Air pollution: Our ecological alarm and blessing in disguise

Abstract

Air pollution is the one feedback signal of man's overgrazing of his ecological niche on earth which is capable of spreading an alarm throughout his self‐encapsulating cities and suburbs—hopefully in time to allow preventive action. It has already stimulated a greater awareness of, and interest in, man's total environment and his impact on other species. If air pollution does indeed arouse man to achieve a planned, as opposed to a catastrophically imposed, equilibrium with the ecology of earth, no one can deny that it will truly have been a blessing in diguise.

A study of biotropism of climate in two Canadian cities

“…The literature on urban climates includes many studies of atmospheric pollution, particularly of episodes of a few days, when health effects are easier to detect but even on this time scale, the weather-pollution-health interactions arc so complex that the exact relations are difficult to isolate (Georgii, 1970). There seems to be general agreement that the increased concentration of pollutants in urban environments constitutes substantially to illness and morbidity, particularly respiratory diseases, despite inconsistencies in the reported results (Ellsaesser, 1971). Chandler (1970) in his concluding summary of the symposium of "Urban elimates and Building climatology" emphasized the need for extensive studies in a variety of geographical localities in order to understand the influence on health of different individual climatic parameters and their combinations.…”

Nature . . . an environmental yardstick

“…Natural shorelines of rivers and coasts have been modified for livelihood, industry, and recreation. The highway system of the United States aggregates the area of the States of Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware (Ellsaesser, 1971). Many rivers have been dammed to create reservoirs to provide water resources for irrigation, industry, and municipal use.…”