WE HUMANS have never excelled in planning the path of progress. We tend to adopt new technology as soon as it comes along, then wait to discover the consequences. Then, after problems have cropped up, we search for another, more benign technology to eliminate the problems created by the first. Sulphurless fuels are helping to eradicate the acid rain caused by burning fossil fuels. The damage done by DDT and PCBs deployed 50 years ago is slowly being reduced by replacing them with less persistent and less toxic alternatives. Do we always have to blunder along like this?
The environmental…
