WSP03262

• File Number: 8059
• Description: Section D General Studies-State Water Plan
• State: CO
• Date: 9/1/1972
• Author: Edward Mason
• Title: Environmental Considerations-Resources-Growth and Preservation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

~I'-'I
-----, RESOURCES

-

I

I
I
I

I

I
J

Some findings and conjectures from recent researctRECEIVrn
into rc!'.ource development and use

Who! is not good lor 'he swarm is not good Jor 'he b...e.-Marcus Aurelius:
Meditariom. VI, c. 170

At a two-day forum conductel/ by Resources for the
Future in /971, papers wert' presented as the hllsi.t for
public discussion of the apparl'rrt con!fic( emerging be-
lween two societal objecth'es: providing energy to meet
the needs of future economic growth mul prul/;'cting the
quality of ,he natural envirollnumt. The e.lcn."ts j1l this
issue are take" from four of the eight papers, all 01
which are being puhlished for RFF nt'." month by The
Johns llopki1l5 Unil'ersity PreS!>' ;11 Cl hook edited by
Sam H. Schurr, entitled Energy, Economic Growth. ami
the Environment.

EVEN WITH TI-lE AID of a rise of 55 percenl in
GNP and 34 percent in real per capita personal
income from 195910 1969. we have found in the United
States thaI our inroads on social problems have not
kept pace with our rising expectations and aspirations.
Imagine the tensions between rich and poor. between
black and white. between blue-collar and while-collar
workers. between old and young. if we had been forC"Cd
to finance c\'en the minimal demanJs of the di!o.aJ.
\'antaged out of a no--growlh nalional income instead
of a one-third increase in that income.
A specific example may be instructi\'e. B..:tween 1959
and 1969 the number of per~ns below the poverty
line fell from 39 million to 24 million. from 22.-i per-
cent to 12.2 percent of a rising population. The im-
prO\'emcnl came from a 3 percent increase in pnxluc.
ti\'il)' per )'ear, a drop in unemployment from 6 percent
to -l percent. shifts of the poor from lower to high..:r

OCT 1 81972

~

cow. '.... f[R
lroHSERVM10N &.r:/,RQ.

NUMBER 42 RESOURCES FOR THE FUTURE, IN ..~.., :'SEPTEMBER 1972

GROWTH AND PRESERVATION

income occupations and regions. and an extraordinary
growth in government cash transfers. from $26 billion
in 196010 o\'er $50 billion in 1970. Everyone of lhese
faClors was in some way the direct outgrowth of. or was
associated with or facilitated by. per capita ecnnomic
growth. Given their huge stake in gro.....th as a source
of the .....herewithal and much of lhe will to improve
rh~'ir 101. Ihe poor could be pardoned for saying, "Damn
lhe e:(t~rnalities. full speed ahead."
Looking ahead. Ihe Council of Economic Advisers
projected a rise in real GNP (in 1969 dollars) of
roughly 5325 billion, or 35 percent. from 1970 to 1976.
In lhe face of claims on these increases rhal .arc already
staked out \)r clearly in the making--claims thaI leave

---~~.:: '
\ ~_:-
"'-~~-:
, f ~
"

-'~-e...
-,~. -"
.,. 1 ~

/'"
#

2701