1 - Introduction

Summary

Scope of the study

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in the concerns expressed by the early conservationist movement, primarily concern as to the adequacy of the natural-resource base in our advanced industrial economy. The early conservationists stressed the importance of extractive resources, in the words of Pinchot (1910, p. 123), “the five indispensably essential materials in our civilization … wood, water, coal, iron, and agricultural products.” Today, of course, we are worrying a great deal about energy resources: oil, gas, uranium, renewables of all kinds, in addition to coal. In this sense our focus seems to have narrowed, but in another sense it has broadened to include what might be called in situ natural resources, such things as clean air, natural beauty, and other aspects of the environment that yield satisfaction directly rather than through some productive transformation.

However we interpret its focus, there is no question that there is renewed concern. It is no exaggeration to say that one can hardly pick up a newspaper without coming across several items dealing directly with one or another energy or environmental issue. For example, in looking through the San Francisco Chronicle for March 27,1980 (not an unusual day, not an unusual paper), we find the following: “Angry San Francisco Hearing on Lake Tahoe Plan” (p. 4), which deals with public reaction to a plan to try to control pollution in Lake Tahoe;