Economic growth is not necessarily inimical to the better life, the natural surroundings, or the national 
environment. Through constructive accomplishment we must reassure those people who are wary of the effects 
of science and technology. 
Pollution 
Certainly no world problem has had more exposure in the press than that of pollution - pollution of the 
water, the air, and the land. 
Factory wastes and human sewage have been dumped in streams and rivers since the beginning of the 
industrial revolution two hundred years ago. This was not really done with malice aforethought. It was simply 
that as an optimistic people, we considered water an inexhaustible resource, an efficient heat sink, and a 
wondrously effective means of removing unwanted material. When industries were small and people were few 
this worked quite well. But now we find our rivers are made of sterner stuff than water - such stuff as cadmium 
and coliform bacteria and polychloride biphenyls. Walking on the water is no longer considered much of a 
trick along the Rhine; a man overboard in the Hudson will likely rot to death before he can drown; and 
photographic film dipped in the Cuyahoga will be efficiently developed. Overloaded streams and rivers are 
dumping their foul burdens into the lakes and seas so that concentrations of petroleum, heavy metals, plastics, 
pesticides, and other contaminants are encountered throughout the oceans. 
About the best that can be said about water pollution is that it is recognized, in most cases the solution 
is known, and energy, money and goodwill may again make drowning practicable. 
The products of combustion have created a worldwide problem of air pollution. The sight of belching 
smokestacks, which a few years back was looked upon as a sure sign of progress -- to the point that they were 
actually featured on company letterheads -- is now anathema to even the youngest child. Steel mills, power 
plants, oil refineries -- once a source of great national pride -- are now something we would like to hide, even 
while we recognize our dependence upon their products. 
The internal combustion automobile--once considered so desirable that “two cars in every garage’ was 
an acceptable and successful political slogan--has become a Frankenstein monster destroying its owner. 
Exhaust emissions create a poisonous, photo-chemical smog which can be seen from an airplane as a brown 
pall extending hundreds of miles from major cities. Along the east coast we have just experienced a week-long 
“air polution alert’’ in which elderly and infirm people were advised to remain indoors, and everyone was 
requested to use public transportation rather than personal automobiles. Public transportation has, incidental- 
ly, almost disappeared under pressure of expanding personal automobile use. There is legitimate cause to 
wonder if what was good for General Motors was really good for the country. 
The solutions to air pollution problems are illusive. We can precipitate the solids from smoke stacks, but 
it takes energy to do it, and power plants are a major producer of air pollution. Furthermore, we are then left 
with solid wastes to dispose of. How? By flushing them down the rivers? We can reduce automotive emissions 
by catalytic converters, but the cost of the car increases, and its fuel efficiency decreases. My 1955 Pontiac gave 
me 18 miles per gallon; my 1971 Plymouth gives me 9. Is that progress? 
Nobody is against clean air--the biggest polluters run television commercials about oil refineries 
disguised as bird sanctuaries. But when corporations solve the problems of pollution, the consumer must 
inevitably pay the bill. 
The ability of the land to absorb solid wastes is also a cause of concern. A large part of the problem results 
from the fact that since World War II technology has replaced many natural products and processes with 
man-made substances and methods. While population has grown by 42 per cent, production of nonreturnable 
bottles has gone up by 53,000 per cent, and production of synthetic fibers by 6,000 per cent. Nitrogen fertilizers 
(up 1000 per cent) have reduced harvested acreage but have caused nitrogen to leach from the soil and pollute 
rivers. Permanent pesticides like DDT increase their concentration as they cycle through the food chain again 
and again. DDT has probably saved 1,000,000 lives, but is that good or bad? The automobile is again a major 
contributor to the rape of the land. Highways unroll ribbons of concrete and asphalt across cultivated lands 
and cut through cities dividing neighborhoods, and decreasing adjacent property values with air and noise 
pollution. Sprawling interchanges paraphrase Coleridge’s poem: 
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