EDITORIAL
Spring refurbishes the world each year Brighter days of clean and wholesome earth, sea, and sky are here, marred at times by environmental problems we have started to solve
H
eralding the coming of scientific spring each year, the American Chemical Society and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology call their members and friends together for national meetings. These two national meetings are not the only ones held in the spring, but they stand out because of their size, scope, and complexity. Both meetings are wide-ranging and difficult to categorize. At best the participants can be said to follow a course of integrated independence-that is, they may all be working toward the common good, but they are doing so according to the dictates of their own interests, those of their sponsors, or a workable combination of the two. This year, as in years past, each of these meetings devoted considerable time to discussions of environmental matters. During the next few months, ES&T will publish many of the papers given. And this year, as has been increasingly true in recent years, each of the meetings appeared more complex as participants sought to study ever more of the multitude of problems facing the environmental specialists. This trend can only continue as pressures grow, each year, for someone to do something considerably more effective about the environment.
Because matters of environmental management are of such major concern throughout the U.S. these days, coverage of these meetings is fast and widespread. But it is often superficial. The alarmist, predicting all sorts of environmental catastrophies, and the Pollyanna, claiming a variety of environmental management panaceas, get much of the early-blooming attention, Also, there are those who would have us do something-anything-now, and those who would have us do nothing-to wait until we have learned considerably more about the matter than we could possibly need to know. Such extremism in action and statements, at either end of the scale, can do much to misdirect the activities and support that a wellintentioned populace should be encouraging and contributing to a massive environmental clean-up. With the coming of spring each year, the trees begin to green up and the earth becomes verdant and sweet smelling. The promise and fulfillment of spring are evident each year in the renewal of life and the restoration of the world, both physically and esthetically. We are aware of many of the environmental problems that face us; we are aware of ways to solve them, at least in part. Today is already a brighter day, and there are brighter days ahead.
Volume 2, Number 5, May 1968 317
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