s.
The idea that we have a full right to engage in them is deeply
ingrained, particularly in this country whose memories of the
frontier--a hardy, exultant line of subjugation and exploitation moving
across the virgin continent--are not remote but fresh.

[Illustration]

Certainly in its crasser manifestations--this utilitarian philosophy has
widely destructive effects nowadays. Strip mines gouged out without
thought of restoration, wanton land speculation and development, the
casual dumping of raw wastes into streams by towns or industries and a
number of other harmful practices mentioned in this report are all
clearly based in a conviction that what one does to the world around him
is his own sweet business. That conviction has longstanding sanctity
among Americans and many who hold it are moral and upstanding folk. But
in a world as heavily populated as this one, possessed of such augmented
technological ability to assail and exploit the natural world, there is
clearly something wrong with it.

Other exploitative human activity based in utilitarianism is not crass
or all so obviously wrong, especially in today's context. Population
growth poses a moral question but also a logistical one: uncontrolled
growth may well be questionable, but it is a staggering reality. The
additional millions of people thus invited to present and future feasts
must be provided for. Many thinkers view the economic expansionism of
our time, together with the vigorous technology which it fosters and is
fostered by, as the only means toward this end. Some, indeed, view it as
a happy and healthy state of things, indefinitely extensible as
technology itself furnishes substitutes for exhausted natural
substances, natural forces, and natural experiences.

Allied to this view is a sturdy and widely held American belief that
"development" of natural resources is automatically a good thing
regardless of the need--toning up the economy of a region or a state or
a nation, keeping things moving. Most people give it some practical
support, even those who in theory suspect its validity. For we are a
moving people. We have known little stasis in the centuries of our
presence on this continent, and each generation of us is imbued anew in
childhood with certain axiomatic ideas; movement is forward, growth is
up, construction is better than vacancy, not to make economic use of
something is to waste it. These ideas linger in our reactions: "You
can't," t