Public Health Resources
Date of this Version
1960
Abstract
It is apparent to one who has been brought up on a farm and who has worked in the fields of mosquito control, fisheries management, and water pollution abatement, that there are some conflicts of interest and methods used in these fields. There are, however, many common interests and areas in which the aims and objectives coincide. All too often in the past. there has been a failure to explore and stress common interests and a tendency to emphasize conflicting interests. Our present age of specialization in, training and interest is in part responsible for this situation. In order to advance in a field we must devote almost our full time to that field with the result that we know little of the problems, interests, and values of the other sciences. In this atmosphere we become wrapped up in our own endeavors and we strive for the ultimate in control, production, or yield by all means at hand without due regard to the whole system of values and the general well-being of man now and in the future. Sometimes wildlife interests have placed recreational values above other necessities of life. Agricultural workers have on occasion made yield a fetish and have striven for an ever-increasing yield by all possible means, even though some of them may be harmful to other values and in spite of the fact our problem is now one of over-production. Mosquito control workers have at times used what appeared to be the most effective control method. regardless of its effects on other elements in the biota and without a clear concept of the long range effects of their activities on the environment or the biological balance. In addition, some of those working for the abatement of pollution have striven for goals which are not attainable under our present conditions.
Comments
© 1960