APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS 113 we should make an early start solving this problem in the interests of the people's health, the generations to come and the whole situation. And for its solution complete conditions do exist. New achievements scored by certain areas and certain units in multipurpose use of materials provide eloquent testimony to this. The urban planner's comment^ really a question, came at the end of a conversation motivated by my concerns about the problems of American cities. The planner had patiently and elaborately answered my questions about how various urban problems were handled in China's cities. Then at the end of several hours he said, with what I think was a twinkle in his eye: ^But why are you so concerned about these problems? Are'nt they solvable only when the working class has taken political power?" 1 Science News, 8 January 1972. 2 Pen Min Ri Bao (People's Daily), Peking, 10 August 1971. ^ Peking Review, 5 February 1971. 4 Hsinhua (National Chinese News Agency) despatch, Shenyang, 16 November 1971. 5 Hsinhua, 4 January 1972. b Hsinhua. Shanghai 27 October 1971. 7 Hsinhua, Kwangchow, 8 February 1972. ^ Peking Review, 29 January 1971. 9 Ibid. 1(1 Hsinhua, 10 June 1972. 11 "China's Stand on the Question of Environment", Peking Review, 16 June 1972. ^ L Orleans and P Suttmeier, ^The Mao Ethic and Environmental Quality", Science, 11 December 1970, pp 1173-76; Orville Schell, ^Revolutionary Ecology", mimeo, August 1971. l;t Marshall Goldman, The Spoils of Progress: Environmental Pollution in the Soviet Union, MIT Press, Cambridge (Massachussets) 1972. 14 New York Times, 15 July 1972.