EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 



The use and enjoyment of natural resources is everybody's concern. 

 Enough food, clothing, materials to make things with, energy for 

 homes, factories, and transportation, pure water, fresh air, elbow 

 room in natural surroundings for sport or contemplation, and other 

 resource products sustain Ufe and make it worth living. Everyone 

 wants enough of these good things for his own family and those who 

 will come after. Also, at least in a democracy, the ultimate decisions 

 on how to use resources are everybody's responsibility. 



In exercising their responsibility, however, the people more often 

 than not have to rely on speciahsts of various kinds. There are com- 

 plex technologies of forestry, mining, oil and gas extraction, water de- 

 velopment, and other fields that largely determine how much of a 

 resource product is available and how it can be used. There are com- 

 plicated economic factors that influence production and consumption 

 and help determine who pays the costs and who reaps the benefits. 

 There are other important, sometimes highly technical, considerations 

 including those of political and social organization and population 

 growth. 



Specialist and layman are mutually dependent in the modern world 

 and have a lot to learn from each other, particularly, it sometimes 

 seems, in the field of resource conservation and development. In no 

 field, certainly, is there greater need of bringing the two together. 



The aim of this book, as of the Resources for the Future Forum on 

 which it is based, is to bring expert opinion to bear upon a few re- 

 source problems of wide interest and significance. The informed sec- 

 tion of the general public to which the essays are addressed is itself a 

 large and diverse group, for in this age of specialization the authority 

 in one field is the layman in another. Specifically, the book seeks to 



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