Six case studies which illustrated the incompatibility of polluters' interests with the preservation of the environment. The case studies include the astonishing story of the French bureaucracy's fight to continue polluting the Rhine; the convoluted tale of the EEC's acid emissions control policy; an account of the conflict of interest between the culture of the Inuit and the preservation of the bowhead whale, and a description of the tangle in Italy's Magra valley when the issue of jobs or the environment becomes a choice.