Stockholm and beyond : report.

  • United States. Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Stockholm and beyond : report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    anomie, meaninglessness and powerlessness. These factors, which often result from the inequities of our system, produce not only physical and mental health problems but also the culture of poverty, the antith- esis of a healthy environment. Merely improving the physical struc- ture and surroundings will not produce an adequate environment for the full development of all persons; the socioeconomic structures must be altered as well. 3. Population Policies The rate of population growth is a function of social, economic, and cultural factors as well as of governmental policies. In the 20th cen- tury, increases in wealth, social status, and urbanization have led to reduced birth rates, so that one may surmise that further beneficial movement in those directions in the nations of the world will result in still further drops in the rates. In addition, as children become less of a financial boon, either as cheap labor or as security for old age, and, as the comforts of present-day living increase, the cultural atti- tudes toward the size of families seem to be modifying. Finally, in many cases the number of children produced is related to cultural mores based on social status and societal limitations on individual opportunity. Therefore, changes in the areas mentioned above are probably of greater importance than a consciously established popu- lation growth policy. 4. Regional Growth Poles The doctrine of the inevitability of economic growth ought not to be uncritically accepted by national policymakers. Often this “inevi- tability” results more from policy decisions and programs that impel people to move in certain directions rather than from the natural movement of people. In the United States, at least, there is a growing challenge to the concept of unending economic growth and a movement toward an improvement in the quality of human experience. Govern- ments ought to sympathetically consider the encouragement of “‘cen- ters” given to other than economic concepts of “growth.” Modification in the tax structure, both local and national, to encourage smaller scale, ecologically sound developments would be an effective supple- ment to direct Government action. 3). Land Use Controls The most important natural resource, from the human settlements perspective, is the land. Unless its use can be controlled by the public, there is no way in which comprehensive planning can be made feasi- ble. The evils of private land speculation and uncontrolled private development have produced, in this and other countries, the environ-