This book examines the success of seventeen Western nations in reducing environmental pollution since the early 1970s. Environmental conditions play an increasingly important role in the politics of advanced democracies. Increased human expansion has placed unprecedented strains on the resource base upon which the economy depends. Holes in the ozone layer, global warming, and the loss of biodiversity are only a few of the best-known problems connected with the environmental crisis. Also important are problems less global in scope, like acid rain or the disposal of wastes. Few dispute that historic trends in environmental degradation could hinder the ability to provide increasing levels of well-being into the next century. Current problems stem first and foremost from a failure to use natural resources effectively and from the implications of that failure on historic development paths.

The public has begun to recognize some of the environmental problems confronting the physical and economic sustainability of modern societies. Opinion polls since the 1960s show that large majorities in most economically advanced countries have consistently supported increased public action to ensure the protection of ecosystems and to reduce pollution. Policy makers have responded both to the growing evidence of long-term threats and growing public opposition to past practices by creating a variety of reforms to control environmental degradation. Today, most Western democracies have a wide array of measures to limit pollution and other forms of environmental degradation.