The deterioration of the physical environment in many metropolitan areas is a fact of modern life. In the United States the traditional alignment of power and institutions have proved to be ineffective in coping with environmental problems. Obvious as is this disparity between the nature of regional environmental management problems and the administrative machinery established to remedy it, too little serious effort has been made so far to do better.

The six experiments described here represent an effort to expand the environmental data-base, to improve the capacity of elected officials and their civil servants to anticipate better the consequences of a variety of environmental decisions, and to provide the broadest possible range of contributing citizens—so that environmental decision-making can become truly participatory. All of the regions involved have so far enjoyed more success technically than in the matters of transfer of information and improving citizen participation.

The Pacific Northwest is economically dependent upon its forest resources, which at present represent about 30% of the nation's softwood supply. Predicted decreases in the available supply have encouraged more intensive forest management, and new methods of planting, harvesting, and transport, have been developed.

Even with these improvements, problems exist in reducing erosion and accommodating other uses of forest lands and streams. With adequate planning and effort, however, most of these problems can be solved. But costs are high, and State laws controlling all forest practices are forcing Federal, State, and private, landowners to cooperate in planning for the future. Decisions that must soon be made should reflect an ecological understanding that could ensure the economic future of the Pacific Northwest.

Recently, intensification of both rain-fed and dry-season irrigated agriculture has necessitated widespread use of pesticides in the extensive sub-humid zones of Nigeria. In this region is located over 80% of Nigeria's existing surface area of reservoirs in the country. The majority of these reservoirs were built artificially for a multiplicity of uses among which fisheries and Nature conservation ranked very high.—

Roles or expressions of attitude which scientists should play or display in achieving a better environment for Man and Nature need to include (1) a positive and optimistic viewpoint, (2) a proper perspective in time-dimensions, (3) identification of major developments that have profoundly influenced our view of ourselves as humans, (4) development of a rational conceptual framework within which to arrange the activities required to influence the human environment (involving the four basic processes of energy provision, materials-cycling, life-cycling, and information leading to decision-making), (5) relating of these four basic processes to linking Man far more propitiously than latterly to his environment, (6) effective interaction among disciplines and concomitant advising of decision-makers, (7) developing sophisticated insight into the array of societal issues that confront mankind, and (8) tackling the set of environmental hazards that are particularly critical in developing countries.

The paper ends with an appeal to all ‘to reaffirm a robust faith in the destiny of Man.’

This paper establishes a theoretical connection between China’s Five-Year Plan (FYP) and environmental pollution. We propose a target allocation cycle theory to explain the periodic feature of environmental pollution, which advances political business theory in different institutional contexts. By analysing industrial SO2 and PM2.5 data as well as the political career data of officials in 277 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, we reveal a significant influence of China’s political business cycles, as dictated by the FYP, on the periodicity of environmental pollution. Specifically, the emissions of industrial SO2 and PM2.5 exhibit a U-shaped periodic trend, peaking during the initial 2 years of each FYP, followed by a gradual decline in subsequent years, only to peak again in the first year of the succeeding FYP. These findings suggest that local political leaders strategically allocate their efforts in managing environmental pollution. Initially, there is a relaxation of environmental regulation during the early stages of a FYP, which is then followed by a shift towards more stringent environmental governance after the midpoint of the FYP.