THE ENVIRONMENT

A Matter of Urgency

Americans have managed to befoul their natural resources on a scale unparalleled in history. Rivers, lakes and bays have become noxious sewers. The air over the nation's cities is infested with fumes and filth. Open green spaces are devoured by urban sprawl. Yet attempts to halt the despoliation have been, in most cases, limited and local. Last week the battle against pollution moved a long distance toward achieving national urgency.

Richard Nixon established the Environmental Quality Council, a Cabinet-level advisory group designed to coordinate governmental action against environmental decay at all levels, create new proposals to control pollution, and foresee problems. Dr. Lee DuBridge, Nixon's science adviser and the executive secretary of the council, indicated that initial areas of specific concern may be air pollution caused by auto exhausts, and the dangers of pesticides such as DDT. Undoubtedly the council will also concern itself with establishing basic environmental policies. If the new group can fulfill its mandate and win congressional cooperation, progressive national legislation controlling pollution will result. If not, and pollution continues unabated, the question could become one of survival rather than esthetics.

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