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เนื้อหาย่อ : The environment. That is the place where we all live. It includes all our surroundings. This means all the other human beings on the earth, all the plants and animals, the atmosphere, the oceans, the rocky crust of the earth, the sun, and the infinite space through which the earth and the sun move. Throughout most of humankind's existence earth, we have taken the environment granted. How could we possibly affect the everlasting earth? The hills and mountains seemed beyond our touch. The oceans seemed infinite. The sky, clouds, and storms were acts of nature, and we were at their mercy. But now we are beginning to learn that we do indeed affect our environment. In recent years we have become aware of the vast impact of this effect. We are indeed changing the oceans. We are probably changing the climate of the earth. We may be changing the future of humankind. We need not be afraid of all changes. But we must be concerned. Are the changes for the better or for the worse? Certainly, we wish to make the changes for the better. We dam up a river and use the water to irrigate crops. The crops help support the growing population. Surely this is a benefit. We find oil beneath the bottom of the sea. The oil is used to power in- dustries that provide things we need. This, too, is a benefit. We discover deposits of minerals needed for our modern industrial life. Here, again, there is a direct benefit. But now we are becoming concerned about the secondary effects of our activities. Why should this be? We have been irrigating and mining for thousands of years. We have been drilling for oil for a century. Why is it that we have become concerned only in the last gen- eration? The answer has two parts. First, technology, or the methods we use to supply ourselves with the things we want, has progressed rapidly over the last two generations. There are not just a few oil wells here and there, but thousands upon thousands. Hundreds of them are in the sea. Occasionally, in spite of all our care, oil spills out into the sea where it can cause great dam- age to the oceanic creatures. With modern machinery, not just a few but millions of acres of rough natural prairies are converted to farms. Every mine has waste products which are usu- ally left on the ground as the rich minerals are carted away. But now, with thousands of mines, millions of tons of waste products are being carried from deep in the earth and dumped onto the surface. As a result, the chemical nature of the surface of the earth is being changed in some places. The second part of the answer is our growing understanding of the workings of nature. Just as our technology has grown enormously in the last two generations, so has our scientific under- standing. We are beginning to understand how nature works. We are also learning that humans affect the workings of nature, and vice versa. In other words, our activities and other natural activities are interdependent. The rules of these interdependencies are slowly coming to light. We have known for some time that we can shape our environment. But now we are learning that after we shape the environment, the environ- ment shapes us. benefit-and not just for today or for next Our goal is to shape the environment to our year. The benefit must be lasting. We have a good chance to achieve this goal. We know the environment is a system of interacting parts. Now we must understand these interactions. Science can help us gain this understanding.