In nature, no organic substance is synthesized unless there is provision for its degradation; recycling is enforced.

The environmental crisis is a signal of this approaching catastrophe.

It is simply economically impossible to require controls that even approach zero emissions.

No action is without its side effects.

Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.

Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.

The favorite statistic is that the U.S. contains 6 to 7% of the world population but consumes more than half the world's resources and is responsible for that fraction of the total environmental pollution. But this statistic hides another vital fact: that not everyone in the U.S. is so affluent.