Excerpt
CHANGE is an inevitable element of life. How organisms, species, and communities adapt to change determines their success and even their survival. That life has been and continues to be in a constant state of flux is a given. During the twentieth century, humans have faced a rate of change never before experienced in their history. In the process, humans have accumulated a vast arsenal of knowledge about their environments.
On the eve of the twenty-first century, humans face a challenge: how to use that knowledge to create new products and places. The new products and places must be at once available on an equal basis for everybody and sustainable in resource use. Currently, human habitats are not fair for all people, nor do habitats use natural resources in a regenerative manner.
In the western world, humans have largely abandoned agrarian living for urban and suburban environments. In 1920, when those living on a farm were first counted as a separate group in the U.S. Census, some 30.2 percent of all Americans were farmers. By the late …
Footnotes
Frederick Steiner, chair of the Department of Planning in the Arizona State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Tempe, 85287–2005, served as chair of the program committee for the recent 46th annual meeting of SWCS in Lexington, Kentucky. This “Viewpoint” is based on his opening remarks at the meeting.
- Copyright 1991 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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