140 Some Problems in City Planning 



restrain urbanization by limiting industrial development; the result 

 may well be more rational industrial, and hence urban, patterns. 



Dr. Gulick wisely recognizes that, in some regions of rapid recent 

 growth, even conservation and ingenuity have their limits. The 

 promise of demineralization of salt water no one can yet evaluate. 



Pollution is discussed as a cause of resource waste. Air, water, 

 and ground pollution, and dumping, are not fairly assignable to 

 urban areas for, even though the cities are the chief offenders, many 

 of their activities are carried on for the whole economy. The real 

 culprit is the absence of effective use of technology available to con- 

 trol pollution. Moreover, these problems are soluble, no matter what 

 their dimensions. This is a problem of political dynamics and of the 

 willingness of the public authorities to deal effectively with the cause 

 of pollution, whatever it may be. Public controls must be used to 

 prevent overloading; technology must be used to correct pollution 

 that has already reached the danger point. This includes controlling 

 exhausts from automobiles and diesel trains, trucks and buses which, 

 in some cities, are making the air as intolerable as smoke from un- 

 controlled industrial sources. 



As for ground pollution, in some places fine homes are already 

 surrounded by continually overflowing cesspools and septic fields. In 

 some communities the ground itself has become saturated. Yet new 

 subdivisions are being added that have no sewers. Like water and 

 air pollution, the problem of ground pollution is soluble. But taking 

 action means obtaining the large financial resources to do the job. 

 Of the financial problems involved. Dr. Gulick is well aware. 



Energy consumption per capita is higher in urban regions, again, 

 not only because of the nature of urban development, but also be- 

 cause industry is concentrated there. Our energy resources have 

 proved far more adequate than previous forecasters believed pos- 

 sible. A major factor has been the growing efficiency of energy pro- 

 duction.^ Advancing technology and new sources of fuel, developed 

 and potential, would appear to offer reasonable hope that the energy 

 demands of our urban centers will continue to be adequately met. 



Dr. Gulick asserts that because urban incomes are higher, urban 

 dwellers consume more nonrenewable resources. This is a proposi- 



3 Dewhurst, op. cit. 



