The Value of Vietnam Abstract
Photo Illustration : Joseph Tart
After a long period of postwar international isolation and economic stagnation, Vietnam is changing fast. While rapid industrialization is bringing a measure of prosperity to many Vietnamese, it is also coming at a high environmental cost: outdated factories are polluting the environment, garbage services are overtaxed, and sewage treatment is nonexistent. Vietnam's growing agriculture and aquaculture industries are also raising problems of deforestation, degradation of land resources, shortages of fresh water, overexploitation of biological resources, threats to ecosystems, and increasing pollution. Vietnam still struggles with the aftershocks of numerous wars in this century. Weapons used in Vietnam have included napalm, defoliants, wetland drainage, crop destruction, and a bombing campaign of historic intensity, creating a continuing legacy of ecological and health problems. For instance, herbicides such as Agent Orange have been blamed for a variety of health effects, including cancer, skin disease, reproductive problems, and neurological disease. And coastal groves, denuded by the use of such herbicides, can no longer support much of the aquatic and plant life that once depended upon them David Tenenbaum
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