J. F. Cassel, writing in Environmental Ethics, puts it more bluntly: “The basic problem of contemporary human ecology is selfishness​—and selfishness is in. The wages of sin is death. The biotic world is dying!” And what shortsighted selfishness it is! Scientist Szent-Gyorgyi concludes that the trouble is that the people “are under the terrible strain of idiots who govern the world and [are] moving inexorably and insanely toward ultimate calamity.”

From what you have observed, you likely can agree with one prominent and concerned American official who stated: “If, by a selfish act, a man can benefit himself while harming the community, he is likely to perform that act.” Illustrating that fact is a report that showed why public utilities were so slow in complying with government orders to install pollution-control equipment. Every year that one such utility delayed in installing a million dollars’ worth of such equipment they saved a quarter million dollars. This helps to explain why American public utilities spend eight times as much in advertising as in research to help to solve the pollution problems to which they themselves contribute! Well did Lord Ritchie-Calder say: “Pollution is a crime compounded of ignorance and avarice.”a