Civilization in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

In New Jersey, the most urbanized state in the United States, all of the problems in the confrontation between civilization and nature are cast into sharp focus. Here are the dirty air, the traffic jams, the filthy streams, the littered beaches, the oil spills, the decaying cities, and the pressures of housing developments on areas that have been farmlands for centuries. Here is urban America; here is the future of most of America. It is the affluent who darken the skies, who foul the streams, who dump their garbage and waste off boats into Barnegat Bay. It is the affluent who complain that animal wastes on nearby farms offend their guests.