Nel paragrafo Problems with no technical solutions viene fatto un accenno alla problematica dell'inquinamento acustico, che diminuisce la qualità della vita, specialmente nei centri delle grandi città.
"When the cities of America were new, they grew rapidly. Land was abundant and cheap, new buildings rose continuously, and the population and economic output of urban regions increased. Eventually, however, all the land in the city center was filled. A physical limit had been reached, threatening to stop population and economic growth in that section of the city. The technological answer was the development of skyscrapers and elevators, which essentially removed the constraint of land area as a factor in suppressing growth. The central city added more people and more businesses. Then a new constraint appeared. Goods and workers could not move in and out of the dense center city quickly enough. Again the solution was technological. A network of expressways, mass transit systems, and helicopter ports on the tops of the tallest buildings was constructed. The transportation limit was overcome, the buildings grew taller, the population increased.
Now most of the larger US cities have stopped growing. (Of the ten largest, five-New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Baltimore-decreased in population from 1960 to 1970. Washington, DC, showed no change. Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and Indianapolis continued to grow, at least in
part by annexing additional land.) The wealthier people, who have an economic choice, are moving to the ever-expanding ring of suburbs around the cities. The central areas are characterized by noise, pollution, crime, drug addiction, poverty, labor strikes, and breakdown of social services. The quality of life in the city core has declined. Growth has been stopped in part by problems with no technical solutions. A technical solution may be defined as "one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality." Numerous problems today have no technical solutions. Examples are the nuclear arms race, racial tensions, and unemployment. Even if society's technological progress fulfills all expectations, it may very well be a problem with no technical solution, or the interaction of several such problems, that finally brings an end to population and capital growth."
Inquinamento acustico provocato dal traffico-Roma-2019
Riferimenti bibliografici:
The limits pf Growth, Donella H. Meadows-Dennis L. Meadows-Jørgen Randers-William W. Behrens III (pag 149-150)(http://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf)
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