The combined impact of these two grant programs has significantly increased the land available in urban areas for recreation. Thousands of acres of urban open space have been preserved. But at the same time many thousands more were converted to residential, commercial, and industrial use by urban expansion. Some suburban communities have been among the most irresponsible in failing to provide adequate open space; many others have found their best efforts frustrated by soaring land costs.

Aids and Inducements to Individuals

The Federal Government over the years has loaned and granted money to individuals among them homeowners and farmers. These programs have had noticeable side effects on the way the country has developed its land. FHA-VA home mortgage programs-Buyers of 17 percent of the new housing units in the United States still choose Federally insured (FHA) and guaranteed (VA) loans to finance their homes. These programs were first implemented on a wide scale after World War II. Policies of low down payments and readily available low-interest loans provided financing for millions of families who otherwise would have been unable to buy new homes.

At the same time, by encouraging suburban home construction, these programs helped to form the concentric circles of racial and economic separation that persist in many metropolitan areas. Federal Housing Administration and Veterans' Administration examiners have traditionally favored new homes over restoration or renovation, and suburban communities over the urban core. Agricultural programs—Farmers aid programs of the Department of Agriculture are a second set of significant inducements to individuals. Price support programs of the Commodity Credit Corporation are budgeted at $3.5 to $3.8 billion per year. These funds go to keep land out of production, prop agricultural prices, and provide farmers with loans against their crops. Each year the Farmers Home Administration provides $775 million in direct and insured loans for rural housing. Its Operating Loan Program furnishes $275 million annually for short-term purchases such as feed and equipment. The Farm Ownership Loan Program provides $225 million of direct and insured loans for the purchase of lands to expand or establish farms. And individual erosion control projects funded by the Agricultural Conservation Program amount to $200 million each year.

The original purpose of this aid was to protect the family farm and to encourage proper practices of agricultural conservation. Today intensive farming and modern methods of raising livestock often strain the capabilities of our lands and waters. Extensive use of pesticides and vast amounts of concentrated animal wastes are just two of the changes which have had profound environmental effects.

International Cooperation

E

INVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS do not stop at national frontiers,

or ideological barriers. Pollution in the atmosphere and oceans taints all nations, even those benignly favored by geography, climate, or natural resources. The smokestacks of one country can pollute the air of another. Toxic effluents poured into an international river can kill fish in a neighboring nation and ultimately pollute international seas. Even in Antarctica, thousands of miles from pollution sources, penguins and fish contain DDT in their fat. And recent layers of snow and ice on the white continent contain measurable amounts of lead.

International cooperation, therefore, is necessary on many environmental fronts. Sudden accidents that chaotically damage the environment—such as oil spills from a tanker at sea-require international cooperation both for prevention and for cleanup. Environmental effects cannot be effectively treated by unilateral action alone.

Air and water pollution, moreover, are not the only environmental problems that have international aspects. Some world resources such as seabed minerals and ocean fish can be wisely dealt with only by international agreement. What nations do to clean up domestic pollution can affect international commerce. The costs of pollution control can change the competitive position of a nation's industry. And

how the nations regulate international transportation and imports to eliminate sources of pollution can also have a profound bearing on trade. These considerations should receive increasing attention in the context of international trade policy. In addition, nations can reap economies and foreign policy benefits by undertaking joint research and environmental information sharing with other nations. Studies on pollution abatement, urbanization, population distribution, and the use of herbicides and insecticides, undertaken by one country, can help others.

The National Environmental Policy Act directed all agencies of the Federal Government to recognize the worldwide and long-range character of environmental problems. Where consistent with the foreign policy of the United States, it directs the agencies to support initiatives, resolutions, and programs designed to maximize international cooperation and prevent a decline in the quality of mankind's environment.

PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE

The United States is already engaged in international cooperation on environmental matters through a variety of channels. These include the United Nations and its specialized agencies and other such intergovernmental organizations as NATO, the Economic Commission for Europe and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It works with nongovernment organizations such as the International Biological Program and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. A number of environmental programs such as those discussed below are being developed by international agencies.

The United Nations

Economic Commission for Europe-The ECE, one of the four regional U.N. commissions on economic and social matters, is composed of the European members of the United Nations and the United States. Its current activities include air and water pollution control, urban development, and exchanges regarding government policy problems in these fields. It is preparing a Conference on the Environment in May 1971 in Prague. This conference will be a key preliminary to the full U.N. Conference on the Environment in 1972. The ECE is

important as a forum for international environmental cooperation because it includes most of the major industrialized countries of the world, East and West, in working-level discussions of environmental problems.

Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization—Since its establishment in 1959, IMCO has encouraged an exchange of research and information on the rapid, safe, and workable handling of oil spills and other aspects of ocean pollution. It has already established an international mechanism for reporting oil spills. In 1969 IMCO convened major international legal conferences on marine pollution. One proposed strengthening the 1954 Treaty on Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil. The other proposed two new conventions to permit action to deal with damaged vessels threatening oil spills on the high seas and to fix liability for the costs of oil spill cleanup. President Nixon has submitted these treaties to the Senate for ratification. U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization— UNESCO promotes scientific investigation of man-induced and natural changes in the character of the oceans. It supports programs to identify effects of waste disposal at sea and to prevent depletion or extinction of valuable marine species because of man's activities. UNESCO-sponsored studies of atmospheric pollution are also underway. In 1968, UNESCO convened the International Conference on the Rational Use and Conservation of Resources of the Biosphere. Out of recommendations of that conference, it is developing a longterm, comprehensive program of research and action on environmental problems, called Man and the Biosphere.

World Health Organization—WHO has conducted studies of coastal pollution and is planning to lend technical guidance on coastal water quality and on ways to prevent pollution. It is developing a worldwide program of monitoring certain environmental conditions which directly affect health. WHO has also assisted many member countries in carrying out field projects on waste disposal and water pollution control.

Food and Agriculture Organization—FAO is undertaking studies on water quality criteria for fish, on pesticides and pollution, on pulp and paper mill effluents, and on sewage effluents. Although more concerned with pollution of inland waters, FAO has also turned to the study, monitoring, and management of the sources and effects of pollution on ocean fisheries. FAO also carries out ecological studies and