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planet there is only one ocean system, and that what happens on 
the coast of America will sooner or later have consequences else- 
where, as well as what we are doing in Europe will sooner or later 
come here. The problems of municipal dumping, or industrial 
dumping, are the same in most industrialized countries, as well as 
in Japan. 
A decade ago, it seems that this country was on the right way. 
Americans are learning that they need to act if they want to pre- 
serve the integrity of the water on their shores. Marine pollution 
had indisputably already damaged the environment, but a great 
effort was made to overcome it. Shellfish had been contaminated 
with hepatitis virus, polio virus, and other pathogens. Pollution 
had closed 20 percent of the commercial shellfish beds in this coun- 
try, masses of sea creatures died, and some beaches were closed. 
The public awareness of this fact was certainly influential in sug- 
gesting the proper legislation, and I think that the United States 
was the first country to take such measures as the Clear Air and 
the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. We outside 
of the United States were watching this progress with envy, and we 
were promoting in other countries the same type of legislation, 
with some success I must say. 
The public, too, have made a contribution in becoming more edu- 
cated. When people ask me if there has been progress in pollution 
control, I say the mere fact that you are asking the question today 
is something. You would never thought of doing that 15 years ago. 
So this proves that there has been progress, and education of the 
masses has been done. The mere fact that these questions may be 
discussed in the street is a wonderful proof of mass education. 
Despite these efforts and this new awareness, we carry on facing 
a serious situation. Governments and decisionmakers, private deci- 
sionmakers, have unfortunately thought that environmental 
awareness was a fad and that it would fade out. Recently, there 
was an offensive to say all this is emotional, not based on any sci- 
entific proof, and we have other problems of a more urgent nature, 
mainly economic, and with a number of public promotional efforts 
we can change the mind of the public. Some industrial lobbies have 
thought that they could do so by buying pages in magazines and by 
putting aggressive youngsters in airports. 
But opinion polls show that they have failed. There is now a tre- 
mendous move in public opinion to go back to a stronger set of ini- 
tiatives in environmental protection. I am telling you that because 
I follow these things very clearly, and I think it will be a mistake 
for legislators and decisionmakers to be late and not realize this. It 
is happening under our eyes. Already in Europe, 35 percent of the 
public are putting on the list of their worries environmental care 
as No. 2, just after unemployment. In this country, minor opinion 
polls have shown also that almost 70 percent of the public was con- 
cerned with environmental problems to various degrees. 
These surges of public opinion are very carefully followed by the 
UN environmental program, and they are aware that they are 
riding a wave, that they are not in a period of recess. 
When we see the recent actions of decisionmakers to put the 
brakes on, the major consideration was and is the world economic 
situation. I understand that this is a big problem. Today, millions 
