Pacific Research Institute reports that sulfur dioxide levels fell by about a third before the first federal Clean Air Act in 1970. It's not hard to understand why. As the techniques of refining and smelting advanced, there was less waste - also known as pollution. And as engineers developed more efficient combustion engines, the same result occurred. The power of the marketplace.
More efficiency means more profits.
And more efficiency means a cleaner environment. These gains also led to rising standards of income. With more income, people have to spend less time worrying about the basics - food, shelter and clothing. It is precisely our material and technological progress that not only makes environmental protection possible, but which has made environmental protection such a prominent social value in the Western world,'' the Pacific Research Institute noted. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than with wetlands.