Commoner B
Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing 11367.
Int J Health Serv. 1993;23(3):519-39. doi: 10.2190/TQ24-K0V6-UNHY-QBA1.
The quantitative relationship between environmental degradation (pollution) and the factors that influence it can be expressed by the identity: Pollution = population x (good/population) x (pollution/good), where "affluence" is expressed as good/population and the technology of production as pollution/good. Annual data for the emission of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from mobile sources and for the use of pesticides and inorganic nitrogen fertilizer from agriculture, for the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United States, were analyzed to determine the relative change in the three factors over the period 1970-1987. In each case the considerable variation in pollutant emissions among the different countries is most closely related to the concomitant change in the technology factor (pollution/good). In contrast, there is much less variation among the countries in the population and "affluence" factors, which are consequently uncorrelated with the variation in pollutant emissions. The data show that the change in production technology is by far the most important of the several factors responsible for changes in pollution emission.
环境退化（污染）与影响它的因素之间的定量关系可以用以下等式表示：污染 = 人口 × （商品/人口）× （污染/商品），其中“富裕程度”表示为商品/人口，生产技术表示为污染/商品。对经济合作与发展组织成员国及美国的移动源一氧化碳和氮氧化物排放以及农业中农药和无机氮肥使用的年度数据进行了分析，以确定1970年至1987年期间这三个因素的相对变化。在每种情况下，不同国家污染物排放的显著差异与技术因素（污染/商品）的相应变化最为密切相关。相比之下，各国在人口和“富裕程度”因素方面的差异要小得多，因此与污染物排放的变化无关。数据表明，生产技术的变化是造成污染排放变化的几个因素中最重要的因素。
