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Abstract
It is a truism for the living environment that life cannot sustain itself on its own wastes. The environment has self-cleansing properties which permit the dilution, reconstitution, and reuse by other natural processes of waste. These self-operative properties are what produces the flow of dynamic change that renews what is renewable within nature. The forces for renewal are powerful but they are not infinite. Already mankind has found the means to disrupt them in part and, unless steps are promptly taken to counteract the present trends, mankind will inadvertently and indifferently risk their total disruption.
Parent Publication
Citation
Murphy, Earl Finbar. 1976. The more things change. In: Dochinger, L. S.; Seliga, T. A., eds. Proceedings of the first international symposium on acid precipitation and the forest ecosystem; Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-23. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 43-51
