Barry Commoner Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Barry Commoner is renowned as one of the early founders of the environmental movement. He was educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities. He became a cellular biologist and was working at Washington University in the 1950s when his attention was drawn to the effects of nuclear fallout resulting from the testing of nuclear devices in the Nevada desert. His investigations led him to challenge government insistence that there were no health implications of the tests, and also challenge of data being classified. He helped establish the St. Louis Committee for Nuclear Information in the bid to pierce this secrecy. His careful observations were able to demonstrate the negative effect of fallout on children, and his work was instrumental in the creation of the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which was signed by the United States, Soviet Union, and the UK, and outlawed testing of nuclear devices underwater, in outer space and, most importantly, within the atmosphere.

Commoner argues in Making Peace with the Planet that managing the pollutants and by-products that result from the modern industrial and consumer-based society is not practical given the environmental damage it causes. Instead, it is necessary to reorganize the whole of society on lines that are more environmentally sustainable. This caused him to help establish the Citizen’s Party (1979-84), which proposed a manifesto of quite radical environmental initiatives born out of frustration with the policies of existing parties. At the 1980 presidential election, Commoner ran with La Donna Harris and received nearly 250,000 votes. Subsequently, Commoner has been involved with education and the furthering of science as well as promoting his ideas for the reorganization of the industrial systems of the developed world. He has become associated with the thesis that environmental degradation results from industrial development rather than from population pressure, as argued for by Julian Simon. Consequently, he does not argue that the number of people should be controlled or that management of industrial functions, if properly effected, can be sustainable.

In 2006, he taught at Queens College in New York City, where he moved after his unsuccessful presidential bid. He has been recognized by various eminent authorities and by his home city of St. Louis. His work has extended across a range of scientific investigations, in addition to the well-known environmental issues for which he has come to be much celebrated. This has also included research into ozone layer depletion and the practicalities of redistributing wealth and income on a global basis.

Bibliography:

Barry Commoner, Making Peace with the Planet (New Press, 1992);
Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology (Random House, 1971);
Barry Commoner, “The Relationship between Industrial and Ecological Systems,” The Journal of Cleaner Production (v.5/1-2, 1997).