountered by the Council are also discussed in the report.

This article presents a study regarding the productivity of a tropical forest and its relation to a world pattern of energy storage. The International Biological Programme aims to estimate existing and potential plant production in the key climatic regions of the world. Ecologists realized the significance of determining the productivity of natural ecosystems, even before this goal was formally proposed for the program. Consequently, there has been in increase in productivity studies in the ecology.

The article focuses on comprehensive health planning (CHP) regarding environmental problems in New Mexico. According to the author, the Environmental Plan was praised in the legislative finance committee report because environmental planners prevent data gap by using the available data and filled in the gaps by using a crude system of quantifying professional opinions. Meanwhile, CHP uses organizational energy to the point that they may discontinue their support for lack of concrete results. To prevent discontinuance of support, one should be action-oriented wherein one's energy is being used for problem solving and not on organizational or position maintenance.

The article focuses on catalytic comprehensive health planning (CHP) in relation to environmental problems. According to the author, catalytic CHP is a political process wherein constructive change and reform can be implemented. Moreover, a diagram of catalytic CHP is presented wherein it shows the consumers and providers that have several activities and programs directed to solve various environmental problems. Moreover, he mentions that it can be effective by developing and evaluating environmental policies before deciding on the constructive change and reform.

The imported fire ant entered the United States through the port of Mobile around the turn of the century. Within a span of approximately fifty years. it has become a serious economic pest, infesting an estimated 115,360,000 acres in the South. Farmers, urban residents, and animals are all affected by the ant's sting and high, hard crusted mounds. There is a strong demand from local inhabitants to eradicate the thoroughly acclimated and entrenched pest, but anti-insecticide groups and conservationists oppose the use of pesticides. Hence, in recent years, control and containment has been the USDA policy. It is anticipated that Mirex bait and a well-planned eradication program will bring relief and perhaps eradication within the next twelve to fifteen year. without harmful side effects in the nine infested southern states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the topics discussed at the conference sponsored by the Northumberland and Durham Naturalists' Trust is presented. The event highlighted remediation to help establish an informed public opinion regarding prevention and treatment of pollution and dereliction. Further, the event featured the role of an international agreement among countries to promote standards of pollution control.

The article investigates contemporary and changing component group patterns of land use. The authors aim to interpret the nature and significance of trends in landscape planning. In this context, potential changes in central areas arising from different aspects are discussed. Researchers examine the historical growth of cities, city centres and settlement pattern generally. These will be needed to elicit those factors of city growth and organization which explained present day patterns and determined central area activities.

The article presents information on social welfare and the human environmental crisis. The world environmental crisis has come suddenly and vividly into the consciousness of many members of the international social work community. Not that social workers have not been aware for years of some of the facts of the population explosion, the world food shortage, the outrages of racism and colonialism and their destructive impact on human life, and the ultimate lunacy of war and military technology as ways of dealing with human relations, and other problems.

On March 24, 1971, the United States Senate joined the House in rejecting an administration request for $134 million to continue work on two supersonic transport (SST) prototypes. Thus, in the view of most observers a program more than a decade in the making was abruptly terminated. Environmental issues notwithstanding, in the final analysis the SST's defeat was a rejection of its economics. The SST program has been viewed as a stepped decision, first to increase government involvement in the private sector in behalf of general economic growth; second, to support the aircraft manufacturing industry; and third, to build a supersonic transport. The third of these steps seems a decision made contrary to the perceived needs of the public in general and the airline industry in particular. Its proponents were so generally biased in favor of the manufacturing sector that it can be concluded that it was not at all a classic expression of social demand. It is suggested that this case is not atypical of transactions we have categorized as social demand, and that policy and analysis in this area should be re-examined accordingly. It is also considered, however, their serving the interests of does not necessarily diminish the effectiveness of phenomena such as the SST as stimulants to economic development supply rather than demand. More generally, it is suggested that optimizing considerations, in the microeconomic sense, may be transcended by activity in behalf of economic development, and that traditional private sector prerogatives may properly be subordinated to government involvement in pursuit of that goal.

This article describes one of the proposals most widely advocated by economists for the control of pollution and other environmental problems. The proposal seeks to minimize the use of direct controls and to provide effective encouragement to industry to take appropriate remedial action. Its basic approach is the imposition of effluent charges in the most general sense, the taxation of activities that contribute to environmental problems and remission of taxes on activities that help to remedy them. The method claims for itself a number of advantages, not the least among them being efficiency in the achievement of whatever goals are adopted in the area. Moreover, the program in question has another considerable virtue. Unlike most other measures that have been advocated for the purpose, it need not add to the financial burdens of the state and local governments. Given the tremendous and growing financial pressures to which the public sector of our economy finds itself subjected, it is not implausible that methods of the sort discussed here will be employed ever more frequently by harassed governments under constant pressure to do something about the environment, but in no position to devote large quantities of money for the purpose. Already at the federal level there is a bill calling for a system of effluent charges to protect our waterways, and U.S. President has advocated a tax on leaded gasolines. A number of states have just enacted related measures, and they are under consideration in many others.

The article looks into the role of Conservation 70's Inc. to the advancement of environmental conservation in Florida. The article presented highlights of the various events and programs initiated by the organization. The author pointed out that as the legislative session with the matters of environmental issues lengthened, more support for conservation appeared with the lawmakers, while the special interests plied their trade influence. Environmental policies have been successful at the end of the 1970 legislative session wherein forty-one conservation bills were passed by both the House and Senate.

The article suggests the need for integrating conservation education in school curriculum in the U.S. The predicted surge in population poses a great concern for the government to promote the conservation of natural resources. It is the job of school administrators and teachers to work with youth so that youth will become aware of the issue. Each school district should assign one interested person as a consultant in resource use and conservation. Conservation education must be closely tied to the community and to the community interests. This proximity provides a wonderful opportunity for the community itself to become involved in conservation and for the school to be closely tied to the community in assuring that the wealth of the community is not dissipated wantonly.