Environmental Encyclopedia

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Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Carbon tax

McPherson, E.G. “Using Urban Forests For Energy Efficiency And Carbon

Storage.” Journal of Forestry 94 (1994): 36-41.

Sampson, R.N., et al. “ Biomass Management and Energy.” Water, Air,

Soil Pollution. 70 (1993): 139-159.

Carbon tax

To limit and control the amount of

carbon dioxide

(CO

)

added to the

atmosphere

, special taxes, called

carbon

taxes,

have been proposed and in some cases adopted, on fuels

containing carbon. Fuels such as

coal

gasoline

, heating

oil, and

natural gas

, release energy by combining the carbon

they contain with oxygen in the air, to produce carbon diox-

ide. Increased use of carbon-containing

fossil fuels

in mod-

ern times has greatly increased the rate at which carbon

dioxide is entering the atmosphere. Measurable increases in

atmospheric levels of the gas have been detected. Since car-

bon dioxide is the principle component of so-called

green-

house gases

, changes in its concentration in the earth’s

atmosphere are a concern. Increases in the level of carbon

dioxide, and other greenhouse gases such as

methane

ni-

trous oxide

ozone

, and man-made

chlorofluorocarbons

can be expected to result in warmer temperatures on the

surface of the earth, and wide-ranging changes in the global

climate

. Greenhouse gases permit radiation from the Sun

to reach the earth’s surface but prevent the infrared or heat

component of sunlight from re-irradiating into space.

The wide spread concern over the possible climatic

effects of increases in heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere

was exemplified by a 1994 report of the

Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) which concluded that

unless greenhouse gas emissions were curtailed, average

global temperatures would rise 2.5–8.1° F (1.4–4.5° C) by

the year 2100. A 20% reduction in emissions over 20 years

was recommended and considered feasible in developed

countries. It was recognized that the rapidly expanding econ-

omies of many developing countries makes similar reductions

less likely.

While limiting the buildup of heat-trapping gases in

the atmosphere has been a goal of natural scientists for some

time, many economists have now joined the effort. In 1997,

2,000 prominent economists, including six Nobel Laureates,

signed the “Economists’ Statement on Climate Change”

stating that policies to slow global warming are needed and

are economically viable. The economists agreed with a review

conducted by a distinguished international panel of scientists

under the auspices of the IPCC that, “The balance of evi-

dence suggests a discernible human influence on global cli-

mate.” They further stated that, “As economists, we believe

that global climate change carries with it significant environ-

mental, economic, social, and geopolitical risks, and that

preventive steps are justified.” They state that economic

217

studies have found that potential policies to reduce green-

house-gas emissions can be designed so that benefits out-

weigh costs, and living standards would not be harmed.

They claim that United States productivity may actually

improve as a result. The statement goes on to claim that,

“the most efficient approach to slowing climate change is

through market-based policies” rather than limits or regula-

tions. The economists also suggest that, “A cooperative ap-

proach among nations is required, such as an international

emissions trading agreement.” They recommend, “market

mechanisms such as carbon taxes or the auction of emissions

permits.” Their statement goes on to suggest that, “Revenues

generated from such policies can effectively be used to reduce

budget deficits or lower existing taxes.” New taxes are never

popular, but are more apt to be accepted when the revenue

is used to replace other taxes or to aid the

environment

As in any public policy debate, views of even well-

qualified experts are often sharply divided. Some industry

representatives and scientists are unwilling to accept the

premise that greenhouse gas emissions represent a serious

threat. Industrial spokesmen continue to claim that efforts

to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through taxation or other

economic means are not cost effective, and would devastate

the economy, cost jobs, and reduce living standards. Individ-

ual countries worry about the impacts on their competitive-

ness if other countries do not adopt similar measures. The

potential impact on low-income groups must also be consid-

ered. Some are concerned that the taxes have to be high to

be effective. The amount of year to year variation in climate

and temperature throughout the globe, provide ample room

for differences of opinion.

International attention was focused on the need to

reduce greenhouse gases at the United Nations sponsored

Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The confer-

ence was held to attempt to reconcile worldwide economic

development with the need to preserve the environment.

Representatives of 178 nations attended, including 117 heads

of state, making it the largest gathering of world leaders in

history. Documents and treaties were signed committing

most of the world’s nations to the economic development

in ways that were compatible with a healthy environment.

A binding treaty called “The Framework Convention on

Climate Change, or Global Warming Convention” was

adopted, requiring nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse

gases. The treaty failed to set binding targets for

emission

reductions, however. Agreement was hampered by discord

between industrialized nations of western Europe, and North

America and developing nations in Africa, Latin America,

the Middle East and Asia. Developing countries were con-

cerned that environmental restrictions would hamper eco-

nomic growth unless they received increased aid from devel-

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Carcinogen

oped nations to enable them to grow in an environmentally

sound way.

National and regional efforts to limit greenhouse gas

has been most evident in western Europe, although disagree-

ments between countries have prevented a unified approach

among members of the European Community (EC). Britain

has refused to accept a proposed carbon and energy tax,

favored by several nations. Spokesmen for Britain expressed

doubt that the tax would achieve desired reductions, and

claimed that the two-thirds reduction in emissions to which

Britain was committed would result from a planned enact-

ment of a value-added tax (VAT) on fuel and energy. Critics

of Britain’s position argued that their plan was not suffi-

ciently focused because it did not specially target fuels that

increase atmospheric carbon dioxide. A 1996 report from the

European Environmental Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen

concluded that “green taxes” adopted by individual European

countries in the last decade have been successful. So-called

green taxes

are a variety of environmentally friendly tax

measures intended to reduce

pollution

and toxic wastes and

encourage efficient resource use. Carbon taxes, such as those

enacted in Norway and Sweden in 1991, are one example.

Other examples include taxes on sulfur and

nitrogen

oxide

emissions,

water pollution

charges, and charges for

house-

hold waste

. The carbon dioxide tax in Norway was reported

to have reduced CO

emissions by 3–4%. The goal in the

Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands has been to

move away from taxes on labor or capital to those on

energy

and the environment

. The consensus in western Europe

seems to be that current environmental policies are weighted

too much in the direction of regulation, and that there is a

need to provide economic incentives in the form of well-

designed environmental taxes.

Although eastern European countries have moved for-

ward more slowly than in the rest of the continent, Poland,

Hungary, and Estonia are beginning to adopt environmental

charges and taxes. In the far-east, the Japanese Environmen-

tal Agency has reported that Japan might be able to keep

per capita emissions of carbon dioxide at 1990 levels, which

would result in a small increase in total emissions because

population growth

The effectiveness of green taxes, including carbon

taxes, is not universally accepted. Some argue that goals

need to be defined more carefully with specified amounts

or percentages of reduction in targeted pollutants. The EEA

report acknowledges that the evaluation of the effectiveness

is difficult and that, “Judgments about the performance of

green taxes remain at the level of best guesses.” Although

theoretical evaluation of environmental taxation is well-de-

veloped, adequate evaluation of practical experience with

such taxes is still relatively rare. Proper evaluation must

separate the effects of green taxes from other factors, and

218

assess what would have happened without the taxes. It is

also recognized that it may take as much as a decade for a

tax to have the desired effect.

In the United States, the Clinton administration, in

1993, published a 50-point plan to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions by 100 million tons through a number of voluntary

measures. Among the steps recommended were greater

en-

ergy efficiency

in homes and electrical appliances, reduced

emissions from

power plants

, greater reliance on hydroelec-

tric power, and increased tree planting. Some observers be-

lieve that the prospects for “green taxes” are less favorable

in the United States than in Europe because of difficulty of

passing legislation through two houses of Congress, which

may be controlled by different parties, and obtaining ap-

proval by the president. Some individual states, however,

have enacted measures that create economic incentives for

environmental protection. Louisiana, which has many

pet-

rochemical

companies within its borders, created an “envi-

ronmental scorecard” in 1991, to keep a tally of companies’

toxic discharges, waste volumes, and compliance with envi-

ronmental laws. Graded exemptions from property taxes are

granted to companies with good scores. Oregon’s Energy

Facility Siting Task Force recommended establishment of

a standard to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, with provi-

sions for offsets for planting trees (which remove CO

from

the air), and for the use of

renewable energy

sources.

[Douglas C. Pratt]

ESOURCES

ERIODICALS

Burke, M. “Environmental Taxes Gaining Ground in Europe.” Environ-

mental Science & Technology 31 (1997): 84-88.

Environmental Taxes: Implementation and Environmental Effectiveness;

Environmental Issue Series No. 1. European Environment Agency: Copenha-

gen, 1996.

Carcinogen

A carcinogen is any substance or agent that produces or

induces the development of

cancer

. Carcinogens are known

to affect and initiate metabolic processes at the level of

cellular DNA.

Cancer accounts for slightly over 20% of all deaths

each year. It is estimated that one out of every four Americans

will develop cancer eventually and that six out of 10 in this

group will die from the disease itself or complications arising

from the disease. Half of all cancer deaths occur before the

age of 65. Among women between 30 and 40 and children

between three and 14, cancer is the leading cause of death

next to accidents. It is the most frequent cause of death

among Americans under 35 years of age.

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Carcinogen

The testing of

chemicals

as cancer-producing agents

began with the observation of Sir Percival Pott in 1775 that

scrotal cancer in young chimney sweeps resulted from the

lodgement of soot in the folds of their scrotums. Pott was

the first to link an environmental agent,

coal

tar, to cancer

growth. In 1918 scientists began to test chemical derivatives

for their cancer-causing efficacy. These first experiments

looked at polycyclic

hydrocarbons

, specifically benzo(a)-

pyrene found in coal tar, and they demonstrated that a certain

degree of exposure to coal tar produced cancer in laboratory

rats. In 1908, Vilhelm Ellerman and Oluf Bang of Denmark

reported that an infectious agent could cause cancer, after

they found that a leukemia-like blood disease was transmit-

ted among domestic fowl via a

virus

. In 1911, Peyton Rous

established a viral cause for a cancer called sarcoma in domes-

tic fowl, and he was awarded a Nobel Prize for this discovery

some 55 years later. In 1932, Lacassagne reported that estro-

gen injections caused mammary cancer in mice. This opened

up investigation into the role hormones played in the devel-

opment of various types of cancers.

In 1896, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the x ray, a

radioactive

emission

capable of penetrating many solid ma-

terials including the human body. x rays quickly found use

as a diagnostic tool in medicine; but operators of x ray

devices, unaware of their harmful effects, determined the

proper intensity of the beams by repeatedly exposing their

hands to the rays. Many operators of x ray equipment began

to suffer from cancer of the hand, and Roentgen himself

died of cancer. The most dramatic environmental link to

cancer induced by

radioactivity

was observed after the

bombing of

Hiroshima, Japan

when there was a radical

increase in

leukemia

type cancers among people exposed

to the atomic blast.

Environmental agents such as toxic chemicals and ra-

diation are considered responsible for about 85% of all cancer

cases. A great many environmental agents such as synthetic

chemicals, sunlight (exposure to UV and UVB rays), air

pollutants,

heavy metals

, x rays, high-fat diet, chemical

pesticides, and cigarette smoking are known to be carcino-

genic. Surveys carried out on the geographic incidence of

cancer indicate that certain types of cancer are far more

common in heavily industrialized areas. New Jersey, the site

of approximately 1,200 chemical plants and related indus-

tries, has the highest overall cancer rate in the United States.

Tobacco

use, particularly cigarette smoking, is now

recognized as the leading contributor to cancer

mortality

in the United States. Currently one third of all cancer deaths

are due to lung cancer, and of the 130,000 new lung cancer

victims diagnosed each year, 80% are cigarette smokers. Sev-

eral years ago, the primary cause of cancer among women

was breast cancer—but by the late 1980s, lung cancer had

surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of death among

219

women. Current controversy rages over the role of secondary

smoke

as a contributing cause of cancer among nonsmokers

exposed to

cigarette smoke

Dietary factors have been extensively investigated, and

experiments have implicated everything from coffee to char-

coal broiled meat to peanut butter as possible carcinogens.

A major concern among meat producers was the use of

diethylstilbestrol (DES) as a source for beefing up cattle.

DES is a synthetic hormone that increases the rate of growth

in cattle. In the 1960s, DES was fed to about three fourths

of all the cattle raised in the United States. It was also used

to prevent miscarriages in women until 1966, when it was

shown to be carcinogenic in mice. DES is now linked to

vaginal and cervical cancers in women born between 1950

and 1966 whose mothers took DES during their preg-

nancies.

In 1971, DES was banned for use in cattle by the

Food and Drug Administration

(FDA), but the federal

courts reversed the ban, contending that DES posed no

danger since it was not directly added to foods but was

administered only to cattle. When the FDA subsequently

showed that measurable quantities remained present in

slaughtered cattle, the courts reinstated the ban. But the

issue of using growth additives in meat production remains

unresolved today. Environmentalists are still concerned that

known carcinogenic chemicals used to “beef up” cattle are

being consumed by humans in various meat products, though

no direct links have yet been established. In addition, various

food additives

, such as coal tar dyes used for artificial

coloring and food preservatives, have produced cancer in

laboratory animals. As yet there is no evidence indicating

that human cancer rates are rising because of these substances

in food.

Air pollution

has been extensively investigated as a

possible carcinogen and it is known that people living in

cities larger than 50,000 run a 33% higher risk of developing

lung cancer than people who live in other areas. The reasons

behind this phenomenon, referred to as the “urban factor,”

have never been conclusively determined. Areas with popula-

tions exceeding 50,000 tend to have more industry, and air

pollutants can have a profound effect in regions such as New

Jersey where they are highly concentrated.

Occupational exposure to carcinogenic substances ac-

counts for an estimated 2–8% of diagnosed cancers in the

United States. Until passage of the Toxic Substances Control

Act in 1976, which gave the federal government the power

to require testing of potentially hazardous substances before

they go on the market, hundreds of new chemicals with

unknown side effects came into industrial use each year.

Substances such as

asbestos

are estimated to cause 30–40%

of all deaths among workers who have been exposed to

it.

Vinyl chloride

, a basic ingredient in the production of

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Carrying capacity

plastics

, was found in 1974 to induce a rare form of liver

cancer among exposed workers. Anaesthetic gases used in

operating rooms have been traced as the reason nurse anes-

thetists develop leukemia and lymphoma at three times the

normal rate with an associated higher rate of miscarriage and

birth defects

among their children.

Benzene

, an industrial

chemical long known as a bone-marrow poison, has been

shown to induce leukemia as well. A major step forward in

the regulation of these potential cancer causing agents is

the implementation by the Occupational Safety and Health

Administrations (OSHA) of the Hazard Communication

Standard in 1983, intended to provide employees in manu-

facturing industries access to information concerning haz-

ardous chemicals encountered in the workplace.

With the

erosion

of the

ozone

layer of our

atmo-

sphere

, increased concern about over-exposure to

ultravio-

let radiation

and its subsequent effect on the formation of

skin cancer has developed. The EPA estimates that a five%

ozone depletion in the

stratosphere

would result in a sub-

stantial increase in a variety of skin cancers. This would

include an average of two million extra cases of basal-cell

and squamous-cell skin cancers a year and an additional

30,000 cases of the often fatal melanoma skin cancer, which

currently kills 9,000 Americans per year. See also Hazardous

waste siting; Love Canal, New York; Ozone layer depletion;

Radiation exposure; Radiation sickness; Radon; Toxic sub-

stance

[Brian R. Barthel]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Aldrich, T., and J. Griffith. Environmental Epidemiology. New York: Van

Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.

McCance, K. L. Pathophysiology: the Biological Basis for Disease in Adults

and Children. St. Louis: Mosby, 1990.

National Academy of Sciences. Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Gases and Cli-

mate Change. Washington, DC: U. S. Environmental Protection

Agency, 1989.

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Potential Effects of Global

Climate Change on the United States. Washington, DC: U. S. Government

Printing Office, 1988.

Carrying capacity

Carrying capacity is a general concept based on the idea that

every

ecosystem

has a limit for use that cannot be exceeded

without damaging the system. Whatever the specified use

of an area might be, whether for grazing,

wildlife habitat

recreation

, or economic development, there is a threshold

that cannot be breached, except temporarily, without degrad-

ing the ability of the

environment

to support that use.

Examinations of carrying capacity attempt to determine,

220

with varying degrees of

accuracy

, where this threshold lies

and what the consequences of exceeding it might be.

The concept of carrying capacity was pioneered early

this century in studies of range management and

wildlife

management

. Range surveys of what was then called “graz-

ing capacity” were carried out on the Kaibab Plateau in

Arizona as early as 1911, and this term was used in most

of the early bulletins issued by the

U.S. Department of

Agriculture

on the subject. In his 1923 classic, Range and

Pasture Management, Sampson defined grazing capacity as

“the number of stock of one or more classes which the area

will support in good condition during the time that the

forage is palatable and accessible, without decreasing the

forage production in subsequent seasons.” Sampson was

quick to point out that the “grazing capacity equation has

not been worked out on any range unit with mathematical

precision.” In fact, because of the number of variables in-

volved, especially variables stemming from human actions,

he did not believe that the “grazing-capacity factor will ever

be worked out to a high degree of scientific accuracy.” Samp-

son also pointed out that “grazing the pasture to its very

maximum year after year can produce only one result—a

sharp decline in its carrying capacity,” and he criticized the

stocking of lands at their maximum instead of their optimum

capacity. Similar discussions of carrying capacity can be

found in books about wildlife management from the same

period, particularly Game Management by

Aldo Leopold

published in 1933.

Practitioners of applied

ecology

have calculated the

number of animal-unit months that any given land area can

carry over any given period of time. But there have been

some controversies over the application of the concept of

carrying capacity. The concept is commonly employed with-

out considering the factor of time, neglecting the fact that

carrying capacity refers to

land use

that is sustainable. An-

other common mistake is to confuse or ignore the implicit

distinctions between maximum, minimum, and optimum

capacity. In discussions of land use and environmental im-

pact, some officials have drawn graphs with curves showing

maximum use of an area and claimed that these figures

represent carrying capacity. Such representations are mis-

leading because they assume a perfectly controlled popula-

tion, one without fluctuation, which is not likely. In addition,

the maximum allowable population can almost never be the

carrying capacity of an area, because such a number can

almost never be sustained under all possible conditions. A

population in balance with the environment will usually

fluctuate around a mean, higher or lower, depending on

seasonal habitat conditions, including factors critical to the

support of that particular

species

or community.

The concept of carrying capacity has important ramifi-

cations for

human ecology

and

population growth

. Many

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Rachel Louise Carson

of the essential systems on which humans depend for suste-

nance are showing signs of stress, yet demands on these

systems are constantly increasing. William R. Catton has

formulated an important axiom for carrying capacity: “For

any use of any environment there is a use intensity that

cannot be exceeded without reducing that environment’s

suitability for that use.” He then defined carrying capacity

for humans on the basis of this axiom: “The maximum

human population equipped with a given assortment of tech-

nologies and a given pattern of organization that a particular

environment can support indefinitely.”

The concept of carrying capacity is the foundation for

recent interest in

sustainable development

, an environ-

mental approach which identifies thresholds for economic

growth and increases in human population. Sustainable de-

velopment calculates the carrying capacity of the environ-

ment based on the size of the population, the standard of

living desired, the overall quality of life, the quantity and

type of artifacts created, and the demand on energy and

other resources. With his calculations on sustainable devel-

opment in Paraguay, Herman Daly has illustrated that it is

possible to work out rough estimates of carrying capacity

for some human populations in certain areas. He based his

figures on the ecological differences between the country’s

two major regions, as well as on differences among types of

settlers, and differences between developed good land and

undeveloped marginal lands.

If ecological as well as economic and social factors are

taken into consideration, then any given environment has

an identifiable tolerance for human use and development,

even if that number is not now known. For this reason,

many environmentalists argue that carrying capacity should

always be the basis for what has been called “demographic

accounting.”

[Gerald L. Young and Douglas Smith]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Edwards, R. Y., and C. D. Fowle. “The Concept of Carrying Capacity.”

In Readings in Wildlife Management, edited by J. A. Bailey, W. Elder, and

T. D. McKinney. Washington, DC: The Wildlife Society, 1974.

ERIODICALS

Budd, W. W. “What Capacity the Land?” Journal of Soil and Water Conser-

vation 47 (January-February 1992): 28-31.

Catton, W. R., Jr. “The World’s Most Polymorphic Species: Carrying

Capacity Transgressed Two Ways.” BioScience 37 (June 1987): 413-419.

Graefe, A. R., J. V. Vaske, and F. R. Kuss. “Social Carrying Capacity: An

Integration & Synthesis of Twenty Years of Research.” Leisure Sciences 6

(December 1984): 395-431.

221

Nilsson, S. “The Carrying Capacity Concept.” Interdisciplinary Science Re-

views 9 (June 1984): 137-148.

Rachel Louise Carson (1907 – 1964)

American ecologist, marine biologist, and writer

Rachel Louise Carson was a university-trained biologist, a

longtime United States government employee, and a best-

selling author of such books as Edge of the Sea, The Sea

Around Us (a National Book Award winner), and Silent

Spring.

Her book on the dangers of misusing pesticides, Silent

Spring, has become a classic of environmental literature and

resulted in her recognition as the fountainhead of modern

environmentalism

. Silent Spring was reissued in a twenty-

fifth anniversary edition in 1987, and remains standard read-

ing for anyone concerned about environmental issues.

Carson grew up in the Pennsylvania countryside and

reportedly developed an early interest in

nature

from her

mother and from exploring the woods and fields around her

home. She was first an English major in college, but a

required course in biology rekindled that early interest in

the subject and she graduated in 1928 from Pennsylvania

College for Women with a degree in zoology and went on

to earn a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University. After

the publication of Silent Spring, she was often criticized for

being a “popular science writer” rather than a trained biolo-

gist, making it obvious that her critics were unaware of her

university work, including a master’s thesis entitled “The

Development of the Pronephros During the Embryonic and

Early Larval Life of the Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus).”

Summer work also included biological studies at

Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachu-

setts, where she became more interested in the life of the

sea. After doing a stint as a part-time scriptwriter for the

Bureau of Fisheries, she was hired full-time as a junior

aquatic biologist. When she resigned from the United States

Fish and Wildlife Service

in 1952 to devote her time to

her writing, she was biologist and chief editor there. First,

as a biologist and writer with the Bureau and then as a

free-lance writer and biologist, she successfully combined

professionally the two great loves of her life, biology and

writing.

Often described as “a book about death which exalts

life,” Silent Spring is the work on which Carson’s position as

the modern catalyst of a renewed environmental movement

rests. The book begins with a shocking fable of one compos-

ite town’s “silent spring” after pesticides have decimated

insects and the birds that feed upon them. The main part

of the book is a massive documentation of the effects of

organic pesticides on all kinds of life, including birds and

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Rachel Louise Carson

humans. The final sections are quite restrained, drawing a

hopeful picture of the future, if feasible alternatives to the

use of pesticides—such as biological controls—are used in

conjunction with and as a partial replacement of chemical

sprays.

Carson was quite conservative throughout the book,

being careful to limit examples to those that could be verified

and defended. In fact, there was very little new in the book;

it was all available earlier in a variety of scientific publications.

But her science background allowed her to judge the credibil-

ity of the facts she uncovered and provided sufficient knowl-

edge to synthesize a large amount of data. Her literary skills

made that data accessible to the general public.

Silent Spring was not a polemic against all use of pesti-

cides but a reasoned argument that potential hazards be

carefully and sufficiently considered before any such chemical

was approved for use. Many people date modern concern

with environmental issues from her argument in this book

that “future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of

prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that

supports all life.” It is not an accident that her book is

dedicated to

Albert Schweitzer

, because she wrote it from

a shared philosophy of reverence for life.

Carson provided an early outline of the potential of

using biological controls in place of

chemicals

, or in concert

with smaller doses of chemicals, an approach now called

integrated pest management

. She worried that too many

specialists were concerned only about the effectiveness of

chemicals in destroying pests and “the overall picture” was

being lost, in fact not valued or even sought. She pointed

out the false safety of assuming that products considered

individually were safe, when in concert, or synergistically,

they could lead to human health problems.

Her

holistic approach

was one of the real, and un-

usual, strengths of the book. Prior to the publication of

Silent Spring, she even refused to appear on a

National

Audubon Society

panel on pesticides because such an ap-

pearance could provide a forum for only part of the picture

and she wanted her material to first appear “as a whole.”

She did allow it to be partially serialized in The New Yorker,

but articles in that magazine are long and detailed.

The book was criticized early and often, and often

viciously and unfairly. One chemical company, reacting to

that pre-publication serialization, tried to get Houghton

Mifflin not to publish the book, citing Carson as one of the

“sinister influences” trying to reduce the use of

agricultural

chemicals

so that United States food supplies would dwindle

to the level of a developing nation. The chemical industry

apparently united against Carson, distributing critical re-

views and threatening to withdraw magazine advertisements

from journals deemed friendly to her. Words and phrases

used in the attacks included “ignorant,” “biased,” “sensa-

222

tional,” “unfounded,” “distorted,” “not written by a scientist,”

“littered with crass assumptions and gross misinterpreta-

tions,” to name but a few.

Some balanced reviews were also published, most

noteworthy one by Cornell University ecologist LaMont

Cole in Scientific American. Cole identified errors in her

book, but finished by saying “errors of fact are so infrequent,

trivial and irrelevant to the main theme that it would be

ungallant to dwell on them,” and went on to suggest that

the book be widely read in the hopes that it “may help us

toward a much needed reappraisal of current policies and

practices.” That was the spirit in which Carson wrote Silent

Spring and reappraisals and new policies were indeed the

result of the myriad of reassessments and studies spawned

by its publication. To its credit, it did not take the science

community long to recognize her credibility; the President’s

Science Advisory Committee issued a 1963 report that the

journal Science suggested “adds up to a fairly thorough-going

vindication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring thesis.”

While it is important to recognize the importance of

Silent Spring as a landmark in the environmental movement,

one should not neglect the significance of her other work,

especially her three books on oceans and marine life and the

impact of her writing on people’s awareness of one of earth’s

great natural ecosystems.

Under the Sea Wind (1941) was Carson’s attempt “to

make the sea and its life as vivid a reality [for her readers] as

it has become for me.” And readers are given vivid narratives

about the shore, including vegetation and birds, on the open

sea, especially by tracing the movements of the mackerel,

and on the sea bottom, again by focusing on an example, this

time the eel. The Sea Around Us (1951) continues Carson’s

treatment of marine biology, adding an account of the history

and development of the sea and its physical features such

as islands and tides. She also includes human perceptions

of and relationships with the sea. The Edge of the Sea (1955)

was written as a popular guide to beaches and sea shores,

but focusing on rocky shores, sand beaches, and coral and

mangrove coasts, it complemented the physical descriptions

in The Sea Around Us with biological data.

Carson was a careful and thorough scientist, an inspir-

ing author, and a pioneering environmentalist. Her

groundbreaking book, and the controversy it generated, was

the catalyst for much more serious and detailed looks at

environmental issues, including increased governmental in-

vestigation that led to creation of the

Environmental Pro-

tection Agency

(EPA). Her work will remain a hallmark

in the increasing awareness modern people are gaining of

how humans interact with and impact the

environment

which they live and on which they depend.

[Gerald R. Young]

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Catalytic converter

Rachel Carson. (Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by per-

mission.)

ESOURCES

OOKS

Bonta, M. M. “Rachel Carson, Pioneering Ecologist.” In Women in the

Field: America’s Pioneering Naturalists. College Station, TX: Texas A & M

University Press, 1991.

Brooks, P. The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin, 1972.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

Downs, R. B. “Upsetting the Balance of Nature: Rachel Carson’s Silent

Spring.” In Books That Changed America. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Hynes, H. P. The Recurring Silent Spring. New York: Pergamon Press, 1989.

Marco, G. J., R. M. Hollingworth, and W. Durham. Silent Spring Revisited.

Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1987.

ERIODICALS

Graham Jr., F. “Rachel Carson.” EPA Journal 4 (November–December

1978): 5–7+.

Cash crop

A crop that is produced for the purpose of exporting or

selling rather than for consumption by the person who grows

it. In many

Third World

countries, cash crops often replace

the production of basic food staples such as rice, wheat, or

223

corn in order to generate foreign exchange. For example, in

Guatemala, much of the land is devoted to the production of

bananas and citrus fruits (97% of the citrus crop is exported),

which means that majority of the basic food products needed

by the native people are imported from other countries.

Often these foods are expensive and difficult for many poor

people to obtain. Cash crop agriculture also forces many

subsistence and tenant farmers to give up their land in order

to make room for industrialized farming.

Catalytic converter

Catalytic converters are devices which employ a catalyst

to facilitate a chemical reaction. (A catalyst is a substance

that changes the rate of a chemical reaction, but whose

own composition is unchanged by that reaction.) For

air

pollution control

purposes, such reactions involve the

reduction of nitric oxide to molecular oxygen and

nitrogen

or oxidation of

hydrocarbons

and

carbon monoxide

carbon dioxide

and water. Using the catalyst, the activa-

tion energy of the desired chemical reaction is lowered.

Therefore, exothermic chemical conversion will be favored

at a lower temperature.

Traditional catalysts have normally been metallic, al-

though nonmetallic materials, such as ceramics, have been

coming into use in recent years. Metals used as catalysts

may include noble metals, such as platinum, or

base

metals,

including

nickel

and

copper

. Some catalysts are more effec-

tive in oxidation, others are more effective in reduction.

Some metals are effective in both kinds of reactions. The

catalyst material is normally coated on a porous, inert support

structure of varying design. Examples include honeycomb

ceramic structures with long channels and pellet beds. The

goal is to channel exhaust over a large surface area of catalyst

without an unacceptable pressure drop.

In some cases, reduction and oxidation catalysts are

combined to control oxides of nitric oxide,

carbon

monox-

ide, and hydrocarbon emissions in exhaust from internal

combustion

engines. The reduction and oxidation processes

can be conducted sequentially or simultaneously. Dual cata-

lysts are used in sequential reduction-oxidation. In this case,

the exhaust gas from a rich-burn engine initially enters the

reducing catalyst to reduce nitric oxide. Subsequently, as the

exhaust enters an oxidation catalyst, it is diluted with air

to provide oxygen for oxidation. Alternatively, three-way

catalysts can be used for simultaneous reduction and oxida-

tion. Engines exhausting to such catalysts run slightly rich

and require tight regulation of air-fuel ratio.

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Catskill Watershed Protection Plan

A catalytic converter at a large petrochemical

plant. (Phototgraph by Tom Carroll. Phototake. Repro-

duced by permission.)

Reducing catalysts can be made more efficient using

a reducing agent, such as ammonia. This method of control,

referred to as selective catalytic reduction, has been employed

successfully on large turbines. In this case, a reducing agent

224

is introduced upstream of a reducing catalyst, allowing for

greater rates of nitric oxide reduction.

[Robert B. Giorgis Jr.]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Silver, R. G., ed. Catalytic Control of Air Pollution: Mobile and Stationary

Sources. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1992.

Yaverbaum, L. H. Nitrogen Oxides Control and Removal: Recent Develop-

ments. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Data Corp., 1979.

ERIODICALS

Amato, I. “Catalytic Conversion Could Be a Gas.” Science 259 (15 January

1993): 311.

Cation

see

Ion

Cation exchange

see

Ion exchange

Catskill Watershed Protection Plan

New York City has long been proud of its excellent municipal

drinking water. Approximately 90% of that water comes

from the Catskill/Delaware

Watershed

, which covers about

1,900 square miles (nearly 5,000 square kilometers) of rug-

ged, densely forested land north of the city and west of

the

Hudson River

. Stored in six hard-rock reservoirs and

transported through enormous underground tunnels, the city

water is outstanding for so large an urban area. Yielding 1.2

billion gal (450,000 cubic meters) per day, and serving more

than 9 million people, this is the largest surface water storage

and supply complex in the world. As the metropolitan

ag-

glomeration

has expended, however, people have moved

into the area around the Catskill Forest Preserve, and

water

quality

is not as high as it was a century ago.

When the 1986 U.S.

Safe Drinking Water Act

man-

dated

filtration

of all public surface water systems, the city

was faced with building an $8 billion

water treatment

plant

that would cost up to $500 million per year to operate.

In 1989, however, the

Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) ruled that the city could avoid filtration if it could

meet certain minimum standards for microbial contaminants

such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoan

parasites

.Inan

attempt to limit pathogens and nutrients contaminating sur-

face water and to avoid the enormous cost of filtration,

the city proposed land-use regulations for the five counties

(Green, Ulster, Sullivan, Schoharie, and Delaware) in the

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Center for Environmental Philosophy

Catskill/Delaware watershed from which it draws most of

its water.

With a population of 50,000 people, the private land

within the 200 square mi (520 square km) watershed is

mostly devoted to forestry and small dairy farms, neither of

which are highly profitable. Among the changes the city

called for was elimination of storm water

runoff

from barn-

yards,

feedlots

, or grazing areas into watersheds. In addi-

tion, farmers would be required to reduce

erosion

and sur-

face runoff from crop fields and

logging

operations.

Property owners objected strenuously to what they regarded

as onerous burdens that would cost enough to put many of

them out of business. They also bristled at having the huge

megalopolis impose rules on them. It looked like a long and

bitter battle would be fought through the courts and the

state legislature.

To avoid confrontation, a joint urban/rural task force

was set up to see if a compromise could be reached, and to

propose alternative solutions to protect both the water supply

and the long-term viability of agriculture in the region. The

task force agreed that agriculture is the “preferred land use”

on private land, and that agriculture has “significant present

and future environmental benefits.” In addition, the task

force proposed a voluntary, locally developed and adminis-

tered program of “whole farm planning and best manage-

ment approaches” very similar to ecosystem-based,

adaptive

management

This grass-roots program, financed mainly by the city,

but administered by local farmers themselves, attempts to

educate landowners, and provides alternative marketing op-

portunities that help protect the watershed. Economic incen-

tives are offered to encourage farmers and foresters to protect

the water supply. Collecting feedlot and barnyard runoff in

infiltration

ponds together with solid

conservation

prac-

tices such as

terracing

contour plowing

, strip farming,

leaving crop residue on fields, ground cover on waterways,

and cultivation of perennial crops such as orchards and sugar-

bush have significantly improved watershed water quality. As

of 1999, about 400 farmers—close to the 85% participation

goal—have signed up for the program. The cost, so far, to

the city has been about $50 million—or less than 1% of

constructing a treatment plant.

In addition to saving billions of dollars, this innovative

program has helped create good will between the city and

its neighbors. It has shown that upstream cleanup, preven-

tion, and protection are cheaper and more effective than

treating water after it’s dirty. Farmers have learned they can

be part of the solution, not just part of the problem. This

experiment serves as an excellent example of how watershed

planning through cooperation is effective when local people

are given a voice and encouraged to participate.

[William P. Cunningham Ph.D.]

225

ESOURCES

THER

About the CWC. July 2002. Catskill Watershed Corporation. [cited July 9,

2002]. <http://www.cwconline.org/>.

New York City Watershed Agreement. New York Public Interest Group.

[cited July 9, 2002]. <http://www.nypirg.org/enviro/water/watershed_

agreement.html>.

New York City watershed whole farm programme. March 1999. United Na-

tions Sustainable Development Programme. [cited July 9, 2002]. <http://

www.un.org/esa/sustdev/success/nyc_wsfp.htm>.

RGANIZATIONS

Catskill Watershed Corporation, PO Box 569 Main St., Margaretville,

NY USA 12455 (845) 586-1400, Fax: (845)586-1401, Toll Free: (877)

928-7433, Email: invest@cwconline.org, http://www.cwconline.org

Center for Environmental Philosophy

The Center for Environmental Philosophy was established

in 1989 as an organization dedicated to furthering research,

publication, and education in the area of environmental phi-

losophy and ethics. Based at the University of North Texas

since 1990, the primary activities of the center are the publi-

cation of the journal Environmental Ethics, the reprinting of

significant books on

environmental ethics

under its own

imprint, the sponsorship of various workshops and confer-

ences dedicated to the furthering of research and training

in environmental ethics, and the promotion of graduate edu-

cation, postdoctoral research, and professional development

in the field of environmental ethics.

The Center is best known for its journal, which virtu-

ally established the field of environmental ethics and remains

perhaps the leading forum for serious philosophical work in

environmental philosophy. Inspired in part by Aldo Leo-

pold’s contention in “A Sand County Almanac” that the

roots of most ecological problems were philosophical, Eu-

gene C. Hargrove founded Environmental Ethics in 1978.

The journal was originally concerned primarily with whether

the attribution of rights to animals and to

nature

itself could

be coherently defended as a philosophical doctrine. While

remaining true to its central preoccupation with ethics, the

journal’s interests have more recently broadened to include

significant essays on such topics as

deep ecology

ecofem-

inism

social ecology

, economics, and public policy. Under

Hargrove’s editorial leadership, the journal has brought envi-

ronmental ethics to increasing acceptance as a serious field

by mainstream academic philosophers. Environmental Ethics

also is now widely read by researchers concerned with the

environment

in the fields of biological science, economics,

and policy science. It also is developing a small but growing

following among environmental professionals such as

con-

servation

biologists.

The Center also helps to sponsor, in conjunction with

the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the

Environmental Encyclopedia 3

Center for Respect of Life and Environment

University of North Texas, programs in which graduate stu-

dents may take courses and specialize in the field of environ-

mental ethics.

[Lawrence J. Biskowski]

ESOURCES

RGANIZATIONS

Center for Environmental Philosophy, University of North Texas, 370

EESAT, P.O. Box 310980, Denton, TX USA 76203-0980 (940) 565-

2727, Fax: (940) 565-4439, Email: cep@unt.edu, <http://

www.cep.unt.edu>

Center for Marine Conservation

see

Ocean Conservatory, The

Center for Respect of Life and

Environment

Formed in 1986, the Center for Respect of Life and

Environ-

ment

(CRLE) is a nonprofit group based in Washington,

D.C., that works to promote humane and

environmental

ethics

, particularly within the academic and religious com-

munities with an emphasis on the links between

ecology

spirituality, and sustainability.

CRLE describes itself as being committed to “encour-

age the well-being of life and living systems—plant, animal,

and human relationships...” The work of the Center is “to

awaken the public’s ecological sensibilities, and to transform

lifestyles, institutional practices, and social policies to support

the community of life...” In order to accomplish these goals,

CRLE sponsors conferences of professionals and experts in

various fields and puts out a variety of publications, including

a quarterly journal, Earth Ethics.

Through workshops and conferences, CRLE’s Higher

Education Project brings together educators from various

institutions to discuss greening policies. The Center’s

Greening of Academia program works with colleges and

universities to make the academic curricula, food services,

and other campus policies “ecologically sound, socially just,

and humane.” CRLE also publishes a Green Guide to Higher

Education, which describes the availability and ecological

orientation of courses at various institutions of higher

learning.

The Center’s Religion in the Ecological Age program

focuses on “ecospirituality,” stressing that today’s religious

leaders and institutions must take the responsibility for ad-

dressing the issues of environmental justice, the human pop-

ulation explosion, over-consumption of

natural resources

and other environmental problems that threaten the well-

being of the natural environment and of the humans and

226

wildlife

dependent on it. CRLE sponsors conferences and

publications on such issues, including a series of international

conferences in Assisi, Italy (home of St. Francis of Assisi,

the thirteenth century lover of animals and patron saint of

nature

Fundamental to the Center’s mission was the creation

of an

Earth Charter

. The Charter was approved by the

Earth Charter Commission in 2000 and hopefully will be

backed by the United Nations in 2002. It will “prescribe new

norms for state and interstate behavior needed to maintain

livelihoods and life on our shared planet.” CRLE says that

the main purpose of the Earth Charter is to “create a ’soft

law’ document that sets forth the fundamental principles of

this emerging new ethics, principles that include respect

for human rights, peace, economic equity, environmental

protection and sustainable living... It is hoped that the Char-

ter will become a universal code of conduct for states and

people...”

Other activities of the Global Earth Ethic project in-

clude sponsoring conferences and publications focusing on

ethics as they relate to agriculture, development, the environ-

ment, and “the appropriate use of animals in research, educa-

tion, and agriculture...” This effort to raise consciousness

includes a three-year project focused on establishing a new

principle for agriculture explained in the “Soul of Agricul-

ture: a Production Ethic for the 21st Century.”

CRLE’s Sustainable Livelihoods in Sustainable Com-

munities program works with United Nations agencies and

other regional and international organizations to promote

environmentally sustainable developmental and agricultural

practices through publications, conferences and meetings,

with particular emphasis on

indigenous peoples

and rural

communities.

CRLE’s quarterly journal, Earth Ethics, offers book

reviews and a calendar of upcoming events, and it provides a

forum for scholarly and provocative feature articles discussing

and debating sustainability and other environmental topics

as they affect the fields of religion, agriculture, education,

business, and the arts, often “challenging current economic

and developmental practices.”

The Center is affiliated with and supported by the

Humane Society of the United States

, the nation’s largest

animal protection organization.

[Lewis G. Regenstein]

ESOURCES

OOKS

Fox, M.W. The Boundless Circle: Caring for Creatures and Creation.

Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1996.