Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Conclusion: Is There Hope?
It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so
slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves
at all.
—George Gissing,
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft I
, 1903
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.
It's not.
—Dr. Seuss,
The Lorax
, 1971
The key concept for everything that lives, plant or animal, is sustain-
ability: satisfying daily needs without compromising the future of their
descendants. An important distinction in this regard is the difference
between needs and wants. Only a tiny percentage of Americans have real
needs—those for adequate food, shelter, and clothing. However, they
have an infi nitely expanding and insatiable number of wants: new cars,
fashionable clothes, expensive jewelry, trips to exotic locations, larger
houses, and tastier food in pricier restaurants, to name a few. The futile
attempt to satisfy these wants is the cause, either directly or indirectly,
of most environmental problems: water, air, and soil pollution; climate
change; energy shortages; garbage accumulation; and other, less notice-
able things such as family breakups and an apparently increased rate of
species extinctions.
So, How Are We Doing?
In an ideal world, environmental problems are easily and rapidly solved.
Initially scientists uncover an unforeseen threat to humanity. They make
their discovery known to the nation's leaders, the public contacts their
representatives, and these policymakers implement incentives and regula-
tions. The technology sector responds by devising and disseminating
