A S S E S S I N G    T H E    2 0 T H     C E N T U R Y

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1970-80: Environment Recognized as a Major Factor
Environmental debates came to fever pitch in the 1970s. This is first decade for which we can say that environmental factors became a very important consideration in carrying out development programs. And for some projects, they were dominant.

It was a time in which politicians were moved to enact legislation to protect endangered species, to protect wetlands, to cope with toxic spills and to provide for clean air and clean water. Controversial projects made newspaper headlines.

For example, in the mid 1970s we had the Trans-Alaska pipeline project, which extended from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, a distance of some 800 miles ( km.). It was a route through virgin terrain and provided some monumental debates about environmental factors.

We also had legislative battles regarding asbestos. Looking back, we now know that this was a learning process -- a classic example of the kind of cycle that we went through in dealing with a particular threat.

First, there was rigid thinking that we should remove all asbestos from office buildings, schoolrooms, gymnasiums and other public buildings. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on such projects. Then it began to be evident that the hazards involved in removing asbestos might be greater than the hazards involved in leaving it where it was. We had spent a lot of money that might have better been spent on other environmental programs.

Something that did have a positive impact was the planning and development of business parks. This movement constituted a really important environmental success story that was largely unnoticed and unappreciated.

Before the advent of business parks, we had an ugly and inefficient scatter. Soon, competition between parks led to installation of performance standards. New parks were nicely landscaped and maintained criteria for site coverage, setbacks, architecture and graphics.

At this point we proposed the "decoplex" -- or development-ecology-complex -- wherein wastes from one industry might be recycled and used by another in the same park. This idea languished for years but is now alive and well.

During this decade we also had, in addition to the environmental debates, the emerging conflict over product liability. This opened the door to uncontrolled legal excesses that literally drove some industries out of business.

One example is the general aviation industry, which up to this time had been flourishing. In one year it delivered some 17,000 new airplanes to business firms and private users around the country. After a series of liability lawsuits, the leading firms steadily reduced production and eventually shut down. A major industry was almost completely destroyed by the legal profession.

Access to the new interstate highway system became a very important site selection factor. Also significant was the availability of the new delivery services of UPS and FedEx.

For operators of private aircraft, taxiway access to a runway became attractive, leading to the development of "fly-in" facilities. I happened to have a hand in planning and developing the nation's first fly-in community at Spruce Creek near Daytona Beach, Fla. Owners taxi their aircraft from the runway to their homes, where they have their own hangers. Today Spruce Creek is a highly successful project with hundreds of pilots living there. Many are airline pilots who live there and commute to their flying assignments in New York and other cities.

On the international scene this decade marked the emergence of the "tigers" in the Pacific Rim -- Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea and Malaysia. In these areas of abundant labor there were fast-developing clusters of manufacturing activity that became a big factor on the world scene.

There were somewhat similar developments in Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere. Most noteworthy was the maquiladora program in Mexico. This was a plan whereby North American companies built "twin plants." They located a labor-intensive manufacturing unit in Mexico and shipped parts to an assembly plant across the border in the USA.

More than a thousand plants have been built under this program, and the economic impact has been important from Tijuana on the West Coast to Matamoros on the Gulf Coast.

In Europe, there was much discussion and debate, and progress was made toward a common market. Meanwhile most sub-Saharan African nations remained basket cases characterized by corrupt and inept governments.

On the technology front, Corning Glass developed the optical fiber for communication and Intel developed the first microprocessor. Within just a few years, these breakthroughs would produce spectacular advances in products and services.

Concurrently, a British-French consortium produced the Concorde SST. The world shrank a bit more as supersonic air service began.