Our assaults on the ecosystem are so powerful, so numerous, so finely interconnected, that although the damage they do is clear, it is very difficult to discover how it was done. By which weapon? In whose hand? Are we driving the ecosphere to destruction simply by our growing numbers? By our greedy accumulation of wealth? Or are the machines which we have built to gain this wealth-the magnificent technology that now feeds us out of neat packages, that clothes us in man-made fibers, that surrounds us with new chemical creations-at fault?
Barry CommonerTechnologists practice faith too; 'Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.'
Barry CommonerIn general, any productive activity which introduces substances foreign to the natural environment runs a considerable risk of polluting it.
Barry Commoner