Pollution and reason

Abstract

Clearly, the topic of pollution is not one that lends itself to rational discussion. Millions of people appear to live in mortal and genuine fear that each breath may be their last. In this state, any attempt to evaluate the situation objectively seems to stamp the evaluator as an agent of those who are popularly believed to pollute for fun and profit. Nevertheless, the voice of rationality must be heard or irreparable damage will be done to the economy and the public welfare. A terrorstricken and misinformed public has already caused the destruction or postponement of facilities that make life easier, more pleasant, healthful, and otherwise rewarding. In many cases this has been done on the basis of information that no reasonably objective, technically informed person would accept as valid. If one follows the environmental technical literature (technical literature is that which is written by technically well-informed, objective writers for the perusal of their peers) ...