28 
Notable & Quotable 
Professor Richard A. Falk, 
Millbank Professor of Inter- 
national Law at Princeton 
University, in an interview in 
the New York Times: 
There are four interconnected 
threads to the planet—wars of 
mass destruction, over-population, 
pollution, and the depletion of re- 
sources. 
They have a cumulative effect. 
A problem in one area renders it 
more difficult to solve the problems 
in any other area. All these prob- 
lems are caused by the discretion 
vested in national government, and 
in some instances in individual 
choice. The basis of all four prob- 
lems is the inadequacy of the 
sovereign states to manage the 
affairs of mankind in the 20th 
century. 
John Maynard Keynes long ago 
spoke of the paradox of aggrega- 
tion—that the definition of rational 
self-interest is different for the in- 
dividual than for the community. 
If one’s car is polluting the atmos- 
phere, the addition to the general 
pollution is so infinitesimal that 
there is no rational incentive to 
forbear from driving, or to spend 
money on antipollution filters. 
THE AUDUBON] BULL Dea 
This same logic applies to « 
porate behavior in the pursuit 
profits and to nations seek 
wealth, power and prestige. 
Appeals to conscience have y 
little prospect of success. The o 
hopeful prospect is some kind 
central framework of control to 
fine community interests and 
impose them on a global basis. T 
kind of solution is essentially p 
tical and moral rather 
technical. 
(The next step) is to make peo 
angry at what is happening 
their environment, and the pr 
pect for themselves and _ th 
children as a consequence of allc 
ing so much public policy to 
determined by the selfish inter 
of individuals, corporations, - 
tions, and even regions of ~ 
world. 
I think the kind of commun 
reaction that occurred in Sa 
Barbara recently, as a consequel 
of the oil slick, is the sort of thi 
that is going to happen more f 
quently and more dramatically 
the years ahead. When it is 1 
derstood that these occurrences : 
not isolated disorders but thre: 
in the pattern of disaster, ther 
more coherent response will be; 
to emerge. 
The essence of the problem 
to find a new formula for relati 
man to his environment. 
DUOCH ROME 
Autumn shore’s delight: 
Willets, flushed, show patterned wings, 
flashing black and white. 
—dJoe Dvot 
