ABSTRACT
Advanced societies around the world are facing a dilemma of gigantic proportions: What to do with all the facilities that everyone desires in principle, but wants to keep out of their own block? The phenomenon is called Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY). The nuclear energy field, subject of much NIMBY controversy, has spawned its own jargon. Two phrases are "low-level" and "high-level" waste. Most people are unhappy with any wastes in their back yard, whether those wastes are fairly benign or highly toxic. Recycling can improve some parts of the NIMBY problem, without question. This in turn may decrease public battles over undesirable facilities. Yet, there are areas of NIMBY that are not concerned with inanimate objects like wastes, but with people. Some psychologists have tried to determine what the NIMBY syndrome means. Dennis Caplice writes: What underlies the NIMBY syndrome? One answer might be found in Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.
