Geburtsdatum | Montag, 28. Mai 1917 |
Geburtsort | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
Todesort | Manhattan |
Sternzeichen | |
Beschreibung | Barry Commoner (May 28, 1917 – September 30, 2012) was an American cellular biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement. He was the director of the Center for Biology of Natural Systems and its Critical Genetics Project. He ran as the Citizens Party candidate in the 1980 U.S. presidential election. His work studying the radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing led to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. |
In every case, the environmental hazards were made known only by independent scientists, who were often bitterly opposed by the corporations responsible for the hazards.
The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.
What I have experienced over time is that environmental problems are easier to deal with in ways that don't go into their interconnections to the rest of what we are.
My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically - and destructively - demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.
The environmental crisis is a global problem, and only global action will resolve it.
By adopting the control strategy, the nation's environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.
The modern assault on the environment began about 50 years ago, during and immediately after World War II.
Earth Day 1970 was irrefutable evidence that the American people understood the environmental threat and wanted action to resolve it.
The environmental crisis arises from a fundamental fault: our systems of production - in industry, agriculture, energy and transportation - essential as they are, make people sick and die.
Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law in journalism, literature and art.
The wave of new productive enterprises would provide opportunities to remedy the unjust distribution of environmental hazards among economic classes and racial and ethnic communities.
Environmental pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented.
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.
Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline - which prevented it from entering the environment.
The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.
