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Pollu tion-I
ndustrial Opportunity?
ver the past several years, the quality of our environment has been with ever-increasing frequency the object of conversation, investigation, investment, and political maneuvering. The problem is not new, obviously. It has been building in intensity ever since M a n began to turn the forces of Nature to his own purposes. But what is new-and implicitly responsible for the current significance of the problem-is the fact that M a n now has the capability to contaminate Nature faster than Nature can absorb and/or decontaminate. No matter how unpleasant the prospect, therefore, M a n can no longer continue to produce waste a t the current rate, or to permit to continue the social and economic value structures that make permitting waste more attractive than preventing it. During the past summer, the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics held several weeks of hearings on pollution abatement technology. It sought to find out specifically what areas of ignorance concerning disposition of wastes-gas, liquid, and solid-remain, and whether the primary barriers to restorative action are technological or sociological. The main thrust of testimony showed clearly that the problem is so complex that essentially all the national resources of science, technology, economics, and sociology must in some measure be called into play. For such marshaling of the national will, federal legislation is required. Reading between the lines of Congressional inquiry, one can sense that Congress is almost ready to enact that legislation and thereby to modify our social and economic value structures. Such a modification, however, need not be a trip into the unknown. Without excessive stretch of the imagination, one can visualize the evolution of our society toward a system that resembles, in terms of waste management, that which existed in the agricultural phase of our development. I n those days, little of the waste that was generated ended up contaminating the environment. Human and animal wastes became fertilizers. Ashes and fat were converted into soap. Leaves, grass, straw, and other finely divided plant wastes became mulch or compost. Sociologically, the producer of the waste was also the primary instrument for its consumption or conversion. Urbanization and industrialization have changed that. Congress has the power to change it back, to create the same sociological situation, on a different level of sophistication, from what we had in the early stages of our evolution. Even though such a society may not be achieved with ease or at low cost, it does suggest some possible industrial R & D objectives, both defensive and acquisitive. One senses that some products and systems now in general use may be outlawed some day solely on the basis of their pollutant properties. Others will spring up solely because they do not produce wastes or deal with other activities that cannot by themselves be made waste-free. I n the long sweep of history, rise and decline are common. The reasons for the rise and the reasons for the decline differ from era to era and case to case. But there is no reason to expect that Man-in particular, industrial R&D-cannot create conditions for change in the future that parallel in power those “natural” forces of the past.
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