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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1982)
local/state Battalion/Page 5 February 2, 1982 rofessor’s book gives ‘trashy’ view of history Melosi, associate professor of Melosi’s book, “Garbage in Battalion Reporter history at Texas A&M Universi- the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and |he First historical study of ty, will be at the public’s disposal the Environment, 1880-1980,” rbage, written by Dr. Martin Feb. 22. addresses an aspect of environ- photo by Athena Vourvoulias Martin Melosi, associate professor of his- Meliso’s book examines the history of gar- 11 ‘ ' tory at Texas A&M University, poses be- bage. hind his latest book topic — garbage. leli crab. )irrier,al ns bioiogi riinentto produce ss introlled individ ow theii Poirrier factors t'| rinity Bay nears clean-up after 110-barrel crude spill mental history rarely dealt with by historians and includes en vironmental, economic, politic al, technological, social and in tergovernmental themes. Melosi, who has been at Texas A&M since 1975, said he became intrigued by the subject after enrolling in a research seminar on environmental problems as a graduate student at the University of Texas. Melosi’s book is based on in formation from municipal documents, census data, popu lar and technical periodicals and reports of various civic organiza tions acquired from 1975-76. “I wasn’t simply trying to eva luate the extent of the problem,” Melosi said. “I was trying to ex amine the relatively mundane problem of pollution and how Americans respond to it.” In early years, Americans did not recognize how and why gar bage was generated, he said, but in the period between 1880- 1920, they started to understand that it was a threat and a problem. “Although the subject is mun dane, the questions it raises are not,” Melosi said. Refuse, he said, raised several uncomfort able questions about health, aes thetics, affluence, technology and the quality o’f urban life. In the 19th century, the re sponsibility for waste disposal was not defined, he said, and this stimulated debate over the extent and limits of individual vs. community responsibility. Increasing consumption, material commitment and afflu ence tend to be factors in the problem of waste generation, Melosi said. Today, the volume of waste continues to rise and thus, he said, the problem be comes more complex. The largest volume of waste is paper, while the volume of household waste is relatively small, Melosi said. Mining and industrial waste present a more immediate problem, he said. As times change, the types of waste change and approaches also have to change to meet the type of waste, he said. Technology, he said, does not always solve the problem. When the automobile was invented, Americans thought of it as the “salvation of the street cleaner,” Melosi said, but instead it pro duced a different type of waste. Melosi said he thinks recycl ing is important, but the prob lem is trying to induce people to do it. “The clean-up campaigns are very temporary, and there isn’t a very strong awareness (of them),” he said of the Texas A&M campus. Although gar bage on campus does not tend to be a great problem, there may be other types of waste, such as food waste, that are not as ob vious to students, he said. Although Melosi said he was prepared for all the ribbing he received when he wrote his book, he was not prepared for the enthusiastic response and the intense interest by public officials and organizations. He also said he did not expect the controversy that his book gener ated. M.S.C. Arts Committee PRESENTS AN Exhibition and Sola of FINE ART REPRODUCTIONS MONET CEZANNE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC ROTHKO ROUSSEAU KLEE, VAN GOGH DEGAS VERMEER REMINGTON FRANKENTriALER GAUGUIN COROT DALI PICASSO RENOIR WYETH AND OTHERS We also have MATS LOCATIONS Main Concourse, M.S.C. DATE: non., Feb. 1 thru Fri., Feb. 5 TIME: 9 AM - 6 PM salillil' United Press International be contr , HOUSTON — Trinity Bay of them was muc h cleaner Sunday night as workers neared the end of pes tocrflManing a 110-barrel oil spill, a ins for cr spokesman at the site along the il tanks ne Houston Ship Channel said, ising pkf Using skimmers, vaccuum trucks, absorbent pads and rolls, worrywf crew members had already lift crab S p en t f OU r days on the clean-up len could! operation. tbs to taolC; The brown crude oil appa- uld con': rently seeped out of an un crabs oa attended self-service tank on sis. stilts in Trinity Bay when a thief ;s ahead) failed to tighten a storage tank removal t valve after stealing an estimated isten mol 1,400 barrels of crude oil, early ynchronittl; ’ Poirrierl Thursday, said Walter Sanford, and moved towards Morgan’s a spokesman for Sun Oil. 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