Environmental protection has, for at least the last 50 years, been a major concern in the civilized
nations of the world. The concern initially was limited to public health but has, since the 1970s,
been expanded to include the environment. As stewards of our environment, we are responsible for
the protection of the environment, for our own sake and for the benefit of generations to follow. It
is accepted that humankind cannot continue to advance technologically while ignoring the environmental deterioration that occurs when we irresponsibly discharge the waste from our technology.
Indeed, the sustainable growth of our civilization requires, as the only reasonable and
a feasible way to coexist on our planet with nature, that we protect our fragile environment. Much
of the legislation promulgated to provide environmental protection has the purpose of not only
non-deterioration of present environmental conditions, but the improvement of these conditions so
that past abuse is corrected.
For many years we have discharged waste products into the air, the water, and the land as if they
were limitless reservoirs of storage. We have found of course, that this is not the case, and they have
deteriorated our air, water, and land quality to the crisis point. Nature, fortunately, is forgiving, and
like the human body, has a remarkable capacity for recovery when abuse cases. But continuing
abuse can literally destroy nature as well as it can our bodies.
Science has advanced to the point where we can fairly accurately predict the risk of pollutant
discharge and can develop systems to eliminate the discharges which tend to deteriorate the
environment.
