Man and His Home, Volume 11U.S. Agricultural Research Service, 1971 - 21 pages |
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acid atmosphere AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE Air Pollution Control air-pollution problem alga Amer American Angeles areas Arie Jan Haagen-Smit automobile exhaust B.Y. Morrison Memorial billion years ago breathe clean air brownish carbon dioxide cars causes Central Research Library Chateaubriand concentration damage death decomposes deeper DEPARTMENT OF AGRICU deteriorated earth Ecology Education Effects of Air energy England environment established forest fossil fuel fungus growth higher plants industrial revolution insects inversion Landscape Architects living world London Los Angeles marble metals Metropolitan Museum million million-of Morrison Memorial Lecture Nation natural resources numbers nutrients ornamental horticulture overcome the limitations oxides oxygen particulate matter percent photosynthetic plant exploration population Preventive Conservation prosperity realize RESEARCH SERVICE U.S. scientist Scorer SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT slaves smog soil species square mile stone sulfur surface termites thousand top layer toxic chemical UNITED urban ventilation VERTICAL FILE visible Washington Post York City итти
Popular passages
Page 10 - ... army, and church united in a council which had but one goal, namely to see that Pittsburgh was cleaned up. It is from the leader of this organization that I quote: The story of the smog nuisance is the old and oft told story which runs through the history of American municipalities. It is the story of rapid growth in population and industrial activity, marked by wastefulness of material resources, carelessness in regard to the future, indifference to many things of life, and a blind opposition...
Page 6 - In the top inch of forest soil, biologists found "an average of 1,356 living creatures present in each square foot, including 865 mites, 265 springtails, 22 millipedes, 19 adult beetles and various numbers of 12 other forms. . . . Had an estimate also been made of the microscopic population, it might have ranged up to two billion bacteria and many millions of fungi, protozoa and algae — in a mere teaspoonful of soiL" The chrysalids of butterflies linger here too, folded, rigid, and dreamless.
Page 16 - ... methods to control pests. This principle of preventative conservation needs to be applied promptly to all forms of air, water, and soil pollution at the source. In the long run, this kind of preventative conservation is much less expensive than restorative conservation. More important, some ecologies, once destroyed by man, can never be brought back, no mattter what we do. All our billions, all our technology, can never bring back the tons of top soil from the Gulf of Mexico to the American heartland....
Page 2 - There is no shortage of specific examples to illustrate the people/resources problem: Today a majority of Americans, urban and rural alike, in all sections of the country, live near polluted waters. Every major river system is polluted. Fiftyfour percent of all Americans described nearby waters as "severely polluted.
Page 13 - There is an appreciable, visible etching on marble...! would say that all of the exposed stonework of ancient elements at the Cloisters has deteriorated since its erection in New York City as a direct result of air pollution. ..It is pointless to collect outstanding works of art, many over a thousand years of age, if one thousand years from now they are going to be so badly deteriorated as to be virtually...
Page 13 - Erosion of building stone statuary is common all over the world and in many cities conservationists are moving works of art indoors to protect them from the action of acidic pollutants. It is reported that Cleopatra's needle has deteriorated more since its arrival in New York in 1881 than it did during the more than three thousand years spent in Egypt.
Page 16 - In the long run, this kind of preventative conservation is much less expensive than restorative conservation. More important, some ecologies, once destroyed by man, can never be brought back, no mattter what we do. All our billions, all our technology, can never bring back the tons of top soil from the Gulf of Mexico to the American heartland. Nor can we ever bring back a single acre of wilderness, once it is destroyed. We are a nation bedazzled by technology, and addicted to crash programs. But,...
Page 4 - The whole system seemed to have a kind of comfortable stability. Looking at an astronaut's view of the earth, we begin to realize that the earth is actually not so large at all, and that the stability applies only to our time period, which is infinitely small compared to the time scale of geological and evolutionary happenings. A continuous flow of events...
Page 4 - A continuous flow of events led from the origin of life some two to three billion years ago to the elaborate structures that we represent. For evolutionary processes, changes in the environment were essential ; however, for the continuation of an evolved species, the constancy of the environment was of great importance. Even small changes in the environment will eventually lead to the disappearance of a species, or its replacement by others more suitable to new conditions.
Page 14 - Art also decomposes the pages of old books stored in the City's Central Research Library on Fifth Avenue. EG Freehafer, Director of the New York City Public Library, has estimated that about 1.8 million of the 4.8 million volumes in the Central Research Library are in an advanced state of deterioration.