1818 



inflation-plagued and resource-poor Japan would transfer its production facili- 

 ties — or simply sell its technology — to foreign nations which enjoy rich deposits 

 of natural resources, offer plentiful, cheap labor, and . . . "have more elbow 

 room from an environmental viewpoint." . . .*'"' 



The concept is an ingenious one, but — the authors conclude — it 

 has the fundamental weakness that environmental pollution cannot 

 indefinitely be exported nor neatly contained. What is at issue is 

 "man's assault on the life-support systems of the earth as a whole." *'^ 



Clearly, as the Japanese themselves perceive, the problem of 

 pollution in Japan in the near term is shaping up as a problem in 

 interdependence.*^^ The ultimate problem which it appears to fore- 

 shadow — that of limiting growth or of defining appropriate kinds of 

 growth — will be an infinitely more delicate and complex problem in 

 interdependence, when its time comes. 



THE OBSTACLE OF IMPERFECT COMMUNICATION 



Three factors which complicate the process of working out a con- 

 structive balance between the impulses of national independence and 

 the imperatives of global interdependence have been noted: nation- 

 alism, cultural resistance, and antagonism between the aggressive 

 demands of growth and the defensive requirements of ecology. Another 

 is communication, in the sense of shared thoughts, values, and think- 

 ing processes. People of different cultures cannot work together 

 effectively if they do not understand each other's ways of thinking. 

 Thus, Americans tend to think inductively, arguing from the particu- 

 lar to the general; Russians, it has been observed, tend to think and 

 speak deductively, concluding "what must be" from established prin- 

 ciples. For example, a Russian factory doctor told a group of American 

 scientists visiting her textile mill : The Soviet Union cares about worker 

 safety and welfare ; air polluted by dust and fibers from the materials 

 used in this factory is dangerous to workers' health ; therefore we have 

 equipment to purify the air; "and so, gentlemen, look around you — 

 there is no air pollution!" According to one of the American scientists, 

 the visitors saw the air filled with clouds of cotton lint.*^^ One wonders 

 whether a better appreciation of the differences in thought processes 

 on the part of both the Russians and the Americans involved in the 

 Baruch Plan negotiations might have influenced their outcome. 



<'i) N. Huddle et al., Island of Dream* (op. cit.), p. 322. 



*"i Ibid., p. 325. 



*" From the Japanese standpoint the problem is one of exporting pollution; from that of many of the less 

 developed countries (LDCs) it is one of importing growth. At the United Nations Conference on the Envi- 

 ronment (Stockholm, June 1972) the LDCs objected to U.S. efforts to impose American environmental 

 quality standards on them. For the past several, years, diplomatic and other representatives of LDCs attend- 

 ing meetings of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Society for International Development have made it 

 clear, whenever the subject came up, that sentiment at home favored tackling the problem of achieving 

 growth first and worrying about pwUution later. 



As a short-term solution to the LDC problem of growth in conjunction with the developed country prob- 

 lem of pollution, the exchange may prove a popular expedient in the years immediately ahead. This likely 

 trend was suggested in an inforn.al talk to the staff of the Office of Technology Assessment on October 15, 

 1975, by Dr. Dieter Altenpohl, director of research for Alusuisse Aluminum Co. Dr. Altenpohl expressed 

 doubt that future aluminum reduction plants would be built anywhere but in LDCs which had the el ectric 

 power and could tolerate the fluoride eflBuent. 



*" Credit for the epistemological observation about the difference between American and Russian thought 

 processes belongs to Professor Edgar S. Robinson. The anecdote concerns an actual experience of an Ameri- 

 can social psychologist during a Soviet visit. (The point is not that American thinking is superior; in most 

 problem-solving situations — in those which involve human affairs, at any rate — an approach which com- 

 bines induction and deduction is better than one which leans too heavily on either.) 



