ABSTRACT
From the standpoint of the end of the twentieth century, we could say that environmental management has emerged as one of the highest priorities for industrial development. In practice, it has—until recently—been more or less an afterthought. Nowadays it seems perfectly clear that industrial development must strive for a high degree of environmental foresight. But in the past, this has simply not happened. There are a number of reasons for this. Some of them are institutional; others are economic. Some are the result of poor or inadequate science; others again are really a manifestation of the sheer complexity of the problem.
