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° « . = | ~ GREEN PAPER ON ECOLOGY - 2 C , . 2) Pollution is a by-product of imperfect technology, and can be eliminated with more advanced technology. This approach accepts short-sighted band-aid measures “as final solutions. So smog-control devices on every car would take care of automobile pollution, compressing garbage into building blocks would solve our garbage problem, installing air coolers on nuclear power plants would take care of thermal pollution, discovering a substitute for DDT would solve our _ ‘insect pest problem. While technology can serve us if we use it properly, it is primarily the use of technology to solve non-technological problems — that has had such a destructive impact on our environment. In many areas we have already reached the point where more technology would reduce the qual- ity of our lives. We must begin to ask if the eutomobile, smog-control devices Notwithstanding, is itself a form of pollution. 3) The protection of the environment is a series of defensive battles against anyone who would attack the environment. Last year a fragile salt marsh was threatened by the presence of DDT, this year by thermal pollution from a nuclear power plant, next year by land fill to construct a shopping center, highway or alrport runway. Conservationists mist first identify a specific issue, prove that real damage is being done, and then organize support for legislation that will stop the damage. By the time this whole process is completed, the Gamage done is often irreversible: the redwoods are cut down, the eagle has ‘ become extinct, Lake Erie is killed. | ' : To The conservationist and anti-pollutionist approach is one of sure failure. Each year more attacks are made on the environment, exploiters gain more initiative, new and threatening technology is developed, and the same areas must be defended against new destruction. An alternative approach must be developed which places its faith in social and moral deci- sions instead of technological decisions, understands the inter-relatedness of all aspects of environmental destruction, and initiates a unified attack on the real sources of environmental deterioration. ECOLOGY ACTION An ecological approach to environmental destruction is radically different from con- servationist and anti-pollutionist approaches. It begins with an understanding of the processes, cycles, dynamics, and interactions in the natural world, and measures the behavior and values of men against these natural dynamics. Ecology is easy to understand. It is, simply, the way living things, including man, inter-relate to one another and to the earth, air and water to support life on our planet. -The root meaning of the word “ecology” is “earth household" or “housekeeping on 1 earth." Some basic principles of ecology are: 1) Living things have organized themselves into ecosystems, communities of mutual dependence and support, in which many species of plants and animals work to- gether to insure their survival. The human body, a pond, a forest, and the planet earth are all ecosystems. | 2) Every living thing is part of an ecosystem, and’ since all ecosystems are re- lated to each other, every living thing is somehow related to every other living thing. 3) Each species within an ecosystem has its own niche, its own household.. The wider the niche spectrum ~ the more life opportunities each species has ~ the -. more stable the ecosystem. If people could eat only lobsters, we would have , been extinct long ago. 4) An ecosystem is also more stable if it includes a large variety of species. ee ae tee