Issue of the Year: The Environment

Despite such pressures, however, "the decade of the environment" got off to a good start last year and the pace seems unlikely to slacken. Citizen groups have already identified 1971's targets, including strip-mining companies that destroy the landscape and cause water pollution. Washington, for its part, plans to set new noise regulations on industrial equipment and will press for new bans against dumping wastes in the oceans. What 1970 proved is that the environment issue cannot be dismissed as a fad. By changing national values, it may well spur a profound advance in U.S. maturity and harmony with nature, the parent of human life.