Part I. Aspects of environmental management--- A. Relationships among population growth, environmental deteriora- tion and the quality of life.... E. International aspects of environmental alteration.. F. The goals of enhancement and recycle.--. G. New approaches in government--. I. Environmental counselor__. Appendix: Representative legislation introduced in the 90th Congress... 17 CONGRESSIONAL WHITE PAPER ON A NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT PART I. ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 1 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 1 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 seated concern among the American people for a better environment. The quality of our surroundings is emerging as a major national social goal (p. 4).3 Secretary UDALL. One of the things that I take the most encouragement from is simply the growth of sentiment in the Congress, the number of conservationist Congressmen, the number of organizations, however they define themselves, that are interested in the city problem, that are interested in the total environment problem *** (p. 62). 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. It is clear that all segments of the world-all soils, waters, woods, mountains, plains, oceans, and ice-covered continents will be occupied and used by man. Not a single solitary piece of landscape will go untouched in the future and in fact not be used repeatedly for as long as man survives. Everything between soil and sky will be moved about, redistributed and degraded as man continues to exploit the surface of the planet. ***The population will grow until it reaches some equilibrium level.*** An alternate ultimate destiny is for an earth of half-starved, depressed billions gasping for air, depleted of eutropic water, struggling to avoid the constant presence of one another and in essence continuing life at a degraded subsistence level limited in numbers not by conscience but by consequence. A third possibility exists which is to maintain a reasonable quality for life by means of population control, rational management of ecosystems, and constructive exploitation of resources (p. 174). The issue of high population densities as a source of growing stresses in our society, with profound effects on health and safety, raised a number of comments. Senator Henry Jackson observed that the apparent cause-and-effect relation of congestion and violence should be a consideration in arriving at any decisions concerning what constitutes an optimum population density. Dr. Paul Weiss submitted the following caveat: A stress free environment offering maximum comfort and minimum challenge is not only not optimal but is detrimental. To be exposed to moderate stress is a means of keeping the human faculty for adapting to stress *** lacking the opportunity for such exercise, man loses that faculty and becomes a potential victim of any unforseen, but inevitable, stressful occurrences. The optimum environment consists of a broad band of conditions bounded by an upper limit far short of the stress limit and by a lower limit considerably above the ideal zone of zero stress. Within those margins of reasonable safety or tolerance, man must navigate his own responsibility (p. 224). Senator Clifford Hanson suggested that the Federal Government might well consider programs which would provide incentives and opportunities leading to a wider and more balanced dispersal of our people. Assistant Secretary John Baker (USDA) agreed and proposed the creation of new community centers as a matter of national environmental policy. Secretary Weaver commented that any Government policy which has to do with such dispersal must be based on the democratic principle of free choice-including for all of our people the alternatives of living in existing large population centers, suburbia, or new towns. B. Broadening the Scope of Cost Accounting Narrow utilitarian views governing the use of environmental resources were cited as the root of many conflicts and a major barrier to sound environmental management. 20-218-68-2 |