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I 



THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES OF 



TODAY AND TOMORROW 



For most of those who watched the first moon landing in July 1969, two 

 indelible images remain. The first is the television picture of the surface 

 of the moon as Neil Armsuong stepped from the lunar lander. The second 

 is the image of the surface of the eanh, that breathtaking picture of our 

 planet as seen from our closest celestial neighbor. The first image was a tri- 

 umphal one, summarizing a decade of American technological achievements 

 in space. But for many the second image was a warning. 



At a time when public awareness of environmental problems was 

 very much in its infancy, that image of our planet helped people to under- 

 stand that the Eanh is an integrated set of systems — landmasscs, the at- 

 mosphere, oceans, the plant and animal kingdoms— and that a threat to 

 one could harm them all. As one observer has written, "The image brought 

 home as never before that our home is, after all, a planet— small, self- 

 contained, and in some ways perhaps, fragile."' 



