ESSAY 2

An Environmental History of the World Humankind's changing role in the community of life

Second edition

J. Donald Hughes

I~ ~~o~!!;~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First edition published 2001 Second edition published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OXl 4 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2009 J. Donald Hughes

Typeset in ITC Galliard by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Hughes, J. Donald (Johnson Donald), 1932- An environmental history of the world: humankind's changing role in the community oflife / J. Donald

Hughes. p. cm. -- (Routledge studies in physical geography and environment)

"Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Human ecology--History. 2. Nature--Effect of human beings on--History. 3. Biotic communities-- History. I. Title.

GF13.H83 2009 304.2'8--dc22

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-48149-6 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-48150-2 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-88575-8 (ebk)

ISBN 10: 0-415-48149-X (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-415-48150-3 (pbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-88575-9 (ebk)

2008053780

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Modern environmental problems

ille Grand Canyon is in a region once noted for its clear air, but in my many visits to it over 1hc years - the first one in 1948 - I have noticed a grayish haze that increases in frequency ,ind turbidity. Photographs from space reveal one of' its sources: smog drifting eastward ,wrnss the desert from the Los Angeles basin, 640 km ( 400 mi) away. But there are other ~nurces even further away. Air over the Arctic Ocean has a layer of pollution that can be !1;1i;ed to Europe, Russia, China, Canada, and the United States. In the late twentieth !!intury, it became clear that environmental problems affect the whole Earth. In former 1,h,i;ades, it seemed to most people that problems affecting the natural environment were

Jih:(\lly caused, with local impacts. A city's industries and ttansport polluted its own air, ,Jnp;ging threatened a particular park or wilderness area, and sewage seemed a worry for those downstream in a single watershed. But in this period environmental impacts crossed tloundaries and became international or worldwide in scope. As the magnitude of the effects tif human actions increased, the size and number of the ecosystems affected by them )mm:ased. Radioactive particles, chlorine compounds that react with the ozone shield in the Jltr11tosphere, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and pollutants in the J,/i}lt spread worldwide and affected the largest of ecosystems, the biosphere itself. · • The images of rapid environmental destruction in the late twentieth century were numer- tnHli and information technology made possible a degree of accuracy in gathering them and ,jlH extent of dissemination that made an unprecedented impression on human conscious- )WiiS, The last half of the twentieth century saw a remarkable expansion of knowledge about 'l!il,',"WOrkings of the biosphere, but at the same time activities that damaged the biosphere ;iit1Iclerated faster than ever before. Although the period covered by this chapter is shorter tllim any of the previous ones, it is the one in which the most rapid impacts of humans were ' ttde on the Earth, including depletion of resources and impairment of natural systems of ¢ in the land, sea, and atmosphere. Investigation of the struc

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ture and dynamics of these immunities and the damage being done to them also reached a scale unmatched before. ,l:n, 1950, many of the Earth's ecosystems had been altered by human intervention, but by t}. end of the century, almost every ecosystem was either degraded or seriously threatened. HllJC were few corners of the globe without evidence of human presence and change

. .. d by humans. Antarctica was dotted with research stations that generated waste and ,jt~d to arrange for its disposal. Globules of oil and pieces of plastic foam floated throughout )'lit: oceans. Passing jet planes and their vapor trails were often visible in the sky from every in11n: of Earth. The pressure of hum~ numbers was pushing settlements into forests and ,~!'ll!JG!ands where natural functions once were dominant. In cities, suburbs, and in industrial • .. d agticultural zones, the works of humankind dominated the landscape. But humans are ~WI part of, and totally dependent upon, the natural systems of the Earth. This truth was

188 Modern environmental problems

often forgotten in legislatures and company board rooms, but it was none the less crucial. Every molecule of oxygen in the atmosphere breathed by humans was produced by the photosynthesis of plants on land and in the sea. Even in the late twentieth century, most food eaten by people on Earth was the product of agriculture, and the rest came from fishing, hunting, and gathering; no appreciable amount was synthetic, and even ifit were, it would have to have been processed from some natural raw material, such as petroleum, that was once living. Human activities, even in this most technological of ages thus far, depended upon and related to ecosystems, even those in distant parts of the globe.

Processes occurring in ecosystems continue to affect humans. As the proportion of the biosphere's energy taken up by human activities becomes larger, even things once consid ered completely natural may at least be triggered by what humans do. Climate and the intensity of storms may be subject to human influence. The spread of diseases is affected by worldwide jet aircraft transportation, and by the ubiquity of human bodies and the amount of protoplasm they present as environment for microorganisms. Even earthquakes can be human-caused, resulting from the weight of huge reservoirs or, as happened in the 1960s in Colorado, by the injection of liquid nerve-gas wastes into deep rock strata.

The visible effects of humans on ecosystems have increased greatly in number and kind in tl1e late twentieth century. A single human action may have many results due to the com• plexity of ecological relationships. Some changes are within the capacity of ecosystems to absorb or compensate and still remain functioning and healthy. Others may go beyond that capacity, and erode or transform an ecosystem.

The kinds of changes inflicted by industry on ecosystems since the Second World War include some that had not been known during previous centuries. Plutonium and other radioactive wastes, non-biodegradable insecticides, chlorofluorocarbons, plastics, artificial pheromones and hormones, and many of the rest of the tens of thousands of industrial chemicals in use either did not exist or were __ not disseminated in major quantities until recently. If there is any judgment historia'n.s can make about technological change, it is that its pace is accelerating at a rate never previously matched, and that its environmental impacts are similarly escalating. That pace has outstripped a traditional human method of coping with environmental change through gradually altering taboos and customs. It has also out- stripped the progress of carefully verified scientific research, so that damage is done before measures can be taken to ameliorate it, or even before its existence, extent, and causes are known. Late twentieth-century humans played dice as never before with the systems that support life.

The effects of acid precipitation were catastrophic in such regions as eastern Canada, New England, Scandinavia, central Europe, and parts of Russia and China.1 Fish life perished in thousands oflakes. Millions of hectares of forests experienced dieback, known as Waldster- ben, German for "forest death," and evidence accumulated that tlus was due to precipitation that in many cases demonstrated an acidity exceeding that oflemon juice. Acid rain was first noticed and named in 1872, and forest dieback was attributed to air pollution in the early twentieth century.2 But scientists who predicted in the 1950s what actually happened in the 1980s were denounced as doomsayers. Lake Baikal in the heart of Siberia was not saved by its remoteness, nor were the wilderness areas of Labrador.

Human activities have been adding gases to the atmosphere that are known to have a warming effect; that is, they allow energy in sunlight to reach the surface of the Earth, but trap some of the heat radiation that would otherwise escape, in the so-called "greenhouse effect." Between 1800 and 2000, the concentration of one of these gases, carbon dioxide, increased by almost 30 percent, and the increase is expected to accelerate in the following

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Modern environmental problems 189

des. Concentrations of other gases with similar effects, such as nitrogen oxides and a;ne, are increasing even faster. The rapid rise of average temperatures observed since te 1980s could be a result of this process. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate gestated in 1996, "The balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernable human

1.ence on global climate."3

11other worldwide environmental impact of technology is the depletion of stratospheric ne·. It was suggested in 1974 that a group of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons 'Cs), used as propellants, refrigerants, solvents, and in production of foam plastics, were ing chlorine to the atmosphere and disturbing the ozone balance. The ozone layer in stratosphere shields the Earth from ultraviolet radiation. The effects of increased ultra- Qt radiation include an elevated risk of skin and eye cancer in humans and animals, and th or reduced rates of growth in plants and in organisms that live near the surface in er,• such as the phytoplankton that consume carbon, dioxide and provide about 70

. 'cent of the Earth's annual production of oxygen. Losing these could accelerate the cenhouse effect;" and to exacerbate the problem, CFCs are greenhouse gases with the e kind of effect as carbon dioxide. Recognizing these dangers, in 1978 the US, Canada,

1cden, and Norway banned CFCs in aerosol cans. Other uses continued, however, and irldwide production began to increase again. Then in 1985 scientists from the British

TJtarctic Survey announced the shocking news that a hole in the ozone layer had appeared vcr Antarctica, and this was confirmed by data from satellites and airplanes.4 Since then,

1.lt'. hole has grown larger and deeper. Thirty-one nations approved a treaty in Montreal in V87 which would reduce world production of CFCs by 50 percent in ten years. Later, kntists found a rapid depletion of the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere at least

. irce times as serious as they had expected. The treaty was amended twice to make it ricter, and DuPont, the world's largest producer of CFCs, which had once dismissed these

. mcerns, announced that it would cease production. 5 But even if all production of CFCs ,wre to cease immediately, the concentration of ozone"·destroying chlorine in the strato- :iiphere would continue to increase as CFCs already in the atmosphere continue to make their way upward. In October 2000, the "ozone hole" over Antarctica extended as far north

\tN the city of Punta Arenas, Chile. The ozone layer will continue to weaken in the twenty- ;Jlrst: century.6 One of the most important effects may be damage caused by ultraviolet radi-

•• arion to agricultural crops. Agriculture became more intensive and more productive in the late twentieth century due

to trends in agricultural technology: continuing mechanization in the richer countries, the dissemination of high-yielding genetic strains of basic food crops, and the application of

.•• li1dustrial fertilizers and pesticides. The use offarm machinery instead of human labor had ,, '

,ii ready begun to decrease the agricultural workforce in the United States by 1920; by 1970 ii had shrunk to what it had been in 1835 with only half the land area.7 In Europe, the same

, process occurred rapidly after the Second World War; the number of combine-harvesters in I knmark, for example, increased from zero in 1944 to 40,000 in 1968.8 The Soviet Union !llade immense efforts to mechanize agriculture at the same time. In the developing coun- 1 rics, however, labor-intensive methods remained the rule. China had 1.5 tractors per 1,000 ha (2,400 acres) in 1970 as against the European average of 41, although since then China l1as made huge steps in mechanization. The picture was less industrial in Africa, and in rela- 1 ivc terms has changed little since.9 On journeys through the countryside in India and Indonesia in the mid-1990s, I saw farmers plowing with oxen or water buffaloes everywhere .llld tractors only rarely. In 1989-91, the United States had 225 times more harvester l\lachines than India, which had four times the population.10 Even so, agriculture has

190 Modern environmental problems

changed radically in those countries and throughout the world since the 1960s. The so• called Green Revolution involved the selection and rapid diffusion of high-yielding crop varieties, particularly of rice and wheat in tropical areas, and will be discussed later in this chapter.

Deforestation became more severe during the late twentieth century, especially in the tropics, but also in other parts of the world. Many nations continued to lose their natural forests, along with the biodiversity, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation they would have provided. A huge increase in world exports of tropical hardwoods began about 1955,11 driven by demand in Japan, western Europe, and the US for products such as veneer and plywood, and by new technologies including mechanized logging, timber trans• port, and pulping. Timber was often underpriced, if total replacement costs are considered. Some tropical countries were small and poor, and their forest sectors had to depend on inadequately educated management. They faced powerful international corporations that could summon up huge amounts of money and numbers of employees greater than those of many governments, and sometimes even weaponry. Violence, however, was seldom nee· essary; large national and multinational corporations could promise jobs and other rewards. Agencies set up by governments to protect local people and resources sometimes proved amenable to bribes and pressure. Tropical deforestation proceeded at a rapid pace in the 1990s in spite of efforts to slow down and reverse it. 12 Between 1960 and 2000, the world lost at least 20 percent ofall tropical forest cover. Less than 10 percent of old-growth tern• perate forests still stand, and their commercial exploitation continues. Everywhere, govern• ment programs to encourage exports, rising prices of timber and other wood products, and the depletion of accessible forests drove logging concerns to seek out surviving forest resources. Many of these companies have poor environmental and social records.

The dipterocarp forests of southeast Asia fell victim to the newfound usefulness of their· comparatively less expensive wood. In west Africa, logging for export and local demands for wood diminished reserves. Niger, where logging and agriculture eliminated much of the standing forest, suffered a crisis in wood supply.13 More than half of Burkina Faso's wood- lands have been lost, and erosion exposing the underlying laterite prevents regeneration. In Central America, large areas of forest were removed to provide grazing for beef cattle for the fast-food market in the US and· elsewhere.14 Richard Tucker calls the Caribbean Basin "the Yankees' Tropical Woodlot."15 Tasmania began major shipments ,of woodchips for pulp and paper to Japan in the l 970s.16 Japan, whose forests had suffered from overcutting and mismanagement before and during the Second World War, but whose government subsequently enacted strict controls to preserve Japan's remaining forests, imported logs from western North America and the tropics of Asia and the Pacific in prodigious amounts. Exports from Oregon and Washington to Japan increased by a factor of six between 196 l and 1974. US law forbade export of timber from public lands, but exports from private land increased demand for federal timber. As a result, ancient forests were still declining as for• merly undisturbed sections of the Pacific Northwest such as the Willamette National Forest described in this chapter were razed by clearcuts. Total forest area in the US may have increased, however, due to regeneration on cleared farmland in the eastern states. The USSR, with one-fifth of the world's forested land, depleted its forest resources by poor managerial practices, although dependable figures were hard to obtain due to policies of secrecy and over-optimistic reports from officials anxious to show good records in spite ol' the facts.

The technology of water use has a major impact on the environment, since less than I percent of the world's water is fresh and available for humans and other land organisms.

i':. Modern environmental problems 191

lwiwer withdrawn from surface and groundwater sources for human use rose from approxi- \1fately 1,000 cu km (240 cu mi) in 1950 to 3,500 cu km (840 cu mi) in 1980, the greater ,flil'.lt used for agriculture.17 Most of this, which in,the latter year was 39 percent of all avail- (iihlc fresh water, was polluted by organic wastes, fertilizers, pesticides, and industrial effiu- '.t1/ltS before it flowed back into surface or ground waters. Unfortunately, much water became Jiolluted even during precipitation, picking up acids and particulates from the atmosphere. ' .. · The problem of disposal of human excreta, the most important source of water pollution fo earlier periods, had been addressed by chlorination of drinking water and sewage treat-

tmt in most industrialized countries by 1950. But in poor countries, it remained a serious 1rce of illness and death. In 1992, almost 1 billion people had no access to safe water

1J1plies, and perhaps twice that number lacked adequate sanitation. Waterborne infections t~h as cholera, dysentery, poliomyelitis, schistosomfasis, and typhoid were primary causes 'infant mortality and a significant contributor to death among adults. 18 Paradoxically,

tmistruction of sewers without complete treatment facilities in places such as the Ganges ,Rlvcr Basin might add to biological demands on the river, because most human waste, · irhough a terrible threat to health, does not now reach the river. 19

Other water pollution problems include inflows of toxic chemicals, fertilizers, heavy l!Hitals, and heated water from power stations, and th~ results of loads of these substances, iH1d1 as acidification, eutrophication, and oxygen depletion. Improvements have been made J11 some river basins, particularly where a single political entity controls the watershed; {)ontrol of discharges to the Thames River, for example, brought water quality from an ;~j1palling state in the 1950s, with near O percent dissolved oxygen, to relative clarity in the :W80s. In 1974 the first salmon in 140 years were observed, and nearly 100 fish species have lrturned to the river.20 Other rivers in the industrial north have not fared so well; on the ,!lhine, divided among a number of jurisdictions, the wort of cleanup has lagged.

As an example of the danger of pollution to freshwater resources, Lake Baikal in Siberia :1k1,crves mention. The oldest, clearest, and deepest fresh water lake in the world, it contains Jihout one-fifth of all fresh water on the Earth.21 During 25 million years, the ecosystem of , the lake evolved in relative isolation, so that of the species that occur there, 84 percent are 'hnind nowhere else. Amphipods and other tiny invertebrates consume suspended organic inatter and keep the lake so clear that objects up to 40 m (130 ft) deep may be seen from :{he surface. Historically, it was so clean that its waters could be drunk safely without treat- ment. A Siberian folk song calls it "Sacred Baikal, the glorious Sea."22 In 1958, cellulose r,Ltnts were built in the Baikal basin in spite of warnings by scientists that effiuents would \J;11nage the lake's ecology. The pollution of,Baikal, the destruction of its unique aquatic lit,:, and the felling of forests with attendant erosion, became issues in the Soviet Union at !r,1st as great as the proposed damming of the Grand Canyon in the United States at the ij,1mc time.23 Writers, artists, and film-makers spoke out. The government responded with

: protective laws, but nothing effective was done and the pollution continued. Legislation · ~nd decrees are never enough to save the environment, as people in many nations have diswvered. As one Russian put it, "Paper can tolerate anything."24

·rhe level of another great body of water in the former Soviet Union, the Aral Sea, which lw no outlet, began to drop when its feeder rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, were

. d,1mmed and the water diverted primarily to irrigate cotton in Uzbekistan. Its salinity 111,:reased, its fish died in great numbers, and fishing boats were stranded in a wind-whipped f;,tlt desert. A vast plan to divert water into its basin from Siberian rivers was shelved during !he collapse of the Soviet Union. More recently, a plan has been implemented to isolate and

·· · fr store a portion of the lake.

192 Modern environmental problems

The building oflarge dams, like the High Dam at Aswan described Chapter 7, continued worldwide, as nations considered them to be matters of national pride. By 1988, more than 36,000 dams more than 15 m (45 ft) in height had been built.25 In 1950, North America had almost two-thirds of the world's reservoir capacity; by 1985, the proportion had dropped to one-third. 26 The effects of these structures include the flooding of ecosystems in the reservoir areas, loss of habitat and therefore of biodiversity, altering flow, increasing evaporation, leakage to groundwater, conversion of land for irrigated crops, and provision of electric power to cities and industrial centers. Before dams were authorized, potential negative effects sometimes escaped serious consideration, since those who could commis- sion a study were already committed to the project.27 Brazil's Amazon Basin has several large dams that have killed vast areas of species-rich rainforest, and many more have been planned. Virtually all India's major rivers are dammed or have projects under way, although many of the latter are opposed by vocal grassroots campaigns. Reservoirs displace large numbers of people, agricultural land is lost, and by 1983, more than 16,000 sq km (6,200 sq mi) of forest in India had been submerged. In 1992, China's Congress approved the construction of the Three Gorges hydroelectric project on the Yangtze River, which would be the world's largest, generating 40 percent more electricity than the world's largest dam at present and storing 39.3 billion cum (51 cu yd) ofwater.28 It would displace more than 1 million people, endanger several species of mammals and fishes, and destroy some of China's finest scenery. In addition to flooding by reservoirs, the effects of large dams on ecosystems include fragmentation of the remaining habitat, interruption of migratory path- ways, and replacement of riverine forests by reservoirs with shifting shorelines that do not encourage regrowth of veget~tion.

Technology for the exploitation of fisheries was transformed in the years after the Second World War from a labor-intensive form of hunting into a mechanized and electronically sophisticated operation using sonar and satellite-assisted systems. Huge factory ships capable ofprocessing the catch at sea, operated by crews of up to 650, were accompanied by trawl- ers outfitted with the most advanced technologies for finding and capturing fish. These included drift nets kilometers in length that swept great volumes of water dean of organ- isms beyond a certain size, including mammals such as dolphins. Several maritime nations, notably China, the USSR, Japan, Peru, the United States, Chile, and Norway, made large investments in advanced fleets. The world's total fish catch rose from 19 million metric tons in 1948 to over 69 million in 1970 and 100 million in 1989. Since then it has declined due to depletion of fish populations. More effort had to be expended for a disappointing return, and the world's fishing fleets were losing money, although government subsidies made up part of the loss. Fishing fleets plied distant seas including the Antarctic. By 1994 thirteen of the world's seventeen major oceanic fisheries were overfished.29 The more destructive of the drift nets were banned by international agreements, although they were difficult to enforce. The potential sustainable yield of marine fish was estimated at from 62 to 87 million metric tons, a level exceeded from the 1980s onward. The sustainable level drops when it is exceeded, and more intensive fishing will not continue to increase yields.

An example of how insensitivity to natural systems can damage an ecosystem and destroy a major economic activity can be seen in the collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishery. Begin- ning in the 1950s, Peru began large-scale exploitation of anchovies exported as fishmeal. The catch, less than 87,000 metric tons in 1950, reached 12.4 million tons in 1970 in spite of biologists' warnings that the maximum sustainable yield was 9.5 million tons. In 1972, an El Nino incident began, and a sharp reduction occurred in phytoplankton growth, the base of the food chain that supports the anchovy. The catch dropped disastrously, averaging

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Modern environmental problems 193

million tons per year between 1977 and 1987. "Today, the misconception persists that b was responsible for the demise of Peru's anchovy fishery. Most research, however, s the idea that although El Nifio contributed to the collapse, it was unrestricted that placed the resource in jeopardy."30 Similar rapid declines occurred in related

·'S such as California sardines and Atlantic herring. The warning of the Peruvian expe- was not adequately heeded; the king crab industry of the Bering Sea collapsed in the and the cod fishery of the North Atlantic in the 1990s, both due to overfishing. fishing is done in the nutrient-rich waters of continental shelves or areas of oceanic

'tlling, which also tend to be near landmasses and thus vulnerable to pollution. Tide- l!i, including mangrove forests, provide food and spawning grounds for many marine

s, but are being destroyed by coastal modifica~on. More than half of all tropical man- forests disappeared between 1950 and 1990. Ecosystems are not neatly bounded by

tlines; interactions constantly occur between organisms and cycles in the sea and land, humans who treat them as separate entities do so at their peril. udear technology may serve as a major example of a human activity affecting the bio- .e-. From its invention in the Second World War through the rest of the century, it had

i major aspects: weaponry and power generation. These are discussed below in this J1ter. The spread ofradioactive isotopes through the atmosphere and the biosphere had nalogue in the dissemination of pesticides. 31 Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 2, marked the emergence of environmentalism into public consciousness. The book ·1cd of the dangers to human and other life from the massive spreading of long-lasting icicles into the environment. Birds, especially insectivorous species, were particularly

. H:rable to these chemicals, which killed them directly or, acting as endocrine disrupters, rfcred with their reproduction. The title referred to .. the fact that if birdsong were to ppear, spring would be silent indeed. The author, aJJiologist, had taught at the Univer- of Maryland, worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and written popular books

i11.:eanic life.32 The scientific argument of Silent Spring did not consist only in pointing the abandon with which huge amounts of biocides were being spread across the land, and air. Carson used ecological data and theory to show the particular danger posed by . lances that, as they pass through food chains, accumulate in the tissue of plants and 1 ofanimals, especially those further along on the chains, such as raptorial birds. Humans,

1edally if they drink milk and eat meat, are high on the food chain and therefore concen- Jt: the chemicals in their bodies. Unfortunately, as she observed, the insects that were the

·ts of the poisons had rapid rates of reproduction and those with genetic resistance r1,ived and repopulated their niches, assuring that subsequent applications of biocides 11ild be less effective against them. One of the most insidious chemicals that Carson rued against was DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), which was being used not

ily on agricultural crops, but also in forests against leaf-eating insects33 and in water and in Hes to combat mosquitoes and flies. By the 1960s, it had been detected in mothers' milk 1d in the fat of penguins in the Antarctic, demonstrating its spread through the world 1vi ronment. Its interference with the assimilation of calcium in egg production made birds 1th as the peregrine falcon and osprey endangered species, and pelican rookeries in Cali- 'r11ia were not producing offspring. Carson compared the indiscriminate application of ~, icicles to the spread of radioactive contamination. 34

Chemical and agricultural firms and governmental agencies in the United States and ,rope attacked the book. One company even tried to stop its publication.35 The popular

:j1n:s~ carried both appreciative reviews and intemperate attacks; Time magazine called Car- ]1 H 1 '~ argument "unfair, one-sided, and hysterically overemphatic. "36 Later its editors would

194 Modern environmental problems

honor her as one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century. The opponents raised the specter of uncontrolled insect outbreaks destroying the world's agricultural capac- ity if pesticides were abandoned, ignoring her clear statement that she favored use of bio• logical and ecological controls when possible, and the careful use of biodegradable chemicals when necessary.37

The response to Silent Spring was mostly positive, illustrating how knowledge of eco• logical science can influence public policy. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a Science Advisory Committee on Pesticides, and subsequently DDT and other persistent pesticides were banned in the US. Other industrialized nations followed. Ironically, chemical firms continued to manufacture the poison and export it to countries where it was still legal.

"Ecology," although coined m the nineteenth century, became a word widely recognized by the public in the US and Europe only in the 1960s.38 The level of concern about prob- lems of the environment rose sharply after the middle decades of the twentieth century. Ecology emerged into wide public consciousness, and "conservationism," which regarded the sustainable use of natural resources as the basic issue, gave way to "environmentalism," which recognized a growing number of worldwide issues. 39 Knowledge and concern increased about issues such as waste disposal and pollution across national boundaries including radioactive fallout, the effects of persistent pesticides, acid precipitation, accumu - lation of greenhouse gases and their possible effects on global temperatures, the weakening of the ozone layer and increasing ultraviolet exposure. The decline in biodiversity, with the accelerating extinction ofspecies, especially those in the world's rainforests that are rapidly being destroyed, received unprecedented attention from greater numbers of people.· Many people saw these environmental changes as threats to the beauty and usefulness of the natural world around them, to their own health, and to their ability to continue the ways of life that supported them. Just as conservation had a public dimension in earlier times, envi- ronmentalism became a popular movement in the US, Europe, and to some extent in other parts of the world. It is not that people in the developing world loved nature less, but that economic deprivation was for them a deciding issue, and given the economic, educational, and political facts in many countries, they saw less opportunity as a public to affect decisions of governments and corporations.

An increasing number of local and national environmental efforts, including the creation of governmental environmental agencies in most nations, met with attendant successes and failures, and nongovernmental organizations with environmental concerns proliferated. Numerous protest movements as disparate as Greenpeace, India's Chipko; and America's Earth First! resisted instances of commercial exploitation that they saw as detrimental to the environment. Unfortunately, international environmental crime involving trade in illegal animals and plants and their products, poaching, and timber theft, also became a force to be reckoned with.

The emergence of environmentalism into the political sphere brought increased impor- tance to organized groups of environmentalists and their opponents. "Green" parties emerged in Germany and several other European nations with a program emphasizing envi- ronmental values, anti-nuclear activism, economic rights for workers, and participatory democracy. Their success in the polls was moderate, generally under 10 percent, but the German party, large enough to wield a critical margin between left and right, managed to participate in a coalition government. Environmentalism also stimulated a thoughtful and increasingly sophisticated ethical analysis of the issues underlying decisions and actions, from the personal to the international scale. Religious people reexamined their traditions to find bases for environmental concerns. These recent tendencies in environmental thinking

i

I Modern environmental problems 195 ,el'it careful study, but also the sobering recognition that scientific, political, philosophical, nl religious thought concerning treatment of the natural world does not always determine nrnm actions. And it is human actions that increasingly determine the course of change in

1/ i;:ommunity of life.

i\Ul a green revolution?

Jw rapid ringing of the gongs of gamelan music thickens the air and gives another meaning 1 ''·heavy metal." White-masked angels advance in ordered rows along the pavement to con- mt the witch Rangda, with her pendulous breasts and prominent tusks. Rangda's chaotic lnions, bulbous of eye and grinning gloatingly, weave the 'dance around her. Then Barong,

huge, fiercely friendly apotheosis of animals, charges from behind to defend the people t their crops. The battle, led by the quickening beat of chums, is loud, energetic, and color- but there is no victory. The two sides exhaust their magical powers upon each other, but her wins.40 Those who attack Rangda find their own knives turning against themselves.

Over the centuries the Balinese people created a rice agriculture that appeared sustaina- r, along with a worldview and associated practices that provided balanced relationship to . ecosystem. The only Hindu island in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, Bali is located 'the eastern tip ofJava, 8° south of the equator. It has an area ofS,600 sq km (2,175 sq ). LS· times the size of Long Island, and in 2000 the population was 3 million. It is a kanic island; the highest peak, GunungAgung, risesto 3,142 m (10,308 ft). The soil has id texture, and is renewed by ash from eruptions. Climate is dominated by a southerly

in soon, with rains from Dctober to April, temperatures are pleasantly warm all year, and tt1idity is high. The original vegetation was rainforest with some areas of dry tropical · st. Fragments of the ancient forests survive in the west, where a national park has been ,lt:ed. Near the artisan town ofUbud, there are two sacred groves, Sangeh and Padangte- j containing huge ancient trees. They are commonly called "monkey forests" because y are inhabited by protected troops of long-tailed rhesus macaques that are visited and by local people and tourists. 41 Three species of deer live on Bali. But biodiversity on the nd generally has declined. The elephant is extinct, the last Balinese tiger was shot in 37, and the exquisite Bali mynah is endangered.42 Banteng, the wild relatives of the

imestic Bali cattle, are a vulnerable species. Much of Bali is occupied by wet rice fields, and in the hills, terracing gives the land a ulptured look. Rice culture reached Bali in the Bronze Age, after 300 BC. The influence of dianized rulers on Java came to Bali by the eighth century AD. At this time the traditional dcultural system was formed, combining sophisticated irrigation technology with a reli- on embracing elements of animism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Rice is the major export and staple food, the basic ingredient of every meal,43 so impor- llt that people use the word nasi [rice] to mean "food."44 Traditional strains come in three Jlors: white, red, and black. The food grass is grown in fields that occupy the lowlands and · • up hillsides on terraces that require the continuing labor of farmers. 45 Wet rice fields

, 111st be irrigated. High on the island rivers flow in deep canyons, so at many places water is divt:rted into an aqueduct, often through a tunnel to an outflow at the head of a series of

:mnces. After use, water goes back to the river, or by canals to fields downslope. The result ,)¾ .tn engineering marvel: a sculptured landscape and an "artificial ecosystem that has oper- j\ed for centuries."46

Who assured this smooth functioning? Since the tenth century, decisions on irrigation, • pLtnting, harvest, and labor have been the responsibility of subaks. A subak consists of all

196 Modern environmental problems

farmers who receive water from the same outlet.47 Cooperation at subak level is essential, but does not end there. Representatives from subaks in the same river system meet regularly at district water temples to discuss needs and determine schedules. These temples are part of a hierarchy of water temples corresponding to the complex irrigation system, so the structure of the watershed is paralleled in a functioning religious structure.48 Each farmer has a shrine where water enters his fields. Offerings are made there to the rice goddess and other deities. Above that, the subak has a temple where members make offerings. A larger Ulun Swi temple stands near a canal .that feeds several subaks. An irrigation district has its Masceti temple. There are temples at the headwaters, lakes in the volcanic calderas which, lacking surface outlets, seep underground and feed the rivers. The Temple of the Crater Lake is most sacred, since the Balinese hold that its waters feed all other lakes and rivers on the island.49 A selec• tion of gods is worshipped in each temple. Larger temples offer to nature gods, such as the Earth Mother. Among the most important ceremonies is the sharing of holy water, which is collected from springs, lakes, and other sources, mixed, and used for ritual purification. The Balinese refer to their variety of Hinduism as the "Religion of Holy Water." Its sharing reflects the structure of the irrigation system. The social relationships embodied in the con" stellation of water temples sustain the terrace ecosystem and productive rice agriculture.so

The various stages of the agricultural year have rituals that go with them.s1 These are orchestrated by the tika, one of the world's most complex religious calendars, with weeks and months of various lengths running simultaneously in a pattern that has been compared to the interlocking rhythms of gamelan music.s2 Decisions on timing take account of the availability of water and the need to allow a fallow period so that fields can dry out and the numbers of pests will decline. In case of disagreements on water allocation between subaks, if not solved by discussion at local temples, the high priest of Crater Lake Temple may be invited to mediate.

The agricultural landscape operated as an artificial ecosystem with many characteristics of a natural ecosystem. It had biodiversity, although much less of it than in the tropical forest ecosystem it replaced; rice paddies were home to frogs, fish, and eels that could be caught, and with dragonflies helped keep insect numbers down. Weeds were picked and cooked as table greens. Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in the water aided fertility. Rice straw was left in the fields to decompose and provide nutrients, or burned to discourage pests. Ducks consumed weeds, snails, and insects and provided fertilizer, but were controlled by duckherds to prevent them from eating rice plants. Farmers simulated natural cycles, flooding and draining rice paddies at the same time over a large district. The system was sustainable; there was no sig- nificant load of erosional materials in the runoff, little development of gullies, and no decline of fertility. Historically, food supplies were adequate; there were few crop failures over a thou- sand years. Long experience of trial and error was preserved in rituals and sacred calendar. As Clifford Geertz put it, "A complex ecological order was both reflected in and shaped by an equally complex ritual order, which at once grew out ofit and was imposed upon it."53

Balinese philosophy is based on maintaining balance, and seems suited to a prudent eco- logical lifestyle. Many rituals express rapport with fellow beings. 54 There are celebrations for animals, plants, and rocks on auspicious days. Sacred rice plants are dressed and given offer- ings. In the Balinese view, the forces of the universe are counterpoised.55 The desire is not to achieve the triumph of one over another, but to placate both and restore balance. 56 This is the theme of the Barong-Rangda dance. A similar concept is embodied in the black-and- white checkered cloth seen everywhere on images and in costumes. The colors stand for opposed forces, woven together,as they are in nature, neither dominant. Offerings are made daily to keep spirits of every kind well fed.

evel is essential, litt n meet regubdv !mples are pan ( ,1 m, so the stru, 111 farmer has a sliri1 ~ and other dci1w :rUlunSwi tl·111p :s Masceti tc111pl :h, lacking s111'1.1 'ake is most sane ! island.49 A sci(' gods, such a,\ ii lywater, whid1 purification. 'JI ater." Its shari1 )died in the rn1 ~ agriculturl'. '' 11

tem.51 Thcsl' ,t dars, with W('t' been comp.1

: account of' I dry out and 1 between st1/J11 Temple may l

i.racteristks of : tropical ti 11 be caught, J :ooked as tal was left in I

:rds to prcv I drainini ,•i re was no Mi nd nodcdl "'over a rh1 i calendar, shaped by Ill it. "53

prudent tilJ ebration~ ( given oil desire is t lance, 50 '1 ~ black•m is stand gs arc m·

Modern environmental problems 197

•• b,trly rice culture was not controlled by government. Islam had entered Indonesia at least · l'arly as the 1300s, and by the 1500s, the religion swept over and transformed much of donesia, but left Bali, with its isolation and cultural resistance, relatively untouched. 57 The imd was divided into nine kingdoms (later eight), whose boundaries did not correspond irrigation districts, and governments did nothing more than collect a tax.58

A Dutch fleet called at Bali in 1597. For decades the Dutch and English competed; Sir mford Raffles visited Bali in 1814, and the Dutch occupied the north coast in 1846. The

1\1sion of south Bali did not begin until the twentieth century. It was marked by ritual kide of the Balinese royal houses, wh0 were slaughtered as, wielding ineffective ceremo- 1 weapons, they deliberately attacked the well-armed Dutch. Massacres in 1906 and 1908 >eked many Dutch people and governments around the world. Perhaps repenting, colo- l administrators afterwards patronized Balinese ·culture, excluding missionaries and tour- ~ while making a handsome profit on opium and rice. They failed to understand the rice 1lture system because they confined their attention to irrigation works and regarded the }Iler temples as a primitive "rice cult." The Dutch assumed that Balinese kingdoms his- 1rically had controlled agriculture,59 and tried to establish colonial government as succes- Jf to the kingdoms, collecting taxes and supervising production. They never got a handle .l rice culture, however, and directed their efforts to building permanent weirs, lining ~H,lls, and other improvements that did not deeply affect the traditional system. For polit- ·,tl purposes, they reconstituted the traditional kingdoms in 1938, but less than four years

;i,11,·r the Japanese seized the archipelago. Afrer the Second World War, Indonesia won independence. The first president, Sukarno,

wnded Udayana University in Bali's capital, Denpasar, but many of his other actions were

/1,1111re 8.1 A Balinese farmer plowing in a rice paddy with banteng, the native cattle. Irrigated rice paddies such as this form a productive, sustainable system. The volcano Gunung Agung, considered sacred by the people of Bali, rises in the background. Photograph taken in 1994.

----------------------------···· ..J

198 Modern environmental problems

resented. A most disastrous event was the 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung just as Sukarno was using a major Balinese festival to launch international tourism and improve his image. Many interpreted the catastrophe as divine disapproval of presidential hubris. 60 In the country as a whole, runaway inflation and the failure of programs to raise rice production were major issues. An attempted coup in 1965 was followed by the fall of Sukarno and the slaughter of thousands of suspected Communists. Suharto, the new president, claimed the title "Father of Development" by stimulating economic growth through oil exports, encour-- aging tourism (not least on Bali), and signing up Indonesia for the Green Revolution.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Indonesia had an exploding population and a crisis in food pro- duction, with the lowest rate of growth in rice yields of any major producer. 61 Rice imports reached 1.7 million tons in 1964.62 Bali was no exception; in 1967, the total fertility rate was 5.9, above the national average, and in spite of being one of the most intensive rice production areas, about 10,000 tons had to be imported to the island annually.63 Nationally there was an effort to expand the rice cultivation area, but on Bali virtually all arable land was already producing. A two-pronged attack was launched: a family planning program to slow population growth, and the so-called Green Revolution to increase yields. The first effort was effective; the decline in total fertility in Bali, a 46 percent drop in fifteen years to 3 .5, is one of the success stories of the world movement to limit population, and was com- bined with a decline in infant mortality and a lengthening of life expectancy, indicating improved health.64 The strength of village organization in Bali contributed to the success.65

Population remained high, however, and the government encouraged the Balinese to join a resettlement program to less populated islands.

The Green Revolution began with breeding studies on wheat and maize in Mexico in the 1940s and was continued by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, established in 1966 by the Rockefeller Foundation in cooperation with the Mexican gov- ernment. Its director, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 fot his role in the program. A similar project for rice, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was begun in the Philippines with Ford and Rockefeller foundation support. It introduced new high-yielding strains of rice with short periods of maturation, allowing more crops each year, to the rice-growing nations of tropical Asia.66 These advantages were achieved only in conjunction with the application of chemical fertilizers and insecticides in significant amounts. The Indonesian government subsidized the chemicals, and in 1967 hired a Swiss corporation to develop a distribution system. A government agency, BIMAS (meaning "Mass Guidance"), was given the task of assuring that farmers adopted the new varieties and used them as directed by agricultural technologists. Banks offered credit for purchase of seeds, agrochemicals, and farm machinery. Initial success was spectacular, with annual production increases between 5 and 10 percent. Bali's acceptance of the Green Revolution was high. 67 In south Bali, a new rice strain was planted on 48 percent of terraces in 1974; three years later it was 70 percent. In 1979, the Bali irrigation plan, devised with help from the Asian Development Bank, envisioned complete restructuring of the island's irrigation systems and abandonment of the traditional calendar in favor of short rotation periods and virtually continuous cropping. Experts dismissed the existing system as a "rice cult." The temples lost control, and subakswere subjected to political and economic pres- sure. By 1985 irrigation scheduling was in chaos and water shortages became common in the dry season.

Other problems appeared. Genetic uniformity made crops vulnerable. to disease and insects.68 The rice strain IR-8 proved susceptible to the brown planthopper.69 Once a minor insect, it proliferated in the monoculture in spite of massive applications of insecticide. A

I l Modern environmental problems 199

The Barong, the huge, fiercely friendly apotheosis of animals, defender against evil, is represented by dancers in the town of Jimbarari on the Indonesian island of Bali. Photograph taken in 1994.

ww super strain IR-26, resistant to the insect, was substituted.70 The emergence ofa plant- H>pper biotype to which the new strain was not resistant forced another switch to IR-36. lnfortunately, the latter was sensitive to tungro virus, so it was replaced with PB-50, a rain that in due course succumbed to a soil fungus which in 1982 destroyed 6,000 ha

(15,000 acres) of planted rice.71 By doing away with fallow periods and other ecological measures that in traditional agriculture had controlled natural enemies, the Green Revolu- tion enabled them to reproduce to an extent that overwhelmed even modern insecticides lrnd fungicides. These, along with chemical fertilizers, were applied at a level that polluted 1hc water system. Although the increase in production resumed, its rate slowed. Bali again nported rice beginning in the mid-1970s, but the problems mentioned above and the !iocial changes accompanying the Green Revolution's conquest of Bali caused some toques-

. ti< >11 the wisdom of abandoning traditional agriculture so completely. ·· Among these were anthropologist Stephen Lansing and systems ecologist James Kremer, who in 1987 developed a computer model of two river systems in Bali with the aid of Apple programmers Tyde Richards and Alan Peterson.72 They compared the effectiveness of a 1111111ber of systems of coordination of irrigation patterns, from one where decisions were made independently by each subak to one more like the typical Green Revolution arrange- ment, where the whole watershed had an identical cropping pattern. They found that tradi- tional timing by water temples that coordinated subakswould produce the best yields, with 1 he fewest pest outbreaks and the most efficient provision of water.

Lansing and Kremer presented the results to the Asian Development Bank, advising that restoration of the traditional water temple timing of irrigation and planting be considered.

200 Modern environmental problems

They did not advocate a return to older native strains of rice. After first rebuffing it, the ADB gave sympathetic audience to the study and agreed to try a modified traditional system. "The water temple system· in Bali, whose colorful ceremonies were never abandoned by farmers although the planting cycles were, is being reestablished."73 In certain environmen- tal niches farmers had continued to grow traditional varieties. Whether modifications made necessary by the shorter growing periods of the new strains can be harmoIJ.ized with the old calendars and festivals remains to be seen. The response of pests to new varieties in a pattern resembling but not identical to the traditional one must be observed. However, the advan- tage of studying traditional agriculture in the search for sustainability has been noted beyond Bali.

In parts of Asia the Green Revolution had enormous effect; India, for example, has not had a famine since 1965-6. In Africa, however, where a Green Revolution seemed most desirable, financial resources were lacking, social and political problems interfered, and the varied growing conditions of the continent with poor soils and recurrent drought were not con,duciveto the high-yield genetic strains.74 Crises offamine continued, especially in Ethi- opia, Somalia, and Sudan.

In 1994 an official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization favored using the revived Balinese water temple system as a model for programs "in other cultures to promote sustainable agricultural systems. "7S If this means study of systems of traditional agriculture that can aid sustainability1 it might succeed. But ifit means an attempt to copy the BalineSl' system, it is plainly impossible. No one else is likely to worship the rice goddess, exchange holy water, or hold Barong-Rangda ceremonies. Even resettlement of Balinese communitie~ in Indonesia has not resulted in_ new productive centers of rice cultivation, due to differ - ences in local ecosystems.76 •

The Balinese ritual water temple system is an indispensable component of an intricately engineered system of sustainable agriculture. But the religious beliefs by themselves did not produce the irrigation system, nor did the irrigation system produce the religion. They arc parts of a whole. The Balinese set of cultural attitudes and religious rituals evolved together with sustainable rice agriculture as part of the same ecological process. The economic and ceremonial aspects are inseparable. To learn from the Balinese case of sustainability in an applicable sense, therefore, is simply to realize that other cultures might simultaneously create ecologically sustainable economic systems with attitudes and public rituals and deci - sion-making processes that express and support them.

Willamette National Forest: now that the big trees are down77

The most trenchant comments on land management are made by the land itself. Standing on Hills Peak, looking over the valley of the Middle Fork of the Willamette78 River in the Oregon Cascades, I saw a changed landscape. In 1995, the scene contrasted to the one l knew when I lived on this mountain for a summer as a lookout for the US Forest Service (USPS), 45 years earlier.79 Then the slopes were covered by a green robe of ancient trees. The nearest town was 67 km ( 42 mi) away over a long trail and a rutted dirt road, virtually all through old growth. Today the main road is paved and mountains on every side bear th~ scars of a labyrinth of logging roads. The forest is a patchwork of clearcut timber sale units, Some patches are bare red-brown soil, recently scraped clear. Others are covered with low brush. Still others have bright green young trees, crowding each other for light. Sections remain of darker old growth conifers, dotted with dead snags whose hollows shelter birda and mammals. But few stands are between forty-five and 200 years old. That is because.

Modern environmental problems 201

ting began in the mid-l 950s. Since then, this forest has seen the accommodation of 'Forest Service's principles of management to the demands of the market economy.

illamette National Forest embraces 7,280 sq km (2,800 sq mi) along the central ~s Range; it is 37 percent larger than the state of Delaware. Long the most productive

]p the Pacific Northwest, it has been called the "flagship" of the national forest system. 'g a number of years, the timber sold to companies and removed by them from the .ette constituted 10 percent ofthe annual cut from all US national forests. Its history rime example of the problems of federal forest management.80 But the ecological

ct is even greater. In order fully to understand the significance of events in this forest, uld be necessary to see them in the context of the biotic community of the Douglas fir western hemlock forest ecosystem and related ecosystems, the range of the northern :ed owl,81 and the biosphere. ,e USFS was created in 1905 in the Department of Agriculture. 82 Its first chief, Gifford hot, believed use and conservation were best managed on public lands by a national cy applying scientific forestry. He said, "In the administration of Forest Reserves ... all is to be devoted to the most productive use for the permanent good of the whole

ple." 83 If conflict arose between various claims for use, he thought it should be resolved he principle, mentioned above, of "the greatest good of the greatest number in the long " 84 This policy of"multiple use" implied that watershed, logging, stock grazing, mining, ting, fishing, and outdoor recreation would be managed to ensure their continua- ss

esources such as timber are renewable. The ecosystem, as long as enough of it remains, ores what has been taken from it. This principle resulted in the theory of "sustained

Jd:" that it is possible to cut from a forest annually an amount of timber equal to the .wd added by tree growth, minus that destroyed by fire, insects, etc. If that amount is reeded for long, the forest will be degraded. l'inchot and his successors were optimistic about applying these principles to American

wests. But timber interests would not accept equal treatment with other forest users. From ir Second World War onward, industrial forestry dominated the landscape of the national wests, as trees on large sections were sold and cut. The USPS, following congressional andates, considered the timber industry its most important user. As Supervisor David

'ibney of the Willamette remarked in 1965, "Timber is our meat and potatoes - recreation i ir dessert! "86

Most forest managers and timber companies prefer clearcutting as the method of "har- , csting" primarily because it takes less labor and is cheaper than selective logging, a method

)hat was used briefly in the Willamette National Forest during the 1930s under the admin- t~tration of Regional Forester C.J, Buck.87 After 1940, clearcutting became virtually the 1:i1tly method on the Willamette. For sustained yield, so-called "harvest units" would be ;tksignated in a mosaic pattern, only enough of them cut so that the same number could be 1;111 every year. The length of the cutting cycle in Douglas fir is 100 years, In a forest so

.· 111,tnaged, there would be no old growth because attaining its characteristic form takes at kast 200 years. There would be no giant trees 800 or 900 years old. Species dependent on nld growth would become extinct, reducing biodiversity. Other values of old growth, such

· as watershed protection, supply of organic material, and the awe-inspiring size and beauty ur the ancient forest, would be gone.88

Before 1920, timber cut in this national forest averaged 10 million board feet (abbrevi- ,1ted mmbf) or 23,300 cum per year.89 Timber companies opposed USFS sales when com- petition might lower wood prices. But supply on private forestland became depleted, and

202 Modern environmental problems

Figure 8.3 View from Hills Peak Lookout eastward toward Diamond Peak in the Willamette National Forest, Oregon, in 1950, when the forest was almost continuous in this part of the Cascade Mountains.

industry increasingly looked to public lands for high-quality timber. In the late 1920s the cut rose to 50 mmbf (117,000 cu m ). Although the 19 30s depression reduced itto 30 mmbf (70,000 cum), the Second World War increased demand and Congress gave priority to meeting it. The cut reached 144 mmbf (336,000 cum) in 1944; in 1948 it was 207 mmbf (483,000 cum), as postwar construction demanded lumber. Technology burgeoned, with chain saws, heavy machinery, and huge logging trucks on a growing system of forest roads.

Supervisor John Bruckart, in a 1949 article on the Willamette entitled "Taming a Wild Forest,"90 stated that under sustained yield, the allowable annual cut would be 323 mmbf (754,000 cum). This estimate was not conservative; Bruckart established clearcutting as the dominant method of "harvesting," and had reason to choose the highest figure he could defend. The actual cut surpassed it in 1952. It was twice as high in 1962, and in 1973 reached a peak of945 mmbf (2,205,000 cum). Timber companies active on the Willamette during 1950-5 included large concerns like Weyerhaeuser in the northern half of the forest and Westfir and Pope & Talbot in the south. Medium-sized companies and many smaller outfits were also involved. Small companies often felt shut out of deals between large firms and the USPS, whereas large companies belonged to associations that wielded political power in Oregon and nationally. Pro-industry representatives added mandatory high timber harvest targets to appropriations bills in the 1980s, forcing the USPS to maintain the high level of sales even though it was losing money on them. The average cut during 1962-89 was 708 mmbf(l,652,000 cum). The history of the Willamette does not show a pattern of sustained yield. It shows a process of exploitation, following the demands of the market economy, far exceeding the regeneration rate of the forest. It seems headed for a crisis when

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Modern environmental problems 203

· Py/Im 8.4 A view from Hills Peak Lookout toward Diamond Peak in 1995, in exactly the same direction as Figure 8.3, 45 years later. Clearcut sectors and logging roads are evident.

,111 old growth will be gone, and there will not be enough 100-year-old timber sale units to ;ttpply the supposed allowable annual cut.

After the war, the number of Americans visiting national forests for recreation increased ll'cmendously. Many objected to the impact of logging - ugly clearcut patches and roads

'lrnlldozed across hillsides - so the USFS tried to put timber sale units where the public would not see them. Maps of "viewsheds," showing which slopes were visible from main

: ro:ids, were used. Strips of uncut timber were left along highways. Today only observation fr11111 the air reveals the extent of forest removal, as I found when in preparation for writing

' !his section. I flew in a small aircraft over the Rigdon District of the Willamette National hircst, where I had worked as a forest guard, ably piloted by Jane Rosevelt, who cooperated With LightHawk, an educational environmental flying service. I looked down over a forest d1cckerboarded by clearcuts. The trees around the site of my old lookout station, Hills

. Pt.•ak, had been cut, even though they were alpine fir and mountain hemlock, slow-growing : ·~pecies of little commercial value, whereas if they had been spared they would have contin-

11nl to protect the watershed. As early as the 1920s, pro-conservation groups urged preservation of wilderness areas.91

USFS managers had little trouble designating wilderness amid tundra and timberline forests, hut seldom included old growth. "Wilderness on the rocks," conservationists called it. Among those on the Willamette was the Three Sisters Primitive Area, established in 1937. i11 the following year, Bob Marshall, USFS recreational chief, visited the area and recom-

·. mended the addition of forested land around French Pete Creek, 21,600 ha (53,380 acres) pfold growth and good-quality second growth.92 This was done, creating a policy crisis that revealed how paramount was the USFS commitment to timber production. Forest managers,

204 Modern environmental problems

regretting the decision to include French Pete in wilderness, announced their intention open it to timber sales. The secretary of agriculture excluded French Pete from wildern in 1957. Reaction was heated.93 Wilderness advocates saw that administrative designati could be removed easily. French Pete helped motivate environmentalists to urge Congr to pass the Wilder11ess Act of 1964. The law prohibits roads, timber cutting, and motoriz equipment, but permits hunting, fishing, camping, and, unfortunately, livestock grazin Wilderness visitors have increased sharply.

French Pete remained outside the 1964 boundaries, and the supervisor proceeded wi plans for sales. After industry representatives and environmentalists presented their views, h@ announced his intention to begin road construction and allow clearcutting. In November 1969, environmentalists in Eugene held a large peaceful rally outside the supervisor's office - the first public demonstration against the USFS in the Northwest, but certainly not th~ last. In years following, "tree-sitters" occupied platforms erected in trees designated fol' "salvage," and loggers angry at reductions in timber sales blocked public roads with their huge trucks. Oregon representatives backed wilderness designation for French Pete, which passed in 19_78. Wilderness areas are not closed to public use: visitors to the Three Sistel'ff Wilderness Area, for example, rose from 64,000 in 1965 to 193,000 in 1971.94 In the 1990s, Opal Creek, the last_intact old growth streamshed in the Willamette, received con, gressional designation as wild~rness, largely due to the work of George Atiyeh and thiJ Friends of Opal Creek, who received widespread public support in Oregon.

Most old growth has b_een invaded by logging roads and clearcuts.95 As old growth disap, peared, it became evident that species dependent on it could become extinct. The Endan, gered Species Act of 1973 required identification and protection of declining populations of wildlife and their habitats. It defined an endangered species as "any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range," and a threatened species as "any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foresee, able future. "96 The law considered species populations, not ecosystems, although the habitat provision meant that an ecosystem would be protected if one ofits species were endangered, For old growth ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest, one such indicator species is the north• em spotted owl. A petition to list the owl as endangered was denied by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1986.97 Federal courts reversed that decision, and later enjoined the USFS from most timber sales within the owl's range.98 Since the Willamette is entirely within the range, sales and cuts plummeted. In 1994 the cut was 123 mmbf(287,000 cum), 14 percent of the 1988 figure, and sales were even lower.

The arson-caused Warner Creek fire burned 3,600 ha (9,000 acres) on the Willamette in October 1991, much ofit spotted owl reserve.99 The USFS proposed salvage in the burned area, meaning building roads and clearcutting 40 mmbf(93,000 cum) of timber. Environ- mentalists objected that salvage could encourage arson as a means of circumventing forest management. The USFS made a sale, but activists set up a roadblock and stayed for almost a year. The USFS cancelled the sale, negotiated compensation for the company, and arrested the demonstrators.

The press oversimplified the complex issue as "owls v. jobs," but jobs also declined due to technology and because the industry exports whole logs instead of processing them in the US. Volume would have declined anyway, since remaining old growth was being logged and earlier clearcuts had not regrown to marketable size. The principle of sustained yield had been honored in the USFS's official dogma but violated in practice. The USFS had announced the principle of multiple use, but treated timber sales as a higher and better use than wildlife, recreation, or watershed protection. In a fundamental error, it had treated

Modern environmental problems 205

as a marketable resource without considering trees as parts of a community of life. A between human needs and a sustainable ecosystem might be worked out, but not if ands of the timber industry were given priority. The agency was subject to extreme pressure. Employees who urged a change in priorities were transferred or otherwise 100

forest ecosystem itself must be understood and respected before policies of multiple sustained yield can be applied. In recent years this realization gave rise to "ecosys-

anagement," a principle officially recognized by the land use agencies of the US ment during the Clinton administration.101 USFS Chief Dale Robertson in 1992 ced the new policy, which he called an "ecological approach in future management.

· ns that we must blend the needs of people and environmental values in such a way the National Forests and Grasslands represent diverse, healthy, productive, and sustain- ecosystems."102 The goals include maintaining viable populations of native species in natural habitats, protecting biodiversity, maintaining ecological cycles and processes,

ning over long periods of time, and accommodating human use within these con- nts. In regard to the last-named goal, "Humans (are] embedded in nature. People tot be separated from nature. Humans are fundamental influences on ecological pat-

iS and processes and are in turn affected by them."103 But if people are part of ecosys- .ll, depending on them for survival and in making humans the species they are, then the

tcnance ofliving ecosystems must be the overarching goal of management. The urgent 1Hkance of this fact has scarcely been appreciated, much less carried out in the field. 104

n 1993, President Clinton convened a conference in Portland, Oregon to address envi- mcntal and economic needs served by federal forests of the Pacific Northwest. He

J'd,

How can we achieve a balanced· ... policy that recognizes the importance of the forest and timber to the economy and jobs in this region, and how can we preserve our pre- i.:ious old growth forests, which are part of our natural heritage and that, once destroyed, i:an never be replaced? 105 '

·r appointed a team including technical experts led by Dr. Jack Ward Thomas,106 a wildlife ,logist and subsequently chief of the USFS, asking them "to assess not only effects on

dividual species ... but also the likelihood that the alternatives would provide for a func- pnal and interconnected old growth forest ecosystem."107 The team drafted a "Forest Plan .ii' a Sustainable Economy and a .Sustainable Environment," which created Late Succes- . "iliafl08 Reserves to safeguard habitat for old growth related species, embracing 3 million

Ji;i (7.4 million acres), or 30 percent offederal forest lands in the owl range. Much of the l'i;Nt remained open to timber sales. The plan called for worker retraining and dropped tax i.1Jbsidies for exporting logs. Environmental groups objected to cutting any old growth, while the timber industry complained that allowable cut would be too low. On the Wil- l,1rnctte, the annual cut dropped to 136 mmbf (317,000 cu m), 80 percent below the J iJ80s. No one believed that the former high levels could be sustained for long; the only ·rptcstion was whether the last bit of profit would be extracted from the remaining old 11,r<owth.

The timber interests were not defeated. Their allies in Congress attached the Salvage J ngging Rider to the Rescissions Bill of 1995, exempting logging in the national forests lio111 all conservation laws through 1996. When the bill was signed, timber companies 1111shcd immediately for sales of old growth. Conservationists who tried to block them in

206 Modern environmental problems

court found judges unsympathetic. Much timber was sold under the law before it expired, and there have been repeated attempts in Congress to renew the provision or similar ones, using as justification the recurrence of heavy wildfire years in the US.

Old growth in the Willamette is fragmentary and impaired. Unfortunately, the flagship of the US National Forest System is typical. It would be encouraging to report that the national forests, managed for ninety years under principles of scientific forestry for sustained yield, are a model for the world; but to the contrary, forests have been cut at an unsustainable rate. Profits have accrued to corporations, not the federal treasury; more tax money has been spent on managing sales and building logging roads than the USPS has received from sales. It is possible for a carefully limited number of trees to be taken every year from a forest without impairing its ability for renewal. But enough old growth must be left untouched to serve as a reservoir for the interacting species and other components of the ecosystem. The forests of the world are in need of preservation, provident use, and restoration.109 Instead, with the worldwide triumph of the market economy, they are being liquidated for short· term economic profit.

Bryansk: the aftermath of Chernobyl

As I sat in a colleague's kitcheL1 in Bryansk, I looked through a stack of schoolchildren's paintings. The Bryansk Region is the section of the Russian Republic that received the highest level of radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. One of the paintings depicted two little hedgehogs in a forest, with suspiciously dark clouds overhead. The first hedgehog had picked mushrooms, a favorite activity of Russian children. The second hedgehog asked, "Zachem ty nesyosh' gribok? On zhe radioaktivnyi." ("Why are you picking mushrooms? They're radioactive.") The first replied, "Kushat' khochetsa." ("I want to eat.") Another drawing,showed a girl with a basket crying beside a sign prohib- iting entrance to a forest due to radiation. There was an imaginative painting representing mutated creatures including a dragonfly with two heads. Finally, a drawing by a seven-year- old girl showed an empty school playground, with a pony looking at it and saying, "Gdye dyeti?" ("Where are the children?") The implied answer was that they had been evacuated because their homes were too radioactive to live in.

The explosion of the reactor core at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 occurred because operators making tests while shutting down the reactor for mainte- nance erred in shutting off safety mechanisms, one after another. Later blunders were made in attempts to. cover up earlier ones. Thus human error was at fault. The explosion injected 50 tons of nuclear fuel into the atmosphere as dispersed particles, in addition to 70 tons of other fuel and 700 tons of radioactive graphite that settled nearer the site of the accident.

Officials did not immediately warn the local population or the world, The first announce- ment on Soviet television came two days later, twelve hours after elevated levels of radioac- tivity were detected in Sweden and Finland. Fallout polluted ecosystems and human food sources in large portions of Europe and the USSR, with measurable amounts throughout the Northern Hemisphere.11°The authorities knew what had happened, however, and took various actions. Although winds first blew the plurrie of pollution westward over Europe, they shifted and carried dangerous clouds toward Moscow. Reports say military aircraft were ordered to seed them to precipitate radionuclides before they reached the capital. Whatever the cause, large amounts of material fell in the western part of the Bryansk Region around Novozybkov, 177 km (110 mi) northeast of Chernobyl, where soil contamination

Modern environmental problems 207

41:bove 40 curies per square km resulted.111 Bryansk city, the regional capital located halfway between Moscow and Kiev, recorded a relatively low level of fallout. cuations began near Chernobyl within twelve hours of the accident. The number of

evacuated is unclear; the Soviet government in 1987 reported 90,000, but the r for Ukraine alone in 1994 was 130,000.112 Authorities closed an area within a

s of 30 km ( 19 mi) of the plant.113 The reactor was enclosed in a concrete "sarcopha- which was never completely sealed: a smaller release of radioactivity continued, and

!!racks later appeared in the concrete. !l the Bryansk Region, thousands were evacuated from villages with high contamination. tics of desolation were poignant; empty houses stood with open doors. A child's doll lay rhe sill of a broken window. Many evacuees were resettled in other regions and provided h jobs and housing, but a considerable number of them considered the arrangements · tisfactory. Children from radiation districts went to new schools only to find their class-

shunning them because they were afraid they might radiate on them, calling them wworms." Some families returned to reoccupy their homes. A typical comment was, better for us to live in the radiation zone with reasonable living conditions." But they ot appreciate the extent of danger to themselves and their children. Village folk living a Pioneer camp that was closed due to dangerous contamination took bricks and timber

jjll rhe buildings and used them to add rooms to their houses:' As months passed, illnesses d deaths resulting from exposure increased among those who had stayed in the radiation nc as well as those who returned. 'fhc official number of deaths due to the accident is 31, all workers at the nuclear plant.

I.It the real figure of those whose lives were shortened will never be known; it is in the iOusands and increasing. 114 Incidences of thyroid cancer, leukemia, and other radiation- lMcd illnesses among the exposed population are high. Children, since their bones and her organs are growing, are more liable to accumulate. radionuclides and suffer their ht:s. A coterie of dedicated teachers working in the radiation district reports that children .~ more likely to appreciate the dangers of radiation than their parents, who want to ntinue living as they always have and are unwilling to make behavioral changes that

... .11p,ht lessen exposure. Of course, children do not like to be told not to eat vegetables '.Jlnm their gardens, play in the forest, or fish or gather berries and mushrooms there. Avoid-

J1i/,\ some exposure is next to impossible; levels of radioactivity in milk fluctuate, rising ilh,1rply in summer when cattle graze in the fields. People must either stop their normal

j,u cractions with the ecosystems within which they live, or ingest radionuclides and · iltn1mulate exposure.

A problem of living in a fallout zone is extreme variability of levels of radioactivity over tli1>1T distances. My friend, Dr. Ludmila S. Zhirina, a teacher of ecology and education at

· .. llrvansk University, started an environmental NGO named "Viola." She and her associates provided schoolchildren and teachers with radiation meters and encouraged them to make 111.1ps of villages, fields, and forests, showing localized readings. Once they found that a pl.1yground had a high reading: the school paved it with a shielding layer. However, they discovered that the readings changed over time, and not just because of nuclear decay. ;\l.111y radioactive particles can and do move, blowing as dust and flowing in rainwater. To h11rn autumn leaves makes,radioactive smoke that contaminates other places. Peat, commo.g 111 the region, concentrates radioactivity and spreads it when used as fuel. Dr. Zhirina wrote ,111d distributed a pamphlet telling schoolchildren and their families how to protect !IH'mselves from radioactivity.115 But people who live in communities that will be heavily , ,,,naminated for the rest of their lives can only be "protected" in a relative sense; most

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208 Modern environmental problems

simple measures that are possible will probably prove ineffective over a long period ( ,!' time.

Virtually nothing can be done to protect the local biota. The effects of radioactive con tamination on an entire ecosystem, with the interaction of various forms of damage, are not well understood. A survey of soils in the Bryansk Region showed high contamination oi' agricultural lands over an area of720,200 ha (1,780,000 acres), or about 40 percent oftlic total.ll 6 In addition, about 415,400 ha (1,026,000 acres) or 35 percent of the forests were contaminated. The most important radioisotopes studied were cesium-137, which behavc~ chemically like potassium; and strontium-90, which resembles calcium. Living tissue readily absorbs both. Cesium-137, the most prevalent long-lived pollutant, has a half-life of thir1v

Figure 8.5 A young student in Novozybkov, Russia, using a radiation meter, in one of the areas with high radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear power accident in 1986. Photograph taken by Dr Ludmila Zhirina in 1989.

- -· --------- -----,-.--------~~----....-,~

Modern environmental problems 209

-,which means that half the amount deposited in the Chernobyl fallout will remain in ··and o~e-quarter in 2046. It is not easily leached out by water, and persists in the layer of soil. 117 Strontium-90, with a half-life of 28.8 years, is more mobile, and dan- to vertebrates because it collects in bones and may cause leukemia.

•her studies showed that radioisotopes were readily absorbed by plants including forest , Dr. Zhirina had begun dendroclimatological studies of forests in the region before the ent, and was able to make comparisons of the situation before and after. The effects . with species and intensity of radiation, sometimes in surprising ways.118 Conifers such

hies suffered more noticeably than deciduous trees, which shed some radioactivity with annual leafloss. The common Scots pine often died; in the most contaminated zones, 119

Ut 40 percent died within eight years. Many surviving pines showed yellowing, loss of Hes and branches, and drying of the upper crown, making them susceptible to diseases · tire. Wood vessels showed abnormal growth patterns. Trees under forty years of age

l'td worse than older trees, and plantations were more vulnerable than natural stands. At : II same time, in about 20 percent of the pines a marked increase occurred in the width of mual rings, unexpectedly. A possible reason is less competition from other trees that had td, or it might be an effect like the accelerated growth of cancer cells. A slowing of growth .(:urred in common oaks, especially in spring, when the buds were observed to open later ,in usual. Cambium cells (the cells that provide a tree's growth) decreased markedly in the rafter the accident; recovering slowly, but in plots with high radiation showed progres-

(' deterioration. Other scientists noted malformation in oak and maple leaves.120 Zhirina ired that some annual plants grew abnormally, possibly from radiation-induced muta- ms. A study by geneticists in 2000 verified this observation, reporting an elevated inci- lKC of mutations in the DNA of wheat grown in radioactively polluted areas near

fo.1rnobyl. 121

Long before Chernobyl, ecologists knew that radiation accumulates in food chains. Plants at the lower end of the chain; animals accumulate higher levels ofradioactivity in their

11cs, with highest doses occurring in top predators. This might result in local decline or inctions of species such as foxes, ermines, hawks, and eagles. In the Bryansk Region, ilogists measured cesium-137 concentrations in fish. 122 There is an increase of two to

1rcc times for every step up the food chain, so predatory fish such as pike and perch show Pl'C radioactivity per unit weight than bottom-feeders like roach and bream. Radiation alters genes, producing random mutations. Most of these are disadvantageous,

"rrsulting in infertility, premature death of offspring, or gross abnormalities. Bryansk news- ti;ipcrs published photographs of malformed births among domestic anin).als. Common

!ii< mnities among calves and foals included absence of the anal opening, of eyes, ears, ribs, ;hair, or up to three legs; misshapen skull, spine, legs, or internal organs; and presence of two

'·l\l:,tds. Such births were many times more common than before the accident, with a rise '1him 0.07 percent of total births in 1987 to 9.9 percent in 1989.123 Similar effects occur in 'Wild animals of virtually every species. Unfortunately they have also increased among 'hnnuns; children born after the event suffer its consequences and will suffer them for gen- t'r.11ions to come.

The Bryansk Region 'offers one example of a problem of worldwide dimensions that will .. ronrinue to affect the history of the community of life in future centuries. Chernobyl was by

!iiJ means the only major injection ofradioactive material into the environment. Since the first atomic test in 1945, the biosphere has been subjected to pollution by radioisotopes that l1,1ve raised background radiation above naturally occurring levels. Historically, increasing 1 ;1<l ioactivity has had an as yet unmeasured effect on the functioning of ecosystems, which

210 Modern environmental problems

mostly evolved in the presence oflow background levels. A significant change in the rate genetic mutation will have unpredictable effects on the functioning of the ecosystem and OIi the humans who are part of it. Eventually there may be adaptations by plants and animals, and ecosystems also, to conditions of higher radioactivity, but just what those adaptation~ might be will not be known for decades. Available evidence suggests serious disruptions of' the community oflife.

Environmental problems are worldwide, and the Soviet Union is far from a uniquil example of a system that produced environmental destruction. But it is interesting to con sider how it happened there. In the ideology that prevailed in the Soviet Union, human beings were considered to be wholly social creatures, human essence being determined by the system of social relations. This led to the conclusion that nature, external to culture, han no effect on human development. Economic and political considerations, therefore, alwayn prevailed over environmental ones. After the mid- l 960s, however, ecological problemn were embraced as weapons of propaganda, providing evidence for the superiority of th\l "socialist" economic order, which was assumed to provide for the well-being of the people, , The ecological crisis that alarmed people in the West was proclaimed an inevitable part of' the general crisis of the capitalist system. The possibility of environmental crisis in the Soviet Union was rejected because o(_the rational character of the ostensibly socialist economy, allowing planners to foresee the results ofindustrial development and to prevent such crises, But ecologically, good intentions remained good intentions while economic and politictl priorities took the upper hand.

The issue ofradioactive pollution had emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, as atrnospherk testing of weapons by the US, the USSR, the UK, and later France and China produced fallout of radioisotopes around the world, causing concern about the effects of radiation on humans and lesser concern about effects on other organisms. An American bomb test in 1954 exposed 236 Marshall islanders and 23 Japanese fishermen on the boat Lucky Dragon to high levels of radiation, causing at least two deaths.124 Other boats were contaminated. Radioactive fish were found in the Pacific, but the effects on marine ecosystems are little understood. Governments were secretive about nuclear information, especially when publk knowledge might have produced political repercussions. Radiation damage to people and livestock in Nevada and Utah was hushed up for years.125 However, the agencies with over, sight were interested in discovering effects on local ecosystems near test sites and produc, tion facilities. In the United States, for example, the Atomic Energy Commission hired ecologists to study and report on these effects.126 Various experiments were conducted, including the placement of' radiation sources in forests, and putting domestic animals and plant materials within test sites. The toll among wildlife in test sites around the world, and the contamination of island, desert, and arctic ecosystems with nucleotides, was severe, although natural recovery was also noted. Mutations of genetic material certainly occurred. As an undergraduate student in genetics, I worked with maize seeds derived from some that had been exposed to one of the tests at Bikini Atoll, and observed seedlings that grew, pale white in color, several centimeters in height before any chlorophyll appeared. This behavior had never been noted before; maize seedlings are ordinarily green from the time they emerge.

Not a test, but an accident involving release of radioactivity was a fire at the Windscalc military reactor in Britain in 1957. This was followed by a terrible accidental explosion of buried radioactive materials early the next year in the Soviet Union at Kyshtym in the Urals. This contaminated forests, farms, and cities, but was kept secret and the extent of damage to ecosystems and the human population is still unknown.

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Modern environmental problems 211

an on testing in the atmosphere, oceans, and space was proposed by leading scientists blic figures, but a conference of experts failed to reach agreement. Then in 1962,

1e American blockade of a Soviet attempt to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, war en nuclear powers came close. People around the world were aware that such a war have effects on them as radioactive particles would be carried by currents in the

sphere and deposited by precipitation. This had happened with more than 500 tests y held. There was concern among scientists that radioactivity was damaging the

tic material of humans and other life forms, and producing cancers and other illnesses. Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty of 1963 was signed by the US, the USSR, the UK, and

re than a hundred other nations. France and China, both of whom wished to continue , refused to sign. Underground tests, permitted under the treaty, continued for a

mber of years. A non-proliferation treaty of 1968, intended to prevent the spread of dear weapons to other nations, was ratified by most nations, but avoided by those most :Jy to join the nuclear club. India, a non-signer, conducted an atmospheric test in 1974,

both India and Pakistan tested in 1998. Several nations kept their capabilities secret; _ n some signatories were suspected of trying to get their own bombs. Other treaties #tween the United States and the Soviet Union, and the breakup of the USSR in the 990s, promised to reduce the danger of nuclear war, but weapons remained, along with Jc possibility of use by extremist national leadertor terrorists, or of a renewed confronta-

n between the great powers. In 1999, the US Senate rejected a nuclear arms limitation aty. ln the "Cold War" period in thel 980s, certain scientists emphasized the potential world- de environmental effects of nuclear war, predicting that they might constitute some of the

1ost catastrophic results of human activity on Earth that can be conceived.127 Not only lasts and radiation needed to be considered; they warned, but also the tremendous quanti- cs of dust and smoke particulates which would enter the atmosphere from the explosions 1d the firestorms they would produce in cities and forests. Some scientists predicted that icse particulates might block out the Sun's heat and light, killing plants and animals in a nuclear winter." Nuclear technology was also used for power generation. Electricity was experimentally

cncrated in 1951, and commercial power later became available. Nuclear energy seemed ~tc and inexpensive, without some of the pollution problems of fossil fuel. By 1987, there 'ere 417 plants in operation in twenty-seven nations, generating 17 percent of the world's

tlcctricity, with 120 additional units planned.128 The nations with the highest capacity were Jlw United States, France, the Soviet Union, Japan, Germany, Canada, and the UK. l Jowever, orders for new plants had decreased. There had been no new licenses in the l lnited States since 1978. Costs had been higher than expected, the problem of storage of

Jnng-lived radioactive wastes - there is no way to dispose of them -was troublesome, and The number of accidents involving core damage was disturbingly high. Equipment failure · and human error produced an accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island plant, Pennsylva- \1ia, which destroyed 35 percent of the reactor core and caused release ofradioactive mate- rial to the environment. Although damage to humans and the ecosystem was small, a potential danger was recognized by the public.

Some of the radioisotopes have exceptionally long half-lives and will remain dangerous ,1frcr thousands of years. "There is no precedent in technology for the long periods of time li,r which risk assessments are required iri radioactive waste management ... or the amounts o/' radioactive materials that should be permitted to enter the biosphere in future millen- 11 ia." 129 Radioactive wastes have been treated in a number of unsatisfactory ways: storage

212 Modern environmental problems

on-site, injection through wells into deep rock formations, and dumping in containers onto the seabed with the possibility of rupture of the containers and contamination of the hydro" sphere. International restrictions now forbid dumping at sea, but are difficult to enforce. At present, the recommended method is storage in underground chambers excavated in stable formations of rock or salt. There are difficulties with estimating future problems of earth• quake faults and groundwater pollution, and one limiting factor in democratic societies has been the unwillingness of people to allow such facilities, not to mention the plants them- selves, to be located near their homes; the acronym used for the phenomenon is "NIMBY" ("Not In My Back Yard").

The experience of Chernobyl, discussed in this section, and a dozen other accidents prompted a pause in the growth of the nuclear power industry around the world, except for France and a few other nations that remain firmly committed to it. More recently, some have advocated a reevaluation of nuclear power as an alternative to sources using fossil fuels that generate carbon dioxide effluents.

How did it happen that modem humans decided to introduce active substances into the ecosystems of which they are an inextricable part, substances which are degradable only over long periods of time and for which organisms and natural systems lack resistance? The usual answer is that fear and competition on both sides of the international political divide drove nations to do so. Another answer is that humans thought of themselves as separate from the rest of the biosphere, so that they would be protected by distance or by dilution of danger- ous substances. But radioactive products were carried in the atmosphere to every part of the Earth. Yet another answer is that they intended to isolate radioactivity within safe containers such as reactor core protection systems, concrete sarcophagi, or safe buildings at plutonium production plants, all of which, in some times and places, have ruptured or leaked. Every form of technology experiences accidents from time to time. The nature of human beings is to learn by trial and error, but eventually if unpredictably to make errors. Inescapably, Pandora will open the box.

Denver: a sense of place

I lean on the railing of my tenth-story balcony and try to sense my place, the city where I live. The Rocky Mountains form an irregular horizon to the west. Many people think of Denver as being in the Rockies, but the city is on the High Plains and looks almost flat from here. Although much land is paved, most of what I see is green; in this older residential section the urban forest flourishes in spite of the inroads of Dutch elm disease. Strictly speaking, it is not a forest. When the leaves fall, they are swept up to be carried away by a Public Works Department contractor, not left to decay and form soil. Most trees are exotics: elms and maples planted by homesick easterners, or Colorado blue spruce and aspens giving the illusion of a Rocky Mountain environment, though their true habitat begins at an elevation 300 m (1,000 ft) above the city. The only large native tree is the cottonwood, which will not grow far from water. Neither will a city, in the Mountain West.

I can glimpse a watercourse from where I stand: Harvard Gulch, a minor feeder of the South Platte River, itself a tributary of the Platte, Missouri, and Mississippi.130 I can't hear the little stream over the irregular noise of traffic on University Boulevard, the occasional airplane headed for Denver International Airport, and the distant hum ofinterstate 25. Are there any sounds not of human origin? Yes, the west wind in the trees, the buzz of cicadas, and the trill of a finch on a neighbor's balcony. Is my city, Denver, an ecosystem, or part of an ecosystem?131 In what ways?

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Modern environmental problems 213

answers would have been easier L40 years ago, when Utes, Arapahoe, and Cheyennes t of the Front Range. Then this was High Plains habitat, the short grass prairie m, the western shore of a sea of grass.132 It was a complex community of plants ted by perennial grasses such as buffalo grass, western wheatgrass, bluestem, blue wiregrass, switchgrass, sand dropseed, needle-and-thread; and other tough species,

'ng yucca, mallows, yellow-rayed composites, and cactuses. Most was plowed up or azed decades ago, invaded by introduced weeds like cheatgrass, bindweed; thistle, ickly lettuce. logically, the city is the result of an historical process of change from the ecosystem urished in this place before Euro-American settlement. In the early days, the short-

prairie was a veritable Serengeti; the dominant herbivore was the American bison, s called buffalo here. There was a buffalo wallow on the present site of North Lake in ington Park. The Denver Zoo acquired buffalo in 1898, a few months after the last herd in the state was killed; the captive herd thrived by 1908.133 In pre-settlement

es, there were antelope in tens of thousands. A remnant survives at the Plains Conserva- .l Center, ·a stretch of the High Plains that long provided environmental education, but

is surrounded by subdivisions and too valuable (land is a commodity) to keep in its ural state; land managers are searching for a substitute further out. In the past, there ·c elk and bighorn sheep, and still are mule deer and white-tailed deer. Beaver live along ,Hns and build dams; they are now considered pests because they cut down trees with ir ample teeth. Predators then were wolf and grizzly bear, now missing. Rarely, black r or mountain lion get in as far as our part of town, but Animal Control finds them, lquilizes them, and takes them to be released in some unspecified spot in the mountains foiling that, shoots them dead. Coyotes are prevalent. Smaller wildlife still exist in sur-

~ing numbers inside the city, along with opportunistic introduced species that live in w1 environments elsewhere: mice, rats, pigeons, and starlings. 134 During walks along

iuvard Gulch, especially before the vest-pocket cattail marsh was removed to "improve" ;iinage, I have seen muskrats, foxes, and a beaver (and know there are skunks and rac- 011s), bats swooping over the stream in the evening, and birds - mallards, Canada geese, stern tanagers, magpies, saw-whet owls, kingfishers (there are tiny fish, frogs, and leeches the water), and others too numerous to list. Compared to the biological richness of the

tlctcenth-century Great Plains, what remains is fragmentary, but the fragments reassert .rmselves whenever permitted. I have seen kestrels nesting on a tower at the University of wver. Restoration of species that have been lost is a possibility. The Denver Museum of Mural History co-sponsored a successful project with the Colorado Division ofWildlife to k1se peregrine falcons on high-rise buildings in downtown Denver. ;\ spectacular illustration of the ability of the ecosystem to repair itself is Rocky Mountain

J~rnal, an area of 8,059 ha (19,915 acres) between Denver's old and new airports. 135

J\diire the 1940s, it was farmland dotted with lakes, but was taken by the military during Jhr Second World War for production of munitions and chemical agents, which continued Jln1il 1969. Afterwards, through the 1970s until 1985, the arsenal was used as a site to drs1roy munitions and chemically related items. Coincidentally, from 1946 to 1982 the Anny leased facilities to private industries such as Shell Oil Company for production of pest icicles and herbicides. Pollution took place on the surface and also in the geological

: ,1 r.11 a underground, since a deep injection well for toxic fluids, drilled to a depth of 3,671 m t 12,045 ft), was used from 1961 to 1966, when it became apparent that it was triggering

. 1.1t1111erous earthquakes, and its operation ceased. Due to the release of a wide variety of , ni111aminants on the surface, soil and water became so toxic that animals and birds died

214 Modern environmental problems

from contact with them, and human access had to be restricted. Nonetheless, wildlife infiltrated and prospered in less polluted zones. Deer, raptors, white pelicans, and songbirds proliferated; up to 100 bald eagles established nests. Perhaps 50,000 prairie dogs (the object of eradication in much of the rest of the city)136 lived in the arsenal along with bur- rowing owls, badgers, coyotes, and ferruginous hawks. More than forty-six species of mammals and 176 of birds have been identified. In 1992 much of the land was designated a potential National Wildlife Refuge and, although cleanup has been slow and is now sched- uled for completion in 2011, the Fish and Wildlife Service operates guided tours and a visitor center. Photographs of deer herds with high-rise downtown Denver in the back ground are reminiscent of Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Adding to the wildlife scene, a herd of bison was transferred from the National Bison Range in Montana to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in 2007.

Despite proximity, Denver residents are no longer closely dependent on the local eco system for food. Restaurants such as the Buckhorn Exchange downtown, and the Fort in nearby Morrison, serve old-time fare like buffalo and elk steaks, pheasant, and Rocky Moun- tain oysters (bulls' testicles), but some of the meat may be imported from Canada, and the last two dishes named are from introduced species. Anyway, few can afford game very often, even if they shoot the animals,themselves. The affluent majority breakfast on cereals grown in Iowa and packaged in Michigan, oranges from California, and, in winter, peaches from Chile. They live in houses built of Oregon Douglas fir timber, wear shirts sewn in Bangladesh, and use electricity generated from Colorado coal, but supplemented by a grid spanning the

Figure 8.6 Denver's downtown skyline from Broadway, next to the state capitol. Although ,\ photograph such as this may seem to record only the works of humans, even th(! center of a modern city is inhabited by many other species and continues to be ,Ill ecosystem, even if much changed, impacted, and altered. Photograph taken by Dr M.D. Subash Chandran in 1996.

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Modern environmental problems 215

Like all modern cities, Denver is largely inhabited not by "ecosystem people" who t mainly with the local environment, but by "biosphere people" who import and resources as components of the world market economy.138

the early twentieth century, people with lung diseases came to Denver to recuperate in · can air. But coal smoke from industries and home heating prompted a smoke abate- ordinance in 1911.139 Improvements due to replacement of coal by natural gas were out by adoption of the automobile. Today the air quality is among the worst in the

Like Los Angeles, Denver suffers from temperature inversions that trap pollutants in a 11 near the mountains, and, like Mexico City, it is at a high elevation where internal

ustion engines operate less efficiently. Major causes of air pollution are motor vehicle tion, power generation using coal, industrial processes, and wood burning in fire- . Mandatory wood-burning restrictions go into effect on winter days when there are 'ons. Controls on emissions from stationary sources, anti-pollution devices and

cctions of motor vehicles, and use of oxygenated fuels have reduced levels of carbon toxide, ozone, and particulates, but the increase in numbers of vehicles, even with trol devices and less polluting fuels, may cause air quality to deteriorate again in future ades. 140 Public transportation in the form of buses and an expanding light rail system 1 park-and-ride centers has helped to moderate the increase in automobile traffic. Pollu- is not only damaging to human health, but.also affects other parts of the ecosystem.

its help to ameliorate air pollution, but many species such as pines are weakened or killed it.

l)enver's need for water has visibly rearranged the region's hydrology.141 The first project, iy Ditch, was begun in 1859, the year of settlement. Ground water was plentiful but ,jcct to pollution, and its level fell, so Denver exploited its river. The first masonry dam ; in 1900; today there are more than 780 dams and reservoirs in the South Platte drain- . The Denver Water Department (DWD) soon realized that the South Platte would be

adequate to supply agriculture and urban growth, so it began to acquire rights over the mtinental Divide in the Colorado River watershed. Water flowed from the Western Slope rough the Moffat Tunnel in 1936, and Dillon Reservoir, able to store 310 million cum 54,000 acre-feet), doubled Denver's supply in 1963. The other side of the coin was uced stream flow and wetland depletion in the mountain tributaries that were siphoned

to aqueducts. In the 1980s the DWD proposed a $500 million project to store water for h:clerating growth: Two Forks Dam, planned to. rise 187 m ( 615 ft) and flood 48 km (30

J11i) ;tlong the river valley. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)142 withheld approval r:if11c to potential violation of the Clean Water Act and probable effect on wildlife habitat. In June 1996 a federal judge upheld that ruling.

· In the 1980s the DWD supported mandatory and voluntary measures to reduce lawn ;iv,ncring, which uses more than half the supply brought into the city. The latter fact under- Jines an important ecological effect of water transfer to the urban area. It creates an artificial >i'rosystem, an oasis in the arid high plains, with planted trees, shrubs, and grasses. Aggres-

~ivc introduced trees such as green ash, Russian olive, and Chinese elm crowd out the native , i ort on woods. Eastern birds move in and hybridize with, or replace, native species, and there

ill c English sparrows and starlings to contend with. The urban forest is undergoing eco- loKical succession, and it is not always the succession people want. A program aimed at lrvcrsing the trend is xeriscaping: landscaping with plants that require less water, especially l liµ;h Plains natives that can survive on local rainfall. The DWD conducts seminars and H1,1intains a xeriscape demonstration garden. Although xeriscaping is still rare on residential "' n:cts, new corporate buildings have used it.

216 Modern environmental problems

What happens to the water that goes down the drain, and what it contains? The Metro district returns 630 million litres ( 140 million gallons) of water a day to the river. Before the 1980s, the river below the foaming sewage outlet at Northside was a biological desert, its fish killed by ammonia, nitrogen, and a deficiency of oxygen. But the Environmental Protection Agency assessed fines and ordered major changes. Now the effluent has improved so much that the river below the plant can be used for recreation, and 85 percent of the dry sludge removed from it is used as fertilizer; the rest goes to landfills along with the city's solid waste. Methane gas from the treatment process is used as an energy source at the plant. Downstream, 90 percent of the river's volume is treated urban effluent, and boaters between newly replanted riverbanks float on reclaimed sewage. Metro Wastewater and EPA operate a laboratory to improve water recycling technology, and have demonstrated that treated water could be cleaner than water now coming out of taps in Denver. The DWD hopes that 20 percent of the water shortfall expected by 2045 can be supplied by recycling.

Residents are never far from open space; Denver has one of the most extensive public park systems in the US - 206 city parks, plus parkways and bicycle paths, as well as a constellation of mountain parks west of the city. Varying from traditional parks with manicured lawns and flowerbeds to natural forest, they provide refuges within the ecosystem. Historically, the evolution of the,park system seesawed between ambitious projects and cautious penny- pinching. Curtis Park, the first one, was donated by a real estate developer in 1868. Four- teen years later, Mayor Richard Sopris purchased 128 ha (320 acres) from the state for City Park, which soon had an artificial body of water, Duck Lake. The Denver Zoo was estab- lished in City Park in 1896 with the purpose of displaying only native Colorado wildlife. Within two years the zoo acquired bison; · as noted above, the last wild bison herd in the state was slaughtered during those two years, so the zoo participated in saving a captive population of an enqangered species before that became a major announced purpose of zoos.143 Display of non-native species began when monkeys proved to be a drawing card for children; today the zoo exhibits everything from okapis to snow leopards. The Museum of Natural History, built not far from the zoo in 1904, has become one of the leading institu- tions of its kind in the US.

Robert W. Speer, mayor from 1904 to 1912, led Denver in doubling the area of its parks, building an eighteen-mile network of parkways with tree-dad medians, and gaining voter approval for creatic;m of a system of mountain parks and drives. 144 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., creator of the first curriculum in landscape architecture in the US at Harvard, was com- missioned to design it. 145 By 1935, Denver owned 8,500 ha (21,900 acres) of mountain parkland close enough to be enjoyed in a day's outing, including Winter Park Ski Area. But the war years cut travel, and the costs of providing infrastructure for a burgeoning postwar population meant neglect of the parks.146 The Mountain Parks property tax was dropped, and the city divested itself of more than a third of the mountain parks area, slashing staff and budget. Parks inside the city also suffered. A number of volunteer non-governmental groups stepped into the breach, including the Parks People and the Denver Urban Forest Group, organizing public support that succeeded in voting $59 million for parks in a 1989 bond issue, including renewal of the South Platte riparian corridor and a greenway plan. The 108 km (68 mi) High Line Canal has become a tree-lined recreational amenity with a trail for hiking, jogging, biking, and horseback riding. Concern for biodiversity was shown by two programs to reestablish species: the Denver Zoo's help in the Species Survival Plan by breeding the rare Bali mynah and thirty other species, 147 and, closer to home, the release of peregrine falcons not only in the mountains, but also on high-rise buildings in downtown

i t,,letr(I ~eforr rsert, ie111.il · loved

dry ity'1; 1h11

Modern environmental problems 217

rv111re 8.7 McWilliams Park, on Harvard Gulch in Denver, in winter. One of more than 200 parks in the city, it offers open space and amenities such as a bicycle path and playground. Wildlife seen here includes many birds such as kingfishers and tanagers, and mammals such as foxes, muskrats, and even occasionally a beaver.

lknver. 148 The latter project was co-sponsored by the Colorado Wildlife Federation, the Jirnvcr Museum of Natural History, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. - My city is only one example of urban ecosystems around the world. There are other cities ,1-ltosc settings resemble Denver's: Calgary stretches out on the high plains of Alberta with _il 1kw of the Canadian Rockies, and Alma Ata in Kazakhstan is correspondingly placed

low the snow-capped Tien Shan. But the similarity of the ecological processes at work in H cities calls for emphasis.

The character of a locality may be a reason why a city appeared there. But the original i,system altered as the city expanded. Native species disappeared as their habitats, the rrsts or grasslands, shrank and were replaced by power poles and paving. Usually the new Illian residents did not tolerate the larger animals, especially predators. Pollution killed f_1;1 nisms or weakened their resistance to diseases. The chemical balance of the air changed,

i\d fish died in contaminated waters. 149 l'he original ecosystems did not simply disappear. They were transformed step by step

HO urban-specific ecosystems. The climate altered: as a rule, urban environments have · · her temperatures and lower humidity than the surrounding countryside, along with

,kcr winds, less sunshine, more clouds, and higher precipitation. Some of these phenom- rcsult from the "heat-island" effect of large cities.150 An urban forest may replace the

_nwr plant cover, but in some parts of the city there may be almost no vegetation. Some 1ivc species can adapt to these conditions: in India, predatory pariah kites soar in city

218 Modern environmental problems

skies, ready to swoop down and grab whatever morsel may present itself. Then there an: interstices, protected parks that provide refuges within the ecosystem, or neglected frag ments, often called "wasteland," containing some of the earlier assemblage of plants and animals. Vulnerable to invasions and extinctions, they also demonstrate that not every part of the city is subject to human planning.

Another universal fact about urban ecology is that the ecosystem is not contained within the city limits.151 City, countryside, and wilderness are parts of a mutually dependent system.152 Like other cities, Denver stimulated suburbs, first by cable cars and trolleys, then automobile~. Suburban malls threaten to eclipse downtown. Rural landscapes alter as high ways generate "strip cities," in Brazil and India as well as the US. Cities import water and energy over hundreds, and food over thousands, of kilometers. Forests are felled because cities need futl, paper, and timber. No wilderness is so isolated as not to feel the influences of cities, from acids in the air and pollutants in the water to the noise of jet planes. City folk no longer depend only on local or regional resources; they are involved with the ecosystems of the Earth.

City planning must increasingly take the biotic community into account, and work toward sustainable urban ecosystems.153 The urban forest requires holistic management no less than the national forests. In the firial paragraph of The City in History, Lewis Mumford wrote, "The final mission of the city is to further man's conscious participation in the cosmic and the historie-process."154 To that, I would add the ecological process.

Conclusion

Humans in the first half of the twentieth century did things to the natural environment that were quite new, compared to what went before. In the second half, they produced changes that were truly revolutionary. Processes that were previously regarded as of "natural" origin and beyond human influence except possibly to ameliorate their effects are now seen to hav(· human activities involved in their causes. Some of these processes are climatic change, the chemical composition of rainfall and the atmosphere, the abundance and availability of fresh water, variations in the ozone layer and ultraviolet radiation received from the Sun, the stimulation of earthquakes, the emergence and spread of diseases, the genetic evolution of species, and the radioactive decay of elements. This does not mean that humans have achieved their control; far from it. What it does mean is that human activities, now of unprecedented dimensions and power, have had unintended effects for good and ill upon the systems of the Earth, effects that we are beginning to understand. We have found it extremely difficult to moderate the undesirable effects. We cannot yet clean up the radioac- tivity after an accident like Chernobyl, and the prospects of slowing global warming arc truly daunting. Once we might have thought that the Earth was too vast to be changed significantly by humankind; now we see that we have changed the Earth, but in ways that may threaten us. Still, humans can be intelligent and creative. What achievements with potential for guiding change have we made in science, new technology, and in worldwide institutions? This question will be addressed further in Chapter 9.

Notes

1 T. Schneider, ed., Acidification and Its Policy Implications: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Amsterdam, May 5-9, 1986, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1986; National Research Council, Acid Deposition: Long-Term Trends, Washington, DC, National Academy Press, 1986.

Modern environmental problems 219

ert Angus Smith, Air cmd Rain: The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology ( 18 72 ); Ellis B. Cowling, dd Precipitation in Historical Perspective," Environmental Science and Technology 16, 2, 1982; "An id'Rain Chronology," .EPA Journal, June/July 1986, 18-19; Elisabeth Johann, "The Impact of ustry on Landscape and Environment in Austria from the Second Part of the 19th Century to 4," unpublished, presented at "Forests, Habitats and Resources: A Conference in World Environ- tal History," Duke University, Durham, NC, 30 April-2 May, 1987.

tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 1995, 3 vols, Cambridge, Cambridge niversity Press, 1996, Vol. 1, 5. Sherwood Rowland, "A Threat to Earth's Protective Shield," EPA Journal, December 1986, 4-6;

. hard S. Stolarski, "The Antarctic Ozone Hole," Scientific American 258, January 1988, 30---6; Tim :Smart and Joseph Weber, "An Ozone Hole Over Capitol Hill," Business Week,April 4, 1988, 35 . . Philip Shabecoff, "DuPont to Stop Malcing Chemicals that Peril Ozone," New York Times, March 25, ;:1988, 1, 9; William Glaberson, "Behind DuPont's Shift on Loss of Ozone Layer," New York Times, March 26, 1988, 17, 19.

, :Timothy H. Quinn et. al., Projected Use, Emissions, and Banks of Potential Ozone-Depleting Substances, Santa Monica, CA, Rand, 1986; Kathleen A. Wolf, Regulating Chlorofluorocarbon Emissions: Effects on Chemical Production, Santa Monica, CA, Rand, 1980. D.B. Grigg, The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach, London, Cambridge ,University Press, 1974, 180. Ibid., 173. [bid., 55. World Resources Institute, World Resources 1994-95, New York, Oxford University Press, 1994, 294-5. Jan G. Laarman, "Export of Tropical Hardwoods in the Twentieth Century," in World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century,, Durham, Duke University Press, 1988, 147-63, 149. Fred Gale, The Tropical Timber Trade Regime, London, MacMillan, 1998, 2. James T. Thomson, "Deforestation and Desertification in Twentieth-Century Arid SahelianAfrica," in John F. Richards and Richard Tucker, eds, World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1988, 70-90, at 84. Michael Williams, "Forests," in B.L. Turner, ed., The Earth as Transformed by Human Action, Cam- bridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 179-201, at 191. Richard P. Tucker, Insatiable Appetite.'. The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2000, 347. John Dargavel, "Changing Capital Structure, the State, and Tasmanian Forestry," in Richards and Tucker, eds, World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century, 189-210. J.W. Maurits la Riviere, "Threats to the World's Water," in Managing Planet Earth, New York, W.H. Freeman & Co., 1990, 37-48, at 41. Adam Markham, A Brief History of Pollution, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1994, 53; figures from World Health Organization, Our Planet, Our Health, Geneva, 1992. Harry E. Schwarz et at., "Water Quality and Flows," in Turner, ed., Earth as Transformed by Human Action, 253-70, at 264. Alwyne Wheeler, The Tidal Thames; The History of a River and Its Fishes, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, 144-55. George St. George, Siberia, New York, David McKay, 1969, 162-81. Ibid., 162. Charles E. Ziegler, Environmental Policy in the USSR, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1987, 53-7; Boris Komarov, The Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union White Plains, NY, M.E. Sharpe, 1980, 3-19; Craig ZumBrunnen, "The Lake Baikal Controversy: A Serious Water Pollution Threat or a Turning Point in Soviet Environmental Consciousness?" in Ivan Volgyes, ed., Environmen- tal Deterioration in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, New York, Praeger, 1974, 80-122; Marshall I. Goldman, The Spoils of Progress: Environmental Pollution in the Soviet Union, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1972, 178-209; Philip R. Pryde, Conservation in the Soviet Union, Cambridge, Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 1972, 147-51. Heard by the author at a conference in the Pribaikalskaya Lodge in August 1987.

lS International Commission on Large Dams (I COLD), World Register of Dams, 1988 Updating, Paris, ICOLD, 1989, 25-7.

I I I i . ,

220 Modern environmental problems

26 Mark I. L'Vovich et al., "Use and Transformation ofTerrestrial Water Systems," in Turner, ed., Earth as Transformed by Human Action, 235-52, at 239.

27 Gilbert F. White, "The Environmental Effects of the High Dam at Aswan," Environment 30, 7, Sep• tember 1988, 4.

28 Shen Gengcal, "Three Gorges Needs to Power Ahead," China Environment News 32, March 1992, 4-5.

29 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Marine Fisheries and the Law of the Sea: A Decade of Change, FAO Fisheries Circular 853, Rome, 1992, 4-7.

30 World Resources Institute, World Resources 1994--95, New York, Oxford University Press, 1994, 187. 31 Ralph H. Lutts, "Chemical Fallout: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Radioactive Fallout, and the Envi-

ronmental Movement," Environmental Review 9, 3, Fall 1985, 210-25 . 32 Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, New York, Henry Holt, 1997. 33 I witnessed an incident in 1952 when, as part of a U.S. Forest Service training program, an airplane

demonstrated the spraying of DDT on a Douglas fir forest to kill spruce budworms. There may or may not have been spruce budworms in the trees that were sprayed, but the trainees, including myself, were certainly exposed to the DDT, which was at that time considered harmless to humans.

34 Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1962, 6. 35 Frank Graham, Jr., Since Silent Spring, Greenwich, CT, Fawcett Publications, 1970, 59-63. 36 Paul Brooks, The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1972,

297, citing Time, September 28, 1962. 37 H. Patricia Hynes, The Recurring Silent Spring, New York, Pergamon Press, 1989, 18. 38 Arthur George Tansley, "The Use and Abuse ofVegetational Concepts and Terms," Ecology 16, 3,

1935, 284-307, at 299. Noted in Frank Benjamin Golley, A History of the Ecosystem Concept in Ecology: More Than the Sum of the Parts, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1993, 8.

39 Samuel Hays, "From Conservation to Environment: Environmental Politics in the United States since World War Two," Environmental Review 6, 2, 1982, 14-41; and Samuel Hays, Beau-&y, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955-1985, Cambridge, Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 1987.

40 Jane Belo, Bali: Rangda and Barong, Monographs of the American Ethnological Society 16, New York, J.J. Augustin, 1949.

41 Bruce P. Wheatley, The Sacred Monkeys of Bali, Prospect Heights, IL, Waveland Press, 1999. 42 Tony Whitten, Roehayat Emon Soeriaatmadja, and Surayat A. Afiff, The Ecology of Java and Bali, Sin-

gapore, Periplus Editions, 1996, 227-31. 43 Albert Ravenholt, "Man-Land-Productivity Microdyna,rnics in Rural Bali," American Universities Field

Staff Reports, Southeast Asia Series 21, 4, 1973, 1. 44 Fred B. Eiseman, Jr., Bali: Sekala and Niskala, 2 vols, Singapore, Periplus, 1990, Vol. 2, 285. 45 J. Stephen Lansing, Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali,

Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1991, 12. 46 Jane E. Stevens, "Engineered Paradise," Earth: The Science of Our Planet 3, 6, November 1994, 47. 47 I Made Ponti ofTambanan, Bali, "Rice Culture," talk and interview, February 27, 1994. 48 Lansing, Priests andc Programmers, 54. 49 Ponti, "Rice Culture." 50 Lansing, Priests and Programmers, 130. 51 Ibid., 65. 52 Ibid., 67. 53 Clifford Geertz, Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali, Princeton, NJ, Princeton Uni-

versity Press, 1980, 82. 54 Ponti, "Rice Culture." 55 Carol Warren, Adat and Dinas: Balinese Communities in the Indonesian State, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford

University Press, 1993, 37. · 56 Ponti, "Rice Culture." 57 A.J. Bernet Kempers, Monumental Bali: Introduction to Balinese Archaeology, Berkeley, Periplus Edi-

tions, 1991, 33-49. 58 Fredrik Barth, Balinese Worlds, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993, 70. 59 Colonial administrators may have been misled by a scholarly theory of ancient irrigation systems which

held that they arose with the state and, in particular, with the institution of kingship. According to this

Modern environmental problems 221

ry, only "oriental despots" could command the employment of enough workers to construct and ntain canals and aqueducts. tephen Lansing, The Three Worlds of Bali, New York, Praeger, 1983, 135-7. tt Pearson et al., Rice Policy in Indonesia, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1991, 11. 1dolph Barker et al., The Rice Economy of Asia, Washington, DC, Resources for the Future, 1985,

a Jayasuriya and I. Ketut Nehen, "Bali: Economic Growth and Tourism," in Hal Hill, ed., Unity Diversity: Regional Economic Development in Indonesia since 1970, Singapore: Oxford University

1989, 331; Eiseman, Bali: Seka/a and Niskala, Vol. 2,285. Streatfield, Fertility Decline in a Traditional Society: The Case of Bali, Indonesian Population Mon-

aph Series 4, Department of Demography, Canberra, Australian National University, 1986, 9. ol Warren, "Adat and Dinas: Village and State in Contemporary Bali," in Hildred Geertz, ed., State Society in Bali: Historical, Textual and Anthropological Approaches, Leiden, KITLV Press, 1991,

233. Michael Lipton, New Seeds and Poor People, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989 .

. Gary E. Hansen, Agricultural and Rural Development in Indonesia, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1981, 65-7.

James J. Fox, "Managing the Ecology of Rice Production in Indonesia," in Joan Hardjono, ed., Indo- uesia: Resources, Ecology, and Environment, Singapore, Oxford University Press, 1991, 67.

··•·Lansing, Priests and Programmers, 112. Barker et al., The Rice Economy of Asia, 64-5.

· Dansing, Priests and Programmers, 114. :Ibid., 117-26; see also the film by Dr. Andre Singer, "The Goddess and the Computer," 1988. Stevens, "Engineered Paradise," 53. World Resources Institute, World Resources 1986, New York, Basic Books, 1986, 43, 57. Stevens, "Engineered Paradise," 54. Oekan Soekotjo Abdoellah, Indonesian Transmigrants and Adaptation: An Ecological-Anthropological Perspective, Center for Southeast Asia Studies Monograph 33, Berkeley, Centers for South and South- east Asia Studies, University of California at Berkeley, 1993. The subtitle was suggested by a line, "Who will hold the sky up, now the big trees are down?" in the song by Douglas Wood and Edith Rylander, lyrics, "The Big Trees Are Down," in Douglas Wood, Earth Songs, NorthSound NSAC 27124, Minocqua, WI, North Word Press, 1992. For readers unfamiliar with Oregon pronunciation, it should be noted that Willamette is pronounced to rhyme with "God damn it!", not "Want to bet?" I had a very similar experience on Logger Butte, the lookout station where I worked during the follow- ing summer in 1951. A road was bulldozed to Logger Butte in 1966, and one also reached Hills Peak. Both lookout buildings have since been removed (Hills Peak in 1966; Logger Butte in 1969) except for wooden platforms. See Donna Marie Hartmans, "Historic Lookout Stations on the WNF: Manage- ment Plans for Preservation," Master's Thesis, University of Oregon, 1991. David J. Brooks, "Federal Timber Supply Reductions in the Pacific Northwest: International Environ- mental Effects," Journal of Forestry 93, 7, 1995, 29-33. In the US, the range of the northern spotted owl extends from the eastern slopes of the Cascade Moun- tains to the Pacific coast in Washington, Oregon, and parts of northern California. It also occurs in British Columbia. · Harold K Steen, The U.S. Forest Service: A History, Seattle, University ofWashington Press, 1976, 74. USDA, FS, The Principal Laws Relating to Forest Service Activities, Agricultural Handbook 453, Wash- ington, DC, GPO, 1978, 138-9, quoted in David A. Clary, Timber and the Forest Service, Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 1986, 22. Ibid. In the Multiple Use~Sustained Yield Act of June 12, 1960. See J. Michael McCloskey, "Natural Resources - National Forests -- The Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960," Oregon Law Review 41, December 1961, 49-78. Gibney File, WNF Historical File, April 1, 1965, quoted in Richardson, Elmo, "Willamette National Forest: The History ofa Public Enterprise," Report to the USDA Forest Service, MS, July 1982, 167. A copy of the latter is available at the Library of the Forest History Society, 701 Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701. Richardson, "Willamette National Forest," 85.

222 Modern environmental problems

88 Larry D. Harris, The Fragmented Forest: Island Biogeography Theory and the Preservation of Biotic Div1:1· si-ty, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1984, 108-13. The distance of the "edge effect" average·, two to three times the average tree height; in old-growth Douglas fir forest, that could easily hr 200-250 m (600-750 ft).

89 Available figures from the period 1915-24. 90 John R Bruckart, "Taming a Wild Forest," in US Department of Agriculture, Trees: The Yearboofl of

.Agriculture, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, 1949, 326--34. 91 Arthur H. Carhart, Timber in Your Life, Philadelphia, PA, J.B. Lippincott, 1955, 141. 92 The best study of the French Pete issue, on which this account is based, is Gerald W. Williams, "Tlw

French Pete Wilderness Controversy, 1937-1978: A Leadership Case Study," unfortunately unpub lished at present but possibly available from the USPS Pacific Northwest Region, P.O. Box 3623, Portland, OR A good, even if biased, description can be found in Ralcestraw, History of the Willamett,· National Forest, 111-15. My uncle, Emmett Underwood Blanchfield, a landscape architect and recrea tional planner for the USPS, assisted Marshall in this survey.

93 Roy A. Elliott, "A Year to Remember," Timberlines 11,-May 1957, 3-4. 94 Ralcestraw, History of the Willamette National Forest, 145. 95 Peter H. Morrison, Old Growth in the Pacific Northwest: A Status Report, Washington, DC, The Wilder

ness Society, 1988, quoted in Elliot A. Norse, Ancient Forests of the Pacific Northwest, Washington, DC, Island Press, 1990, 243-51.

96 16 USC 1532. See Richard B. Watson and Dennis D. Muraoka, "The Northern Spotted Owl Contro- versy," Society and Natural Resources 5, 1, 1992, 85-90.

97 Jeb Boyt, "Struggling to Protect Ecosystems and Biodiversity Under NEPA and NFMA: The Ancie111 Forests qf the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Spotted Owl," Pace Environmental Law Review 10, 2, 1993, 1009-50.

98 United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Record of Decision for Amendments to Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Planning Documents Within the Range of the Spotted Owl, US Government Printing Office, 1994-589-111/00003 Rwon No. 10,April 13, 1994, 38-9.

99 Interviews, Neal Forester, US Forest Service; and Doug Heiken, Oregon Natural Resources Council, August 1995.

100 Paul W. Hirt, A Conspiracy of Optimism: Management of the National Forests since World War Two, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1994, 285-8.

101 One of the best discussions of the term is R Edward Grumbine, "What is Ecosystem Management?", Conservation Biology 8, 1, March 1994, 27-38. See also Robert B. Keiter, "NEPA and the Emerging Concept of Ecosystem Management on the Public Lands," Land and Water Law Review 25, 1990, 43-60; andJeffR Jones, Roxanne Martin, and E.T. Bartlett, "Ecosystem Management: The U.S. ·Forest Service's Response to Social Conflict," Society and Natural Resources 8, 2, 1995, 161-8.

102 F. Dale Robertson to Regional Foresters and Station Directors; "Ecosystem Management of the National Forests and Grasslands," USDA Forest Service Memorandum, June 4, 1992, 1, quoted in Hirt, A Conspiracy of Optimism, 287--8.

103 Grumbine, "What is Ecosystem Management?", 31. 104 Ibid. 105 Margaret A. Shannon and K Norman Johnson, "Lessons from the FEMA," Journal of Forestry 92, 4,

April 1994, 6. 106 Jack Ward Thomas, "Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team: Objectives, Process and

Options," Journal of Forestry 92, 4, April 1994, 12-19. 107 Record of Decision for Amendments to Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Planning Docu-

ments Within the Range of the Spotted Owl, 5. 108 "Late successional" is an ecological term more or less equivalent to "old growth." It means that the

natural processes of change and growth have proceeded for a long period of time without destructive incidents such as fire, avalanche, lahdslide, or clearcutting.

109 Douglas E. Booth, Valuing Nature: The Decline and Preservation of Old-Growth Forests, Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.

llO Nigel Hawkes et al., Chernobyl: The End of the Nuclear Dream, New York, Random House Vintage Books, 1987; David R Marples, Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR, New York, Free Press, 1986; Valeri A. Legasov, The Lessons of Chernobyl are Important for All, Moscow, Novosti Press Agency, 1987.

Modern environmental problems 223

6rob'yev, N.I. Volk:ova, and V.K Zhuchova, "A Landscape-Based Radiation Map for Bryansk !' Geochemistry International 31, 6, 1994, 116---24, map on 117. letz, "Paradox of Powe_i:: Chernobyl Eight Years Later," Surviving Together 12, 2, 1994, 23.

Blinov,- "The Zone,""Surviving Together 12, 2, 1994, 26-7. Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jr., Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature under Siege, New

:Basic Books, 1992, 146---7, includes estimates by competent experts familiar with the aftermath accident.

'rina, Chelovyek, spasi sebya sam ot radiatsii (Person, Save Yourself from Radiation), Bryansk, Pressa a, 1991.

'yev et al.," Landscape-Based Radiation Map for Bryansk Oblast," 116-24, at 116. Poiarkov, A.N. Nazarov, and N.N. Kaletnik, "Post-Chernobyl Radiomonitoring of Ukrainian

Ecosystems," Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 26, 1995, 259-71. 'Ila S. Zhirina and A.V. Kryshtop, "Use of the Dendroclimatological Method in Bioindication: of Chernobyl," May 20, 1994, paper read at the International Conference on Tree Rings, Envi- t, and Humanity: Relationships and Processes, Tucson, Arizona. zones with a gamma background level of more than 40 curies per sq km. One curie per sq km

onds to an irradiation dose of0.01 milliroentgen per hour. imir Shevchenko, illustration published in Zhores A. Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl, New , W.W. Norton & Co.,1990, opposite 179. Kovalchuk, Yuri E. Dobrova, Andrey Arkhipov, Barbara Hohn, and Igor Kovalchuk, "Germline :'Wheat Mutation Rate After Chernobyl," Nature 407, 6804, October 5, 2000, 583-4.

vid G. Fleishman, Vladimir A. Nikiforov, and Agnes A. Saulus, "137Cs in Fish of Some Lakes and Ivers of the Bryansk Region and North-West Russia in 1990-1992," Journal of Environmental Radi- tctivity 24, 1994, 145-58. ,M. Chernousenko, Chernobyl: Insight from the Inside, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1991, 233-5. 11t1l Craig and John A. Jungerman, Nuclear Arms Race: Technology and Society, New York, McGraw-

'11, 1986, 25. wart L. Udall, The Myths of August: A Personal Exploration of Our Tragic Cold War Affair with the om, New York, Pantheon Books, 1994, 205.

Frank Benjamin Golley, A History of the Ecosystem Concept in Ecology: More Than the Sum of the Parts, ;Nnv Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1993, 72-4. bdcntific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War, Vol. 1, A. Barrie Pittock et at., eds, Physical and Atmospheric Effects; Vol. 2, Mark A.

·. Harwell and Thomas C. I;Iutchinson, eds, Ecological and Agricultural Effects, Chichester, John Wiley 1,1( Sons, 1985-6. E.G. Nisbet, Leaving Eden: To Protect and Manage the Earth, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, 92; figures from International Atomic Energy Agency annual report, 1987, GC (XXXII), 835. Merrill Eisenbud, "The Ionizing Radiations," in B:L. Turner, ed.,The Earth as Transformed by Human ;lction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 455-66, at 462. Sec Robert Michael Pyle, The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin, 1993, for an informed evocation of another Denver watercourse, the High Line Canal. Ian Douglas, The Urban Environment, London, Edward Arnold, 1983; Michael Hough, Cities and N1itural Process, London, :Routledge, 1995. Gleaves Whitney, Colorado Front Range: A Landscape Divided, Boulder, CO, Johnson Books, 1983, 67. Andrew C. Isenberg, "The Returns of the Bison: Nostalgia, Profit, and Preservation," Environmental History 2, 2, 1997, 179-96, gives an account of various motives for saving, and using, bison in the United States. Frederick R. Rinehart and Elizabeth A. Webb, eds, Close to Home: Colorado's Urban Wildlife, Boulder, CO, Roberts Rinehart, 1990. Chris Madson, When Nature Heals: The Greening of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Boulder, CO, Roberts Rinehart, 1990. Susan Jones, "Becoming a Pest: Prairie Dog Ecology and the Human Economy of the Euroamerican West," Environmental History 4, 4, October 1999, 531-52. Mark H. Rose, Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America, Univer- sity Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.

224 Modern environmental problems

138 Raymond Dasmann, "Toward a Biosphere Consciousness," in Don Worster, ed., The Ends of the Earth; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988), 277-8.

139 Lyle W. Dorsett, The Queen City: A History of Denver, Boulder, CO, Pruett Publishing, 1977; 159. 140 Joseph Conrad, ed., Colorado Environmental Handbook: The State of the State, Denver, Colorado Envl•

ronmental Coalition, 1996, 24-51. 141 James L. Cox, Metropolitan Water Supply: The Denver Experience, Boulder, CO, University of Colo•

rado, Bureau of Governmental Research and Service, 1967. 142 Edmund P. Russell III, "Lost Among the Parts Per Billion: Ecological Protection at the United Stateu

E~vironmental Agency, 1970-93," Environmental History 2, l, 29-51, reviews the history of thli bureau.

143 Carolyn Etter and Don Etter, The Denver Zoo: A Centennial History, Boulder, CO, Roberts Rinehart, 1995, 34.

144 Lyle W. Dorsett, The Queen City: A History of Denver, Boulder, CO, Pruett Publishing Co., 1977, p, 148.

145 Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis, Boulder, University Press of Colorado, 1991, 262.

146 W.E. Riebsame, H. Gosnell, and D.M. Theobald, "Land Use and Landscape Change in the Colorado Mountains I: Theory, Scale, and Pattern," Mountain Research and Development 16, 4, 1996, 395- 405.

147 Etter and Etter, Denver Zoo, 169. 148 Jerry Craig, "Peregrine Recovery in Downtown Denver," in Frederick R. Rinehart and Elizabeth A.

Webb, eds, Close to Home: Colorado's Urban Wildlife, Boulder, CO, Roberts Rinehart, 1990, 115-32, 149 Joel A. Tarr, The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective, Akron, OH,

University of Akron Press, 1996. 150 Laurance C. Herold, "The Urban Climate," in Elizabeth A. Webb and Susan Q. Foster, eds, Perspec·

tivesin Urban Ecology, Denver, CO, Denver Museum ofNatural History, 1991, 35-44. 151 Michael Hough, Outpf Place: Restoring Identity to the Regional Landscape, New Haven, CT, Yale Uni-

versity Press, 1990. 152 William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, New York, W.W. Norton, 1991, see

especially 5-25. 153 Orie L. Loucks, "Sustainability in Urban Ecosystems: Beyond an Object of Study," in Rutherford H.

Platt, Rowan A. Rowntree, and Pamela C. Muick, eds, The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity, Amherst,--University of Massachusetts Press, 1994, 49-65.

154 Lewis Mumford, The City in History, New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961, 576.