JOSEPH L.INTERMAGGIO 139 



would have been thoroughly justified in reciting the price of past 

 spoliation of resources. His is a sober call to reason through our 

 problems and, through a guiding social and economic policy, to 

 apply our skills to achieve higher social ends. 



Dr. Gulick's paper has special quahties that appeal to me. It has 

 unity; the physical, environmental, social, and governmental aspects 

 of the problems are interrelated. And throughout, one senses his re- 

 gard for people. This paper is so provocative and covers so broad a 

 range that I can comment here on only a few of the many points 

 worthy of further discussion and analysis. 



Dr. Gulick does leave out one key point that I would like to stress 

 — the unnecessary drain on our resources caused by progressive de- 

 terioration of the urban areas. He refers only to the resources needed 

 to meet future growth. Reginald Isaacs estimates that urban renewal 

 will cost "almost two trillion dollars by 1970," and states further 

 that: 



New demands will be placed upon resources already diminishing 

 under the impact of high productivity; their use under the require- 

 ments of a full urban renewal treatment program will approach that 

 of war years. For even longer range considerations, there is re- 

 quired education, policies, legislation and enforcement of conserva- 

 tion practices.^ 



It is difficult to isolate the specific impact of urbanism on our nat- 

 ural resources apart from the unique requirements of our industrial 

 technology, except insofar as the people concentrated in urban areas 

 make special demands on land and on water, and affect air and 

 water by their activities. Let us examine several of the examples 

 cited. 



As Dr. Gulick indicates, urban water needs are the result of the 

 concentration of industry and of consumers. Water needs in the 

 United States are expected to increase by 150 per cent over the next 

 two or three decades, for which industry will account for 95 per 

 cent.^ It may be good that water shortages may in some instances 



^ Reginald R. Isaacs, "The Real Costs of Urban Renewal," Problems of 

 United States Economic Development (New York: Committee for Economic 

 Development), I, 1958. 



2 J. Frederic Dewhurst and Associates, America's Needs and Resources (New 

 York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1955), p. 943. 



