ABSTRACT
The irony is that a self-regulating Earth was implied in the arguments used to justify the excesses of many early polluters. Yet for centuries the Earth has suffered from the effects of “man’s inhumanity to man” in an endless succession of squabbles, raids, skirmishes, battles, declared wars and of course the totality of modern warfare. Ignorance of the material causes of plant disease remained almost complete until the 19th century. If human ignorance is a root cause of our dilemmas, there must be an immense need for more education. Two important illustrations of the deadly effects of partial knowledge are well known examples from history, each originating in the 19th century. They concern responses — mainly by chemists — to potentially the biggest environmental disasters in modern times. A form of pollution that had nothing to do with the chemical industry was that arising from the twin processes of population growth and urbanization in the 19th century.
