measurement tools prevents an assessment at this time of the status and trends of the major environmental classes of the Nation. The Council has been able to give little or no detailed attention to subject areas such as the activities of State and local governments and of industry and has had an inadequate opportunity to analyze and report on areas such as the supply of natural resources. The Council expects to correct such major deficiencies in subsequent reports. In preparing this report, the Council has also kept in mind the findings of Congress in the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-224): "that man has caused changes in the environment; that many of these changes may affect the relationship between man and his environment; and that population increases and urban concentration contribute directly to pollution and the degradation of our environment." That act authorized the establishment of an Office of Environmental Quality which provides additional professional and administrative staff for and is meshed with the Council on Environmental Quality, so that the President has one advisory voice on environmental policy. The added personnel assist in preparing the annual report, assessing all other Federal programs that affect the environment, and implementing other requirements of Public Laws 91-190 and 91–224. Much can be done now to enhance environmental quality, and this first annual report includes a number of specific suggestions for action. For the more distant future, however, environmental improvement will depend increasingly on knowledge yet to be obtained through research and measurement. Also needed will be refinements in predictions, setting of priorities, development of comprehensive policies and strategies, and strengthening of institutions at all levels of government. Responsibility for enhancing the environment cannot be thrust on any one level of government or even on government alone. Every citizen shares in it. Federal leadership, however, will necessarily be a major influence on the effectiveness of the overall national environmental effort. The opening chapter of the report deals with the growing awareness and understanding by the American people of the nature of the threat to the environment and the interrelationship of environmental problems. Pollution is one of the most obvious dangers. But the problems are much broader. They encompass control of land use, the expansion of population, and waste of resources. The causes of many of our environmental problems rest with the failure of our price structure to take full account of environmental degradation, our values and our urge for greater mobility. The effects, sources, and costs of various forms of pollution, and Federal, State, and local antipollution programs are then described. These chapters deal with pollution of air and water and pollution from solid wastes, pesticides, radiation, and noise. The pressures on the environment are then discussed in a chapter on population, economic growth, and resources. In the next chapter, the problem of land use is approached through analysis of its components—urban, suburban, rural, coastal, and natural regions, and the Federal programs that affect them. The chapter on international cooperation discusses environmental problems which do not stop at national frontiers, and the tools for international action. The growing involvement of citizens in environmental affairs, as individuals and through organizations, is followed by a review of the progress in environmental education. The concluding chapter discusses the need for better, stronger institutions, improved measurement of the environment, and the need for comprehensive policies and strategies. Like any first step, this first annual report is only a beginning. Understanding Environmental Problems H ISTORIANS MAY one day call 1970 the year of the environment. They may not be able to say that 1970 actually marked a significant change for the better in the quality of life; in the polluting and the fouling of the land, the water, and the air; or in health, working conditions, and recreational opportunity. Indeed, they are almost certain to see evidence of worsening environmental conditions in many parts of the country. Yet 1970 marks the beginning of a new emphasis on the environment-a turning point, a year when the quality of life has become more than a phrase; environment and pollution have become everyday words; and ecology has become almost a religion to some of the young. Environmental problems, standing for many years on the threshold of national prominence, are now at the center of nationwide concern. Action to improve the environment has been launched by government at all levels. And private groups, industry, and individuals have joined the attack. No one can say for sure just how or why the environment burst into national prominence in 1970. Certainly national concern had been mounting for a long time, and the tempo has increased greatly in the last decade. Early environmentalists-Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh, John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold-and a legion of dedicated citizens contributed to the rise in awareness. In its early days, the conservation movement aimed primarily at stemming the exploitation of natural resources and preserving wildlife and important natural areas. By the 1950's, Federal air and water pollution laws had been enacted, and the pace of environmental legislation quickened dramatically in the decade of the 1960's. Now the conservation movement has broadened to embrace concern for the totality of man's environment, focusing on pollution, population, ecology, and the urban environment. The public has begun to realize the interrelationship of all living things—including man-with the environment. The Santa Barbara oil spill in early 1969 showed an entire nation how one accident could temporarily blight a large area. Since then, each environmental issue the jetport project near Everglades National Park, the proposed pipeline across the Alaskan wilderness, the worsening blight of Lake Erie, the polluted beaches off New York and other cities, smog in mile-high Denver, lead in gasoline, phosphates in detergents, and DDT-flashed the sign to Americans that the problems are everywhere and affect everyone. Millions of citizens have come to realize that the interdependent web of life-man, animals, plants, earth, air, water, and sunlight-touches everyone. A deteriorating environment has awakened a lively curiosity in Americans about exactly what is meant by an ecosystem, a biome, or the biosphere. Citizens who are now aware of environmental problems want to know the full extent of the environmental crisis and the nature of the factors that have contributed to it. They are anxious to learn what can be done to correct the mistakes that have led to the current condition of the environment. This report attempts to answer some of these questions. ECOLOGY AND CHANGE Ecology is the science of the intricate web of relationships between living organisms and their living and nonliving surroundings. These interdependent living and nonliving parts make up ecosystems. Forests, lakes, and estuaries are examples. Larger ecosystems or combinations of ecosystems, which occur in similar climates and share a similar character and arrangement of vegetation, are biomes. The |