Barry Commoner
Barry Commoner
Barry Commonerwas an American biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement. He ran for president of the United States in the 1980 U.S. presidential election on the Citizens Party ticket. He served as editor of Science Illustrated magazine...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth28 May 1917
CountryUnited States of America
Barry Commoner quotes about
simple growing earth
Science is triumphant with far-ranging success, but its triumph is somehow clouded by growing difficulties in providing for the simple necessities of human life on earth.
technology law inheritance
It reflects a prevailing myth that production technology is no more amenable to human judgment or social interests than the laws of thermodynamics, atomic structure or biological inheritance.
play ddt environmental
Perhaps the simplest example is a synthetic plastic, which unlike natural materials, is not degraded by biological decay. It therefore persists as rubbish or is burned-in both cases causing pollution. In the same way, a substance such as DDT or lead, which plays no role in the chemistry of life and interferes with the actions of substances that do, is bound to cause ecological damage if sufficiently concentrated.
substance degradation recycling
In nature, no organic substance is synthesized unless there is provision for its degradation; recycling is enforced.
practice problem solve
Technologists practice faith too; 'Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.'
war vision nuclear
The AEC scientists were so narrowly focused on arming the United States for nuclear war that they failed to perceive facts - even widely known ones - that were outside their limited field of vision.
teacher doctors views
As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.
ecosystems long effort
Because the global ecosystem is a connected whole, in which nothing can be gained or lost and which is not subject to over-all improvement, anything extracted from it by human effort must be replaced. Payment of this price cannot be avoided; it can only be delayed. The present environmental crisis is a warning that we have delayed nearly too long.
country ghetto simple
For that reason the simple test of the slogan 'Consume Less' as a basis for social action on the environment would be to tell it to the blacks in the ghetto. The message will not be very well received for there are many people in this country who consume less than is needed to sustain a decent life.
technology age may
The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.
art law medicine
Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.
thinking environment situation
When you fully understand the situation, it is worse than you think.
technology clean known
All of the clean technologies are known, it's a question of simply applying them.
technology environmental generations
The environmental crisis is somber evidence of an insidious fraud hidden in the vaunted productivity and wealth of modern, technology-based society. This wealth has been gained by rapid short-term exploitation of the environmental system, but it has blindly accumulated a debt to nature-a debt so large and so pervasive that in the next generation it may, if unpaid, wipe out most of the wealth it has gained us.