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48 J. Urb. L. 631 (1970-1971)
Public Policy for Controlling the Environment

handle is hein.journals/udetmr48 and id is 641 raw text is: Public Policy For Controlling The Environment JARED E. HAZLETON* INTRODUCTION No single issue has so captivated public attention in recent months as concern over deterioration of the environment. Problems of environmental pollution, land use planning, population control, and resource sufficiency have come to dominate the public forums of the nation. Awareness of these problems has created increased demands for the development of public policies for controlling the environment. The issue of public control over the environment is a very ancient concern. Man has always sought to control not only his environment but all of nature. Man's relationship to the natural environment, and nature's influence upon the course and quality of human life, are among the oldest topics of speculation. Myth, folktale, and fable; custom, institution, and law; philosophy, science, and technology - all, as far back as records extend, attest to an abiding interest in these concerns.' In many ways, however, the concern over environmental deterioration is strikingly new and revolutionary, appearing almost to have emerged full blown onto the national stage. The emergence of this concern among Americans can be traced to a combination of developments. First, the population explosion following World War II coupled with the migration from rural to urban areas increased the size of our cities, and the rise in the concentration of population compounded the problems of waste disposal, traffic congestion, and urban blight. Second, the rapid advance of industrial technology brought on new and very complex problems by creating a host of new processes and products with greatly increased potential for harming the environment. Not only did technology give us the indestructible beer can, but it also created pesticides and insecticides with long lasting toxic residues, detergents that don't dissolve, food additives that individually and collectively threaten public health, supersonic planes with their sonic booms, and the modern automobile with its increased potential for polluting the environment. Finally, even with the rise in population, advancing technology was able to generate even larger increases in national income. As per capita * Lecturer in Economics, The University of Texas at Austin. i. H. J. BARNETT & C. MORSE, SCARCITY AND GROWTH: THE ECONOMICS OF NATURAL RESOURCE AVAILABILITY 1 (1963).

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