Environmental pollution problems are neither novel nor unique to mankind. Long before man came on the scene, the terrestrial environment was contaminated, for even nature, with all of its virtues and beauty, injects undesirable and harmful ingredients into the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. Dust, silt, volcanic gas and ash, pollen, and the waste products of animals and vegetation immediately spring to mind. But that is only half the natural pollution story. Nature has some remarkable mechanisms for combating and eliminating its own contamination. Natural dilution by both air and water, bacterial decomposition, solar radiation, and a host of various types of scavengers do a remarkably good job of maintaining a reasonably attractive and hygienic environment.
Without the intervention of man, the ecological balance is beautifully maintained. This truism is at the heart of the matter and should give us insight into our own evildoing. Like nature, man pollutes: unlike nature, man has done relatively little to eliminate or neutralize his wastes. This habit must be changed. We must cease to misuse our modern technologies. Instead, we must now use them to clean up our habitat. That is mankind's major challenge in this century, short of avoiding nuclear warfare.
Thousands of years ago, humans were not unconcerned about air pollution, for venting is evident in the tepees of American Indians, a technological advance that may date back as far as the Stone Age. In Roman times, senators complained about their togas being soiled by the air, and Tacitus described the suffocation of Pliny the Elder by volcanic gas fumes. In A.D. 1170 Moses Maimonides, a physician, rabbi, and the foremost Hebrew scholar of the Diaspora, wrote that "the relation between the air in a town and in its streets and that found in open country may be compared to the relationship between grossly contaminated, filthy water, and its clear, lucid counterparts."
No known attempt to prevent air pollution was made until the opening of the fourteenth century, when an antismoke ordinance forbidding the use of "sea coal" in London was established by royal proclamation. It is believed that at least one violator of this law was put to death by order of Edward I. Nevertheless, by 1600, a British diarist named John Evelyn acidly commented that "the City of London resembles the face Rather of Mouth Aetna, the Court of Vulacn, Stromboli or the suburbs of Hell than an Assembly of Rational Creatures and the Imperial Seat of our Incomparable Monarch." He added that in approaching London, one "sooner smells than sees the City to which he repairs." His pamphlet concluded with observations about the effects of this blight on health, appearance, and vegetation as well as to the "Hands and Faces and Linnen of our Fair Ladies and Nicer Dames."
Water contamination has been even more extensive, insidious, and devastating in man's history. Waterborne diseases--cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid fever--have played a prime role in population control, warfare, and the history of nations. Polluted water contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire. During the barbarian invasions in the fourth century, the sewer system of the capital--clogged by silt and refuse--fell into ruin. Farmlands formerly drained by the Cloaca Maxima reverted to the disease-bearing swamp now known as the Pontine Marshes. As a consequence, plagues and malaria ravaged the countryside, destroying or debilitating thousands of Roman citizens at a time when there was dire need for their services in
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