How and when did the converting of the planet into a garbage dump get started? Why has it been allowed to reach such disastrous proportions?

Basically two things are held to bear the brunt of the guilt: (1) modern technology, the producer of big industry and rapid transportation, and (2) the population explosion. These are the apparent, visible causes. But beneath them is a more basic cause.

Let us see what has happened and how deep-rooted the problem really is.

Rise of Modern Technology

Most researchers relate the growth of pollution to the so-called Industrial Revolution. It began over two hundred years ago, in the middle of the eighteenth century. Till then four out of five men were farmers. Farming families grew their own food, spun their own cloth, often made their own furniture and even many of their tools. Towns and villages were their market centers. There craftsmen lived and worked in their homes or in small shops, turning out metalwork (hardware), perhaps printing books and papers, producing jewelry, silverware, and better quality products of cloth, leather and wood than those the average farmer might make. With such products they could buy food from the farmers, or a merchant might buy their products and ship them abroad, obtaining in exchange foreign products viewed as luxuries.

Two factors in particular changed the structure of human society in many lands: capital and scientific invention (technology). But a third force spurred these factors to unite.

As The World Book Encyclopedia (1970 edition, Vol. 10, page 185) says: “The force that brought science and money together was probably the growing demand for the conveniences of life.” At first it may have been relatively simple things, men desiring the tools that the newly invented machines could produce, women wanting machine-woven cloth. But as the flow of products grew, their desires grew with them.

The machines​—spinning machines, weaving machines, steam engines, iron-producing furnaces, converters and rollers—​were expensive. Only those few men with capital could buy them. Then they had to establish factories, preparing special buildings for their machines, hiring persons to be trained and employed at operating them. Investments were heavy and the investors were, of course, determined to realize good profits. As industries spread, men were drawn from farms, from private crafts in shops and homes and became factory workers. And factories tended to group together in cities where fuel and labor were cheap. The basic outlines of the pattern of pollution now become visible.

Time brought faster, more complex, more automatic machines that made earlier ones seem primitive. But they also required more power, larger quantities of fuel. More and more products that had been handcrafted were added to the list of machine products. Individual artisans steadily diminished in numbers. Smaller shops and industries had to keep up with the march of technology or be ruined by competitors with faster mass production.

The invention of the steam locomotive and, later, the internal-combustion engine using gasoline added to the growth of industry. With faster and cheaper transportation, factories could expand their markets, send their products farther and farther afield, as well as bring raw materials and fuel from more distant points. Eventually huge industries developed, smaller ones often being squeezed out or absorbed.

All this growth was hailed as “progress.” But such progress carried a very high price. It seriously affected the quality of human life.

Effect on Man’s Environment

In the mushrooming industrial towns, factories often settled on choice locations, as by a stream or waterfront. Their waste products were flushed into the streams or dumped nearby. (The discharge of one factory may equal that of an entire town of 100,000 or more persons.) Mines producing the vital metal ore and coal gouged deeper and deeper holes in the earth or, by “strip-mining,” leveled hills and scooped out large craters, leaving behind devastated areas that covered many square miles. Oil wells were later to have an even greater share in the polluting process. Train lines scarred hillsides and locomotives puffed into the very heart of the cities, bringing smoke, grit and noise. People then generally found all these things initially exciting. Even when they ceased to be so, the people had by then become accustomed, conditioned, to them.

The development of the use of fossil fuels​—coal and, later, petroleum products (gasoline and kerosine)—​played a major part in industrial progress. These fossil fuels were more easily transported, had greater power potential than earlier fuels (wood and vegetable oils). But, since they did not burn as completely, they released into the atmosphere greater concentrations of various gases​—carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides—​as well as some solid particles. Belching forth from a few smokestacks or from home chimneys, they produced no notable damage. Only when their number multiplied many times over did the real danger begin to make itself clearly felt.

Thus, in such places as the Meuse Valley, Belgium, in 1930, in Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1948, and in London in 1952, periods of stagnant air or fog caused the insidious poisons of these gases to produce disastrous effects. By the third day of the smog in Donora, 5,910 persons were ill​—almost half the town’s population. During the week of the intense fog in London and the week following, the mortality rate ran higher by 4,000 deaths. Today, in major cities around the world the eyes of millions of persons smart, their lungs are irritated and cases of emphysema, bronchitis and lung cancer are on the increase. They may not suddenly die. But their life-span is certainly being shortened.

To all this must be added the extension of scientific technology into two other fields: agriculture and war. Farms, faced with dwindling manpower, have become mechanized and have used chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This has made crop yields high. But pollution has been just as high. The scientific development of war equipment, particularly that of nuclear bombs, has introduced the new danger of radioactive pollutants. From the end of World War II to 1963 over four hundred nuclear explosions were set off. Since the 1963 test-ban treaty some three hundred more have been set off underground. Defoliants today devastate vast forest areas in Southeast Asia.

Population Growth Brings Pollution Growth

It took thousands of years for earth’s population to reach one billion (one thousand million) in 1850. By 1930 it reached two billion. Today it stands at 3.6 billion and the estimate is that it will double within the next thirty years. The cities have received the bulk of this population growth. In 1740, England as a whole had only a little over 6,000,000 people. Today metropolitan London alone has more people than that.

This “population explosion” has aided the Industrial Revolution in its striving for ever greater production, more gigantic operations. With more people, the demand for more power​—in industries, homes and transportation—​has grown. Burgeoning cities steadily took over more and more of the surrounding farmland. And the land bordering the new limits frequently suffered, either due to pollution or due to being farmed till it lost its fertility. Food had to be trucked in from greater and greater distances.

Suburbs developed as people sought relief from city deterioration. But this eventually added to pollution by increased use of private motorcars. Vast networks of highways developed, steadily spreading more and wider strips of concrete or asphalt over what was once green countryside. Time magazine says: “Each year the U.S. alone paves over 1,000,000 acres of oxygen-producing trees.” Today, in São Paulo, Brazil, there is only about a half square yard of green area per person. As air travel grew, airports did their share in smothering over extensive sections of land, as well as adding to large-scale polluting of the air.

True, for a time some success was had in improving certain environmental conditions in industrial cities. Few cities today are like Manchester, England, back in 1843-1844, when, in one section, there was only one toilet to every 212 persons! Yet now we see a situation where, not just certain sections known as city slums, but the earth as a whole​—land, water and air—​is being made filthy.

“Consumer Society” Developed

Large-scale industry needs a constant market for its products. During the early stages of the Industrial Revolution depressions were frequent, for the new mass-production machines often caused supply to outpace demand. The big factories were not flexible and able to adjust to current demand like the earlier private craftsmen, who often knew two or three trades and even did occasional agricultural work.

The “population explosion” only partially offset this problem. It has not been enough to satisfy the industries’ ambition for constant “growth.” So, manufacturers have sought to stimulate and foster demand. Advertising, also the periodic production of new styles or minor improvements that made older models seem less desirable, encouraged buying. The aim was not to supply what people needed as much as what they could be made to want. Articles were often designed to have a limited lifetime, thereby bringing more consistent demand over the years. Due to this “planned obsolescence,” cheapness was often rated more important than quality and durability.

All of this has produced what is often called a “throw-away” society, one that uses products for a while and then discards them. To change this wastefulness would drastically affect the economy of many nations.

Uncovering the Basic Source

THE escalation of mass waste and mass pollution has continued right till the present day. But what is the basic source?

Is it human inventiveness? Not of itself, for men have invented things throughout human history. In fact, the Bible book of Genesis tells of men before the global flood like Jubal who “proved to be the founder of all those who handle the harp and the pipe” and “Tubal-cain, the forger of every sort of tool of copper and iron.” (Gen. 4:21, 22) It is not man’s inventive ability but the misuse of it that creates problems.

Similarly, the problem does not all lie with industry, for industry can come in all sizes. It is the concentration of industry and the methods of industry that have brought damage. But industry produces for people. So, basically, pollution comes from people and their wants. Do you live and work in an industrial city, or drive an automobile, or heat your home with coal or a petroleum oil, or use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, or use products with “disposable” containers​—jars, cans, bottles? Then you contribute to the pollution problem.

The True Source

The true source of massive pollution actually lies in the set of values that men in general have accepted, the way of life and the system that has developed. Mental pollution has led to physical pollution.

Bigness has been viewed as a virtue. Speed, mass production and quick profit have become the yardstick of success, glorified as the benefactors of mankind. As an Australian Senate committee reporting on pollution said: “Growth is still the national religion and development is its prophet.”

Sunlight, fresh air, pure water, grass, trees, wildlife​—well, all these may have to be sacrificed. But “progress” must go on!

Happiness has been sought in the possession of manufactured products, bringing a steady deterioration in human relationships and spiritual values.

True, many persons today are, as it were, “in a bind.” They find themselves locked into a system that was not of their making. They feel helpless to change matters in their brief lifetime.

But what if the way were opened up to make such a change? How many would make it? Do you personally deplore the selfish materialism that has fomented the misuse of earth’s natural elements? Most persons today inwardly prefer a materialistic way of life, only wishing that somehow the unpleasant consequences could be avoided. They may not have originated the pattern of pollution, but they prefer its perpetuation because of the so-called “benefits” that pattern produces.

Danger from the “Developing” Nations

We see that a society quite different from that prior to 1750 has developed in many lands. And those lands that have not developed along such lines have found themselves at an ever greater economic disadvantage in their relationships with the “progressive” nations. Their national currency is worth comparatively little on the international market.

Now the “underdeveloped” nations are striving anxiously to join the ranks of the “progressive” nations. The people in such nations crave the products that others have. This can only compound the problem for the earth. Why?

Because the average person in an industrial society creates many times more pollution than persons in an agricultural society. According to Dr. Paul Ehrlich: “Each American child is 50 times more of a burden on the environment than each Indian child.”

Why So Little Concern Till Now?

Why has the situation been allowed to reach crisis proportions? The Australian Senate Select Committee on Water Pollution isolated two basic factors, saying: “Behind most pollution problems lie the twin factors of ignorance and inertia.” Or we might say, ignorance and apathy.

The early technological scientists did not foresee the massive effect their laborsaving, mass-producing inventions would have on human living conditions. The early industrialists may not have realized the degree of poisoning that would result from their large-scale use of fossil fuels nor the limited capacity of rivers, lakes and even oceans to absorb the waste dumped into them. The people who coveted the early laborsaving devices and helpful equipment originally were seeking to lighten somewhat the load they bore. They did not deliberately set out to destroy their environment. But neither were they particularly concerned when the damage became more evident.

Author Lewis Mumford says of the callous viewpoint the industrial society developed: “To pay attention to such matters as dirt, noise, vibration, was accounted an effeminate delicacy.” He relates that when Scottish inventor James Watt wanted to improve his design of the steam engine so as to reduce its loud noise, the manufacturers of England prevented Watt from doing so. Why? They liked the audible evidence of power the noise gave! A modern industrialist in Germany showed that the attitude has changed little. As reported in Der Spiegel of September 14, 1970, when interviewed about the polluting of the Rhine, he expressed some concern over the death of fish, but said, “Bathing, fishing and romance​—a bunch of baloney!” To sacrifice these things was simply the “price of progress.”

Getting at the root of the problem, ecologist Barry Commoner states: “The earlier depredations on our resources were usually made with a fair knowledge of the harmful consequences, for it is difficult to escape the fact that erosion quickly follows the deforestation of a hillside. [And it takes only common sense to realize that if you load a stream with garbage it will affect people downstream.] The difficulty lay not in scientific ignorance but in willful greed.”