HOWL! ‘This is a portait of your city. Listen to it closely. Perhaps you have never really listened before. Tt Isa tascin- ating and” exasperating concert of sounds Listen Homs, sirens, motoreycles, trucks, Jack hammers, power saws and. con- struction machinery, helicopters and jets. Any attentive ‘istener will con- Clude that these are the dominant Instruments of the “orchestra. These ‘sounds are all louder than the human voice and they are getting louder. Tw has Been estimated that our tech: nology is raising the sound-level of the average city by a decibel per year! The decibel is a unit for measuring the intensity of sound. It ie used to ‘express the relationship between the faintest sound man can hear’ and ‘other sounds inthe environment. It is "logarithmic, "so. that an. inerease of 10 decibels means a tenfold. in- trease in sound intensity; a 20-cecibel tise a hundredfold increase, and a SOsdecibel rie a thousanatols increase. our environmental sounds ino” per- spective, | Threshold of hearing | Rustiing of eaves, | Quiet whisper (9 feet) Normal Conversation Average car (15 feet) ‘Average truck (15 feet) ‘Subway (inside) Kitchen gadgetry Pneumatic riveter -Amplied Rock and Roll (6 fe0t)120 a Jet plane (100 feet) There are some who stil think the significant battles are being fought in faraway places. They do not realize that such Battles are today untashion- able, The signicant battles ara being fought in the very hearts of our cities. In an attempt to. Improve of feven maintain the quality. of our environment will be necessary to {aka a strong Ine against the prob lems brought about by the caraless Use of our technology. One of the significant probleme ie Noise Pollution, The sound of aur tools and tech. nology ate the loudest sounds in our ‘environment. They are becoming louder ‘and they are multiplying. The modern ity has become a sonic battleground, Manis losing