ABSTRACT
The first statement that we might make is that man's success in manipulating his environment is proportional to the degree to which the whole environment is considered in formulating the strategy. Or, to put it another way, mistakes too often result from overemphasis on the kind of management that produces a short-term benefit to the part, but a long-term detriment to the whole of the environmental system. The tendency to overuse fertilizers and insecticides in agriculture is a good example. So long as an increase in crop yield is the only consideration, and the effect of the cropping procedure on the watershed system is ignored, then it is inevitable that there will be trouble downstream. As you know, Lake Erie is in trouble, but not because of anything anybody did to the lake itself. The lake is severely stressed because of all the stuff that's going into it from the watershed. It is the excess fertilizers from the agricultural drainage and the untreated wastes from the cities that are causing the “cultural” eutrophication. We hear a great deal about America's efficient agriculture and industry, but if we “tell it like it is,” as our young people would have us do, then we must own up to the fact that our agriculture and our cities are grossly inefficient in terms of the basic
