CONTENTS Page Part I. Aspects of environmental management. A. Relationships among population growth, environmental deteriora- E. International aspects of environmental alteration. F. The goals of enhancement and recycle.- G. New approaches in government__ Part II. Alternatives for congressional action. B. Joint resolution___. !!!!!!!!!! CONGRESSIONAL WHITE PAPER ON A NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT PART I. ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT The colloquium 1 focused on the evolving task the Congress faces in finding more adequate means to manage the quality of the American environment. In the recent past, a good deal of public interest in the environment has shifted from its preoccupation with the extraction of natural resources to the more compelling problems of deterioration in natural systems of air, land, and water. The essential policy issue of conflicting demands has become well recognized. Several social attitudes have become the action force in the movement for improved environmental policies and programs. One is the desire for esthetically attractive surroundings. Another is the recognition of the folly of excessive population densities. Still another is the mounting irritation, disgust, and discomfort (aside from actual economic loss) resulting from such anomalies as smoggy air and polluted streams and seashores. The broad public interest in the natural environment was succinctly defined by a report of the National Academy of Sciences thus: We live in a period of social and technological revolution in which man's ability to manipulate the processes of nature for his own economic and social purposes is increasing at a rate which his forebears would find frightening *** there is a continuing worldwide movement of population to the cities. The patterns of society are being rapidly rearranged, and new sets of aspirations, new evaluations of what constitutes a resource, and new requirements in both types and quantity of resources are resulting. The effects on man himself of the changes he has wrought in the balance of great natural forces*** are but dimly perceived and not at all well understood. * **It is evident that the more rapid the tempo of change is becoming, the more sensitive the whole system of resource supply must become in order to cope with the greater rapidity and severity with which inconsistencies, conflicts, and stress from independent innovations will arise. *** If divergent lines of progress are seen to give rise to ever-greater stresses and strains too fast to be resolved after they have risen and been perceived, then obviously the intelligent and rational thing to do is to learn to anticipate those untoward developments before they arise.2 Joint House-Senate Colloquium to Discuss a National Policy for the Environment. Hearings before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. Senate, and the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 90th Cong., 2d sess., July 17, 1968. 2 NAS-NRC Publications 1000 and 1000A (1962). The statements of participants in the colloquium itself are evidence that the issues of the human environment are important to a broad segment of society. Mr. ROCKEFELLER. *there is a strong and deep Secretary UDALL. One of the things that I take the most * The long-term quality of the environment is seen to be dependent on today's decisions. The means of relating the present to the future is not clear, however. Secretary UDALL. The real wealth of the country is the environment in the long run. We must reject any approach which inflates the value of today's satisfactions and heavily discounts tomorrow's resources (p. 14). Mr. ROCKEFELLER. *** we have not set down in clear terms what our goals are for the long-term future, (p. 5). If America is to create a carefully designed, healthful, and balanced environment, we must (1) find equitable ways of charging for environmental abuses within the traditional free-market economy; (2) obtain adequate ecological guidance on the character and impact of environmental change; (3) where corporate resource development does not preserve environmental values, then consider the extension of governmental controls in the larger public interest; (4) coordinate the Government agency activities, which share with industry the dominant influence in shaping our environment; and (5) establish judicial procedures so that the individual rights to a productive and highquality environment can be assured. These and other aspects of environmental management-discussed at the Colloquium and submitted in the form of letters or reports for inclusion in the record-are briefly highlighted below. A. Relationships Among Population Growth, Environmental Deterioration, and the Quality of Life In an exchange of views on this subject, Secretary Robert Weaver (HUD) pointed out that by 1980 there will be almost 240 million and by the year 2000 about 312 million people in the 48 contiguous States and the District of Columbia, if present projects are borne out. Secretary Stewart Udall (DI) argued that a reasonable adjustment between population growth and our finite resources is required for sound environmental management, while Assistant Secretary Philip Lee (DHEW) contended that we do not presently have the kind of information to determine what the ideal population for this country would be. Dr. David Gates submitted the following observations in the worldwide context: 3 Page nos. in parentheses following quotations refer to the hearing transcript, op. cit. |