Urban Pollution by Joel A. Tarr

Urban Pollution by Joel a. Tarr

Human Dissatisfaction

Joel Tarr's article, "Urban Pollution -- Many Long Years Ago" is largely about the form of urban pollution that preceded that created by automobiles. In short, this pollution was largely caused by horses, which were used as the dominant form of transportation from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century. The author is essentially establishing a comparison between the pollution caused by horses and that caused by automobiles, although he devotes the vast majority of the article to elaborating on the fact that the pollution caused by horses was considered as big of a problem as the pollution caused by automobiles in the 1970s. If one examines the amount of space he uses for detailing the concerns regarding horse pollution to that of automobile pollution, one can infer that the former appears to be worse than the latter.

To Tarr's credit, he presents a fairly comprehensive overview of the problem that the widespread uses of horses caused in terms of polluting urban environments. A good deal of the article is focused on the literal pollution these horses caused by their daily excrements. In some of the more colorful passages the author indicates just how much manure was produced by horses, in others he indicates the many ways in which the smell and sight of such manure was a blemish upon many an urban landscape. Additionally, he parallels the rise of street sweeping within urban environments as being a key necessity for the employment of so many horses, and discusses the inadequacies of many of these early attempts. The pollution of horses was not merely limited to bad sights and smells, however. The collection of their manure in most parts of the street were also linked with diseases -- which is a key parallel between urban pollution of yesterday and automobile pollution of the 1970's and of today. Some of the most horrific diseases of the time were linked to the filth of horse manure as the subsequent quotation shows. In some instances, these diseases were exacerbated by the copious quantities of manure on the streets of previous time periods.

However, it is noteworthy to mention that the essential point the author is attempting to argue actually goes beyond the comparison of horses and cars. He provides as much detail about horses to emphasize the fact that whatever technology or means of production that people use, there will inherently be problems associated with it. In fact, there will more than likely be the same sorts of problems. This fact is indicated by some of the points of similarity that the author makes in the pollution caused by horses and that caused by cars. As previously suggested, both forms of pollution are linked to poor health. While horse pollution is related to many diseases, automobile pollution is related to longstanding detrimental results on the health of people (Tarr 49). The smog caused by cars and the sight of dead horses and horse manure are both visual pollutants. Additionally, both cars and horses cause noise pollution, which is certainly indicated in motor vehicles by honking and large trucks and buses.

Therefore, Tarr is fairly confident that whatever form of technology or production means that are utilized in large numbers will cause problems. He goes from the past to the future, to prove this point. Cars, of course, were considered to be much more sanitary and safer than horses -- before people started driving them in large enough numbers that smog and automobile accidents became detrimental to their health. Tarr also alludes to nuclear power and the periods of both anticipation and disillusionment which accompanied it. The latter was due to the fact that people realized that this source of power has effects that can be more maleficent than the effects of both horses and automobiles.

Personally, I believe that Tarr's overarching point -- that whatever the source of power and means of production, there will always be complaints and drawbacks to it -- are true. This fact is demonstrated particularly saliently in terms of technology and is roundly discussed in trade journals, web sites, and research companies that are dedicated to the chronicling of technology developments. There is almost always a period of excitement and anticipation, in which people believe that the technology is perfect and is the answer to virtually all of their problems, which is followed by a period of disillusionment. Some cites even mark the maturity of technology according to these periods. However, the point is that Tarr's principle theme that varying methods of the means of production will almost always cause go from being regarded as the best to problematic seems perfectly plausible to me.