The Geographer's Role in the Solution of Environmental Problems

I would like to sketch out some of the environmental issues and challenges we face, and ask you to consider how geographers might help address them . . . Perhaps a sampling of some of the issues that are current and choice will suggest why I think geographers can help to better frame some of the questions, and perhaps also to help resolve them.

Let me call your attention to three issues. The first issue involves clean air. After 10 years. Congress finally has amended and vastly strengthened the Clean Air Act. The impact on all of us will be profound. The air will be cleaner, regulations will be far more comprehensive and the dollar costs will be substantial. Many pollutants will be regulated for the first time. We will be seeking no less than cultural changes in our uses of transportation. The difficulties we face in this major retooling are prodigious, and to some seem insurmountable. I do not agree. We can and will do what we must to the benefit of our lungs and the environment. But there are some tough issues—what kinds of health risks are we willing to accept? What are the locational implications of a given policy?

Will we agree on an acid rain strategy that doesn't cripple Pennsylvania's economy, or penalize as unduly for being east of Ohio, but still protects the Adirondack Lakes in New York? Should we adopt California auto emissions standards on the East Coast? Are our present airshed boundaries the right ones? I hope geographers will stay tuned.

Here is a second issue. Two coal-fired power stations near Pittsburgh have been moth-balled with the downturn of the steel industry. But the power is needed in New Jersey. The plants are available and efficient, and could boost the local economy and avoid the need for building two new plants. But there's a catch—it will take a 240-mile high-volt-age transmission line to deliver the power across the state.

Did I hear someone say not over my school, or church, or community? Did I hear someone else express concern that the electromagnetic field under and around the line would present health risks? What do we know about the aesthetic, economic and social impacts of a project of this type?

A third issue that I must deal with over the next several years involves the siting of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility. Siting a facility is a lengthy and complex process. An important step will be taken soon the company makes public a map showing where in Pennsylvania the facility cannot be located because of geology, public lands and other exclusionary criteria. That step will be followed by a second map looking at the same considerations on a regional basis, and then a third map on an even finer grain. From the area still available, the company will then select three sites that it believes are appropriate. A final selection will be made from these three sites.

If there has been one disappointment for me these past few years, it has been how poorly equipped most people are to deal with these environmental issues. If there was ever a need for clarity and understanding, it is now. In environmental matters, it is clear that we are in a broad transition the results of our decisions over these next few years will endure for centuries, indeed in some cases for millenia.

So we need to think critically and constructively—not just the technical and scientific community, but all of us. Geographers have a point of view and way of thinking that equip them particularly well to help bridge a gap that seems to be widening: geographers' concerns for natural systems, populations, land use. industries, states and the unit areas formed by these complexes places them in a pivotal position to help people understand their environmental choices and make wise ones.