Environmental

Pollution
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Today, pollution is occurring on a vast and unprece-
James Gustave Speth dented scale around the globe. Trends point in two omi-
President
nous directions: first, toward large and growing releases
World Resources Institute
of certain chemicals—principally from burning fossil fu-
els—that are now significantly altering the natural sys-
tems on a global scale; and second, toward steady in-
creases in the use and release to the environment of
innumerable biocidal products and toxic substances.
These shifts from the "sewage and soot" concerns of the
pre-World War II periods to vastly more serious con-
cerns pose formidable challenges for societies, both in-
dustrial and developing—challenges that modern pollu-
tion control laws address only partially. To address the
serious pollution challenges of decades ahead, several
large-scale social and technological transitions are need-
ed. Today's pollution is integrally related to economic
production, modern technology, life-styles, the sizes of
human and animal populations, and a host of other fac-
tors. It is unlikely to yield except to broad macrotransi-
tions that have multiple social benefits. These transi-
tions include shifting away from fossil fuels and waste-
intensive technologies, bringing our most sophisticated
science to bear, altering prices and other economic incen-
tives, perceiving pollution as transboundary and global,
and progressing to a stable world population.

R ollution has been around as long as humans have

organized societies and carried out economic activi-
ty, though it has varied enormously in time, type,
and seriousness. In an amusing scene in a recent
popular movie, Captain Kirk awakes from an early
attempt at time-travel and, gazing out, sees that his
starship is, as hoped, orbiting Earth. "Earth," he
says, "but when?" To which Mr. Spock, checking his
instrument panel, replies, "Judging from the pollu-
tion content of the atmosphere, I believe we have ar-
rived at the latter half of the 20th century." And in-
deed they had. In fact, if good records were

262 Earth '88: Changing Geographic Perspectives