and university groups playing major operational roles within the United States. Chapters 6-7.

3. That the present Helium Conservation Program be re-evaluated. Helium is unique in its combination of unusual properties and critical uses. It is essential for cryogenics, superconductivity, cooling of nuclear reactors, exploration of the seabed, and the space program. According to available estimates, it is in short supply, yet it is being wasted in the combustion of natural gasses. Its recovery from these gases and conservation for the future is feasible and is already being done on a limited scale. The adequacy of existing Helium Conservation Program of the Department of the Interior to meet needs beyond the early 21st century requires a careful evaluation. If such an evaluation leaves any question at all about the adequacy of the program it should be broadened without delay to apply to lower concentrations and more natural gas fields. Chapters 6, 8.

II. POLICY

The Committee on Resources and Man recommends that the following become matters of national policy:

General policy

4. To intensify efforts to limit population increase in the nation and the world by whatever means are practicable, working toward a goal of zero rate of growth by the end of the century. Healthy and intelligent people are man's greatest resource. If limitation of population is not eventually achieved at some reasonable level, moreover, food and other resources will surely be inadequate. With limitation of populations the objective can be shifted from combating starvation and want to the improvement of the human resource and its level of living. Although this recommendation is by no means novel, it emerges again from our study, and particularly from Chapter 2, that population control is the absolute primary essential without which all other efforts become pointless. Our Departments of State and of Health, Education, and Welfare should adopt the goal of real population control throughout the world. Ultimately this implies that the community and not only the parents must have a say about the number of children a couple may have. This will require profound modification of current attitudes toward the right of parenthood.

5. To stimulate innovation of all kinds that will stretch out, renew, enlarge, or substitute for the components of the world's mineral resource base. A larger energy base, more efficient long-distance transfer of energy, and better transport systems can make available the ores of remote places. Research in the properties, purification, extraction, and fabrication of metals or even non-metals not now used, or used for other purposes, can lead to substitution. New synthetic products made from abundant raw materials should be sought as substitutes for rare or depleting natural commodities. Clad metals (as in present "silver" coinage) can stretch out rare materials and generate new combinations of properties. Man's resources may be limited but his imagination in their use and conservation need not be. Much work of this sort can and should be done under the auspices of the Departments of Interior and Commerce. The need for a constant flow of fresh ideas and new viewpoints, however, will best be met by greater involvement of university groups through sponsored research. Such sponsorship should come not only from mission-oriented agencies, but also from the National Science Foundation in pursuance of its new charter to extend its support of selected areas of applied research.

6. To promote more pervasive interaction among the environmental sciences, and between them and the behavioral sciences, technology, and the strictly physical sciences. We need more schools and institutes of environmental science where ecologists, hydrologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, geographers and geologists will work closely together, and with scholars and practitioners from other fields. Such organizations might serve as the cores of new "urban grant" universities intended to nucleate new urban centers, thereby also helping to create the scientific manpower to support the environmental and resource programs needed. More interaction among governmental agencies concerned with different parts of the environment should also be generated, as well as among them and other parts of the scientific and government communities. These goals should be explicitly supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Given the interest NSF is now taking in the environmental, applied, and behavioral sciences, institutional structures wherein all could focus simultaneously and in concert on our deteriorating human ecosystem could be a major step toward its improvement.

7. To pursue the formulation of natural resources policies for the nation, the continent, and the world—through whatever government structures and bilateral and multilateral covenants may best serve such purposes. Resources are not a one state or one county affair; they concern the whole world and all people. The international character of the formulation of resource policy clearly requires the participation of the Department of State, which must develop the necessary mechanisms to work in close conjunction with the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce.

Policy with regard to sources of food

8. To increase the efficiency and capacity of agricultural productivity, both in the United States and abroad. This is necessary not only to protect national food reserves, but also to help those countries in need. Overproduction of perishable products must be controlled as well as underproduction, for it is evidence of poor national management and vitiates the improvement of farm production and management. The Department of Agriculture has been working in these directions for a long time, in collaboration with the Department of State and the United Nations. The effort should be continued, improved, and intensified. Chapter 4.

9. To regulate fisheries now declining in yield because of over exploitation, as well as to control the catch of other stocks that will be threatened in the future. This involves knotty problems of internal jurisdiction and international negotiation, but they must be overcome. In this case the Department of Interior, with the collaboration of the State Department and other organizations, has done what it could. But again the effort needs to be increased, improved, and extended. Chapter 5.

10. To expand fishing efforts toward currently underexploited stocks, both in the sea and in fresh waters. In this sense "fishing" refers not merely to fish, but to the capture of all kinds of edible aquatic organisms, plants as well as animals. Again the Department of Interior is already interested and further initiative should come from them. Chapter 5.

11. To improve and extend the use of aquatic "farming” operations, not only in fresh waters, but also in marine and brackish water bays and estuaries. Particular attention should be given to operations that do not compete seriously with use of other resources. Examples would be ponds sited in swamps or on tide-flats, and shellfish culture either on the sea bottom or from rafts. Responsibility for this effort could rest equally with the Department of Interior directly and with the National Science Foundation through its authority under the Sea Grant program. Chapter 5.

Policy with regard to sources of energy

12. To speed the development of high-neutron-economy reactors, including an efficient and safe type or types of breeder reactor (8). The development of nuclear energy is an urgent national and global goal because of the approaching depletion of fossil fuels and the need to conserve them for other purposes. But without greater utilization of uranium-238 and thorium-232 through breeding or other efficient conversion, the economics of nuclear power is such that the supply of uranium-235 from high-grade ores at current prices could become severely restricted within a few decades. The achievement of nuclear fusion, of course, would greatly extend nuclear reserves in the very long term, and fundamental research in this field should be continued. Chapter 8.

13. To conserve the fossil fuels for uses which cannot be met by other sources. The fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, coal) are needed for petrochemicals, synthetic polymers, and essential liquid fuels, for which suitable substitutes are as yet unknown. They might also play a part in synthetic or bacterial food production (although such a use is also limited). They should not be spent in the generation of electricity, for heating, and for industrial purposes where substitutes can qualify. The Department of Interior should be authorized and directed to develop and institute a practicable and effective Hydrocarbon Conservation Program. Chapter 8.

Policy with regard to non-energy mineral resources

14, To encourage the re-use and better use of materials that can be recycled, and to require this for mineral commodities known to be in short supply. Incentives should be devised to encourage the optimum use of metals and other materials, as well as proper disposal of spent substances. Research on problems and methods of re-using or otherwise extending the lifetimes of all kinds of materials, as well as the recovery of wasted or deleterious by-products, should be supported,

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both for conservation and to reduce problems of pollution and waste disposal. The automobile is a prime target for improvement. The copper content of the average car should be reduced from about 1.4 percent to 0.4 percent or less of the total carcass and problems of recovery simplified. The metals involved could then be used repeatedly, with greatly reduced waste and with elimination of unsightly modes of disposal. New methods of combining metals in clad structures, for instance, make it possible to utilize the desired properties of special metals such as copper with great economy, better structural properties, and reduction to levels that eliminate the adverse effects of mixing. Other targets are the wasteful disposal practices that could be improved to salvage more used metal. Military uses and the exploration of space, of course, are especially demanding on supplies of relatively rare metals. To the many urgent reasons for seeking peace and for damping the arms race must be added the conservation of unreplaceable resources for future generations. In addition, the Departments of Interior and Commerce should be authorized and directed to collaborate in developing and instituting a practicable and effective Metal Conservation Program. Chapters 2, 6.

15. To reduce the lag between the recognition of probable mineral resource shortages and the start of investigations intended to meet them. On land it takes an average of about five years from the beginning of surface exploration for new deposits to be found and another five years of underground exploration and development to bring them into production. Even longer lead times will be needed in developing marine mineral resources. And very long lead times must be allowed for the surveys and research needed to establish an exploratory framework or to underpin long-range forecasts. Specific recommendations on such matters should be a primary function of the Department of the Interior, which should continue and expand its exploration program. Chapters 6, 8.

16. To accelerate and intensify geological exploration of the continental shelves and borderlands. Leaving out the obvious need for greater effort on the lands, the continental shelves, slopes, and rises are the parts of the sea that are most likely to contribute useful and abundant mineral commodities to supplement our depleting reserves on land. They should be studied not only for their broad surficial features, but also at depth by drilling, and in areal detail in regions that offer good prospects either of containing mineral resources or contributing to an understanding of their origin. Contiguous areas ripe for such detailed studies include parts of the Atlantic shelves, the continental borderland of southern California, and the Bering shelf. In emphasizing the continental margins, of course, we merely stress the logical priorities. We do not overlook, but rather consider as severely limited, the possibility of resources from the other 75 or 80 percent of the sea. Programs now in progress on the continental shelves by the Department of Interior should be continued, enlarged, and wherever possible improved; and Interior's cooperative efforts with university groups should be increased. Chapter 7. 17. To resolve legal problems involved in marine exploration and mining with as little delay as possible, and to seek international agreements that will facilitate underwater exploration. Neither national nor international law is really clear as to the limits within which discoveries made may be claimed by private, state, or national interests. Clarification is needed, both to encourage exploration and to avert troublesome disputes over ownership of marine mineral resources beyond the continental shelves. National interests beyond the continental slopes could well be submerged in favor of some workable international jurisdiction such as suggested in the "Maltese Proposition"-with gain for international cooperation and little loss of potential territorial wealth. The Departments of Interior, Commerce, and State should work together on these problems. Chapter 7.

III. RESEARCH

Research is clearly an essential component of many of the preceding recommendations, yet there are additional topics in need of intensified research which we believe deserve early attention. The Committee on Resources and Man, therefore, recommends greatly increased research on :

General

18. The complex of non-material factors that affect man's use of and demand for resources. Although circumstances beyond its control required the present Committee to bypass most aspects of such a study, its inquiries so strongly reinforce the need for it that we urge the formation of another group to study the various social, psychological, legal, medical, religious, and political aspects of the problems of resources and man that we have been forced to set aside.

What, for instance, are the consequences of man's different conceptual environments of how he imagines things to be regardless of how they really are? What is the effect of religion and religious differences on the nature of and demand for resources? How can cultural preferences be altered so as to relieve demand on resources and reduce pollution while minimizing social disruption? What are the processes whereby regulation of family-size is best achieved? How do resources and economic factors really interact? What are the resource consequences of technological development and of different densities and patterns of human settlement? As in the case of Recommendation 6, the National Science Foundation would do well to consider this an area of major focus for its growing program in the behavioral sciences. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, of course, should also be involved.

Research on sources of food

19. Tropical lands and crops. The tropics are among the most thickly populated regions of the earth, yet they produce insufficient food for their populations. This poor productivity in food resources for humans is in part due to the unusual ecological diversity of large parts of the tropical climatic zone. It is also in part because, for geologic and climatic reasons, many non-volcanic tropical soils are deficient in mineral nutrients as compared to those of the middle latitudes. It will require more than good seeds and good management to turn the Amazon Basin into another "breadbasket." Assuming it can be done, it will require enormous quantities of mineral fertilizer and a good share of creative agricultural science. These and interacting sociological and economic factors must be weighed in seeking to develop new food crops that could increase the present productivity of tropical regions without seriously impairing their ecological stability. Like Recommendation 8, this is clearly a job for the Department of Agriculture, with the collaboration of the State Department; but continuation of the good works of the Rockefeller Foundation should be encouraged, and the participation of the National Science Foundation in the longer range aspects of the program through the sponsorship of private institutions is also important. 20. The productivity of the sea and fresh waters. How can aquatic productivity useful to man be increased and a larger fraction of food be harvested from the waters without endangering desirable species? The variety and quantity of food products from the sea might be increased (a) by transplantations shown to be feasible as a result of studies of life cycles of organisms and their ecological adaptivity; (b) by more widespread culture of food animals; and (c) by improved methods of capture. More intensive fishing for some species is desirable, whereas for others greater yield must be sought by restricting fishing effort under international agreement. Research alone can produce the information needed to resolve such questions. Like Recommendations 9-11, this recommendation involves a clearly defined mission of the Department of Interior, but it could also appropriately be furthered by National Science Foundation grants in the underlying supporting disciplines such as aquatic biology and ecology. Chapter 5.

21. Methods of harvesting currently unused but edible aquatic organisms. Many species of marine organisms can be eaten and occur in quantity but are difficult to catch in large volumes. A practicable method for harvesting the larger species of animal plankton, for instance, would permit us to work closer to the base of the food pyramid and thus to utilize a larger fraction of the total stock. Although this would carry the risk of affecting other fisheries adversely, it might be done in regions where the planktonic animals are not being consumed in quantity by usable animals. The small crustaceans called krill, for example, although abundant in both Arctic and Antarctic seas (and formerly harvested by whales) are not now being utilized. This recommendation involves an established mission of the Department of Interior, but the National Science Foundation could also play a part by support for this objective under its Sea Grant program. Chapter 5.

22. The processing, marketing, and consumer-acceptance of products such as fish-protein concentrates. Proteins and fats from the waters could be much more widely and effectively used in human nutrition if organisms not now acceptable for food as harvested could be concentrated in palatable form. In view of their established missions, this recommendation concerns the Departments of Interior, Commerce, and State. Chapter 5.

Research on mineral resources

23. The geology, discovery, and development of ore deposits. Especially needed are studies of the genesis, localization, and discovery of ore bodies that have

no surface manifestation-"blind" ore bodies. New methods must be employed in seeking such ore, and better methods are needed in evaluating and recovering it. Concepts of metallogenic provinces also need to be clarified and extended; for they might help greatly with the intensified geochemical census urged in Recommendation 4. Equally needed is research on the geology, exploration methods, and evaluation and recovery of marine mineral resources. The U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines should be encouraged to expand and improve their programs dealing with such problems. Chapters 6, 7. 24. The geology of the sea floor, both on and beyond the continents. Although prospects of specific rewards should not be called upon or required to justify deep sea geology, some new mineral wealth can certainly be expected as a partial consequence. Such bonuses, to be sure, may come as much or more because of a better understanding of the processes involved in generating deposits now on land, as from actual discovery of ore deposits at the sea floor. At the very least, sea floor studies will contribute to better concepts of the structure, evolution, and management of the earth. Such research can and should be undertaken by a number of different government, private, and university organizations, and all should be encouraged. The continued healthy growth of the Sea Grant program of the National Science Foundation, in particular, could serve this end. Chapter 7.

IV. ORGANIZATION

A majority of the Committee was of the opinion that new organizational structures may be needed to facilitate the monitoring of resource developments and the evolution of future resource policy, but we could not agree on what kinds of structures were needed or where they should be located. Therefore we recommend that:

25. A study be made of the monitoring and policy-making mechanisms now in effect with regard to natural resources, with a view to improving existing procedures or establishing better ones. An efficient and comprehensive review system is needed for identifying prospective shortages and recommending appropriate remedial action well in advance of crisis. Better means than we are aware of are also needed for dealing with the implications of natural resources for national and global policy, with their bearing on national and international well-being, and with new developments that may affect the availability, quality, and use of resources of all kinds. Some members of the Committee believe that a separate and autonomous monitoring body may be needed, such as a Natural Resources Board within the National Academy of Sciences, and that a counterpart executive Office of Natural Resources Policy may be required to deal with policy aspects of the findings of such a board. Others believe that existing mechanisms could suffice. Such differences can be resolved only on the basis of more comprehensive consideration of the problem than we have been able to give it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Bibliography on Environment and Natural Resources, subdivided under five headings journals, technical reports, conferences and symposia, legal periodicals, and books. Prepared by the Natural Resources Division, Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress.

JOURNALS

1. Brooks, Douglas L. "Environmental Quality Control: A Statement of the Problem," BioScience, XVII (December, 1967), 873–877.

2. Burton, Ian and Robert W. Kates. "The Perception of Natural Hazards in Resource Management," Natural Resources Journal, III (January, 1964), 412441. (See Topic 23 for Environmental Perception generally).

3. Cain, Stanley A. "Environmental Management and the Department of the Interior," Public Administration Review, XXVIII (July-August, 1968), 320326.

4. Caldwell, Lynton K. "Restructuring for Coordinative Policy and Action," Public Administration Review, XXVIII (July-August, 1968), 301-303. "Problems of Applied Ecology: Perceptions, Institutions, Methods and Operational Tools," BioScience, XVI (August, 1966), 524-527.

5.

6. Caulfield, Henry P., Jr. "Environmental Management: Water and Related Land," Public Administration Review XXVIII, (July-August, 1968), 306–311.