A coming ‘Age of Interdependent Forms’ seems destined to mark the success of what could be called ‘despecialized/interspecific fitness’ among neotenic strains (perpetuating juvenile traits) of species such as humans and domestic animals. Humans as well as the first domesticants underwent a neotenic evolution in the wild during the repeated interglacial periods which, acting on a number of mammalian forms, selected against adult species-specific ancestral adaptations to a stable environment. Neotenic species continue to look and behave more like ancestral youths than adults—even after sexual maturity and throughout their life-history. As they retain lifelong youthful dependency motivations, they can easily, under suitable conditions, become interdependent forms. By the time of melting of the last Pleistocene glacier, all the domestic partners had already become more dependency-prone than formerly, and were behaviourally despecialized enough to form the alliance that is now changing the order of Nature.

A study of the 1978 application for permission to undertake exploratory drilling in South Davis Strait, northeastern Canada, resulted in the identification of problems with the federal Environmental Assessment and Review Process (EARP). These problems have recurred in other environmental impact assessments since 1978 in other parts of northern Canada, and some improvements have been made in approaches to them. However, further progress is needed if the EARP process is to become a more widely accepted method than at present of conducting evaluations of development impacts and the means of managing them in northern Canada.

This paper focuses on the procedural rather than the scientific aspects of EARP in northeastern Canada. Recommendations include: 1) applying environmental impact assessment to policies as well as development activities; 2) strengthening socio-economic expertise and approaches; 3) financing of interveners and support for a more balanced range of interests than was displayed in this case; 4) provision of sufficient notification and adequate information; 5) documentation of rationale for decisions; and 6) monitoring and evaluation by the Canadian Federal Environmental Assessment and Review Office (FEARO) to ensure compliance with set conditions and to facilitate the tackling of unforeseen problems.

The Great Lakes region of the interior of North America supports a large human population, a major industrial base, and recreational and scenic amenities of unusual contrast and quality. To protect portions of this landscape and meet national recreational needs, the US Federal Government has established 10 National Parks, Monuments, and Lakeshores, in the region, extending from northern Minnesota to the southern shore of Lake Erie. However, air pollutant sources from the industrial Midwest, and large-scale coal combustion for electricity along the Ohio Valley, show evidence of significantly threatening the resource qualities protected in these parks.

A review of the natural resources and amenities in each of the National Parks, Monuments, and Lakeshores, in the region shows that scenic vistas are of primary significance, with unique biota (largely northern coniferous species and associated bird-life) and clear water also prominent. Pollutant concentrations in the southern sites, however, are above the thresholds that are known to produce stress, foliage damage, and altered growth-rates on many sensitive species, including the coniferous trees. These pollutants include gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOX) that are primary emissions of relatively local origin, as well as pollutants such as sulphate particulates, ozone, and acidic deposition, produced by chemical transformations during long-distance atmospheric transport. The particulates, in combination with the high average summer humidity, produce a reduction of visibility at the southern sites, and hence the partial loss of an important amenity.

However one chooses to accommodate public concerns about siting of power-plants, it does seem that public participation is essential for effective environmental assessment. This is because the ultimate questions about environmental consequences of economic development are: who cares and why? Technical assessors can measure changes in biogeophysical terms, and economists can monetize these effects. The social sciences are often not capable of delivering (with adequate certainty) information that is dependant on subjective human reactions and cultural values. Serious mistakes in power-plant siting can result, if decision-makers do not communicate with affected individuals and groups.

The chances for mistakes increase if the nation concerned does not have a market economy where consumers have free choice, or a political process that regularly and effectively incorporates public values and opinions. As all nations are less effective than could be desired in these two classic means of citizen expression, it is incumbent on governments to foster public participation as an integral third channel.

Tropical wetlands are of great ecological importance and are worthy of widespread and vigorous conservation efforts. They are, however, very susceptible to environmental changes which often result from human activities. Waigani swamp near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, comprises a number of small, shallow lakes, the largest of which, Waigani Lake, has a surface area of 120 ha. This Lake now has nutrient-rich water with very high phytoplankton populations owing to sewage effluent disposal.

Changes in the macrophyte flora and vegetation of Waigani Lake are documented in aerial photographs taken between 1942 and 1981. From 1942 to 1956 the Lake was dominated by emergent vegetation, and there was very little open water. Between 1956 and 1966 this emergent vegetation was replaced by dense stands of nymphaeids. In 1965, sewage disposal into Waigani Lake began and by 1974 only a few small stands of nymphaeids remained. By 1978 no nymphaeids could be found in Waigani Lake. The decline in the nymphaeid cover of Waigani Lake was accompanied by a regression of the surrounding reed-swamp. Two other lakes near Port Moresby are nutrient-poor and have a dominant and diverse macrophyte flora, being probably more comparable with Waigani Lake prior to its enrichment—apart from a recent takeover by a pestiferous free-floating water-fern.

The World Wildlife Fund and others are trying to save more than 1,000 species of higher animals (including about 257 species of mammals, 348 of birds, and 186 of reptiles and amphibians), and an almost incredible 30,000 species of plants, from extinction.

The year 1980 witnessed the launching of the World Conservation Strategy, in which human survival is the vital dimension, and in 1982 there was the Declaration of the World Campaign for The Biosphere as, primarily, a much-needed educational device (see above).

The capability of choosing our destiny thus lies within us. We have totally to reject planning which includes deaths of human beings as one of the ‘costs’. The future will belong to those who are contemplative enough to give Mankind well-founded hope and a sensible human way to attain that hope.

Municipalities are injecting sewage sludge into soil—as a means of disposal, to avoid the problems of odours, pests, and runoff, and to avert public disapproval associated with application on the surface. The sludge injected is mainly liquid (94–99%), but its effect on soil-water content in the field has not been sufficiently reported on. The objective of the project here described was to determine, in a subhumid region, whether the liquid in sludge changed the water status of soil compared with that of soil with inorganic fertilizer. In addition, growth of Winter Whẽat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.), grown on dryland and fertilized with the sludge or with inorganic fertilizer, was monitored. The experiment, carried out during the 1980–81 growing-season, was done at the Manhattan, Kansas, sewage-sludge farm, where aerobically digested sludge has been injected since 1976.