it is obvious that man is now at a crossroads in his development. His technology has been developed to the extent that not only does he produce great wealth and great technical achievements—the greatest the world has ever known—but he has generated forces and conditions that threaten to alter the very environment in which he lives. The crossroads at which man stands can lead him, paradoxically, to an amelioration of the environment with consequent enhancement of human life or to the degradation of the environment with the resulting debasement of human life.

The knowledge and understanding necessary to predict the consequences of man's activities are far more available than they were even a decade ago, and with the accelerating generation of all knowledge, the information necessary either to despoil or to enhance the environment will also be generated in an accelerated fashion.

By harnessing its great vitality the city can be transformed into the most favorable environment for man. But before this can come to pass, it will be necessary to reconsider some of the fundamental ecological relationships of individual men to each other and of men living in communities to the environment as a whole.

—Theodore W. Sudia