Barry Commoner is a famous American environmental scientist. He is also the author of several books and a well-known social and political activist.
Commoner was born in 1917. He attended Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in biology in 1941. The main theme of his work, Commoner as a biologist, chose - the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.
In 1950, Commoner, being an opponent of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, tried to draw public attention to this problem. In 1960, he was involved in other environmental issues, including environmental issues and research into energy sources. He has written many books: Science and Survival (1967), The Closing Circle (1971), Energy and Human Welfare (1975), The Poverty of Power (1976), The Politics of Energy (1979), and Making Peace with the Planet ( 1990).
According to Commoner, today's industrial methods and the extraction of fossil fuels lead to active environmental pollution. He firmly believes that the pursuit of maximum profit, at present, takes precedence over the ecology of the planet. According to Commoner, only compensation for the damage caused to nature is meaningless. We must, first of all, focus on preventing the destruction of nature in the future; for the most part, the solution to environmental problems lies in the preservation of the environment.
It took humanity almost 5 million years until its population reached 1 billion. Then it took only 50 years (in 1920-1970) until it doubled, that is, it grew from 1.8 billion to 3.5 billion people. In 1987, the population of the Earth was 5 billion people. By the middle of the next century, it may reach 12-14 billion people. Over the entire history of human existence, almost 150 species of mammals have disappeared, of which more than 40 species have disappeared over the past 50 years. Over the past 30 years, more than 40 species and 40 subspecies of birds have disappeared.
Ecology as a science is the theoretical basis for environmental protection and rational nature management. The laws of ecology were formulated in 1974 by B. Commoner. They come down to four basic principles that explain the sustainable development of nature and encourage humanity to be guided by them in their impact on the environment.
3. Nature knows best - the law has a double meaning - at the same time a call to get closer to nature and a call to be extremely careful with natural systems. This law is based on the results of the emergence and development of life on earth, on natural selection in the process of life evolution. So, for any organic substance produced by organisms, there is an enzyme in nature that can decompose this substance. In nature, no organic substance will be synthesized if there are no means for its decomposition.
Contrary to this law, man has created (and continues to create) chemical compounds that, when released into the natural environment, do not decompose, accumulate and pollute it (polyethylene, DDT, etc.). This law warns us about the need for a reasonable transformation of natural systems (the construction of dams, the transfer of river flow, land reclamation, and much more).
4. Nothing is free (free translation - in the original, something like “There are no free meals”) The global ecological system, i.e. the biosphere, is a single whole, within which any gain is associated with losses, but on the other hand, everything that is extracted from nature must be replaced. Payments on this bill cannot be avoided, they can only be deferred.
First Law
Everything is connected to everything
1. Everything is connected to everything. This law reflects the existence of a colossal network of connections in the biosphere between living organisms and the natural environment. Any change in the quality of the natural environment through existing links is transmitted both within biogeocenoses and between them, affecting their development.
Barry Commoner's first law of ecology draws our attention to the general connection between processes and phenomena in nature and is very close in meaning to the law of internal dynamic equilibrium: a change in one of the system indicators causes functional and structural quantitative and qualitative changes, while the system itself leaves a total amount of material and energetic qualities. The rabbit eats grass, the wolf eats the rabbit, but both the rabbit and the wolf have the same goal - to provide their bodies with food and, most importantly, energy.
Energy in various forms connects all organisms on Earth with each other and with the environment.
Almost all the energy, due to which all life on Earth exists, comes to Earth in the form of solar radiation. Different groups of organisms have their own sources of energy and substances. All of these are irreplaceable resources.
In nature, any organism is affected immediately by a huge number (tens and hundreds) of various factors. In order for a living being to successfully exist and reproduce, these factors must fit into a certain range. This range is called the limit of tolerance (endurance) of a given type of organism. What unites living beings in a forest or a meadow - trees, flowers, butterflies flying above them? Butterfly caterpillars feed on plant leaves; Butterflies and bees need the nectar that flowers give them, and seeds in plants can only be set after the flowers have been pollinated by insects.
There is a well-known story about Darwin, who, when asked by his fellow countrymen about what to do to increase the buckwheat harvest, answered: “Dilute the cats.” And in vain fellow countrymen were offended. Darwin, knowing that in nature “everything is connected with everything,” reasoned as follows: cats will catch all mice, mice will stop destroying bumblebee nests, bumblebees will pollinate buckwheat and the peasants will get a good harvest of it.
For example, the destruction of forests and the subsequent decrease in oxygen, as well as the release of nitrogen oxide and freon into the atmosphere, led to the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, which, in turn, increased the intensity of ultraviolet radiation that reaches the earth and has a detrimental effect on living organisms. For example, over the past 40 years, 50 percent of the forests in the Nepalese Himalayas have been cut down, which are used either as fuel or for wood products. But as soon as the trees were cut down, the falling monsoon rains washed away the soil from the slopes of the mountains. Since it is impossible for young trees to take root without topsoil, many mountains are now devoid of vegetation. Every year Nepal loses millions of tons of topsoil due to deforestation.
Similar problems exist in other countries.
In Bangladesh, heavy rains used to be held up by trees; now torrents of water flow unhindered from the devoid of vegetation mountains to the coast, causing catastrophic floods there. In the past, floods of enormous destructive power occurred in Bangladesh once every 50 years, but now every four years or more often.
In other parts of the world, deforestation has led to desertification and climate change in certain areas. In addition to forests, there are other natural resources that people ruthlessly expend. Ecologists still know relatively little about how the parts of our giant ecosystem are interconnected, and the problem can only be noticed when serious damage has already been done. Confirmation of this is the problem of waste disposal, which clearly explains the second law of ecology.
So, everything in nature is interconnected!
Second law
Everything has to go somewhere (nothing disappears without a trace)
2. Everything has to go somewhere. Nothing disappears without a trace, this or that substance simply moves from place to place, passes from one molecular form to another, while affecting the life processes of living organisms. The operation of this law is one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Huge amounts of matter such as oil and ores are extracted from the earth, converted into new compounds and dispersed in the environment.
Commoner's second law is also close to the one discussed above, as well as the law of the development of a natural system at the expense of its environment, especially its first consequence. Now in industrial ecology, a rule of the so-called life cycle of things has been developed: giving consent to the release of a product, society must clearly understand what will happen to it in the future, where its existence will end and what will have to be done with its “remains”. Therefore, we can only rely on low-waste production. In this regard, with the development of technologies, it is necessary:
a) low energy and resource intensity,
b) the creation of production, in which the waste of one production is the raw material of another production,
c) organization of reasonable disposal of imminent waste
Imagine what an ordinary house would look like if there were no waste thrown out of it. Our planet is the same closed system: everything that we throw away, in the end, must accumulate somewhere within our home - the Earth. Partial destruction of the ozone layer shows that even such seemingly harmless gases as chlorofluorocarbons (freons) do not disappear without a trace, dissolving in the air. In addition to freons, there are hundreds of other potentially hazardous substances that are released into the atmosphere, rivers and oceans.
True, some wastes, which are called "biodegradable", can be split over time and included in natural processes, while others cannot. Many beaches around the world are strewn with plastic packaging that will lie in this form for several decades.
"In the book "The Closing Circle" Barry Commoner offers four laws formulated by him in the form of aphorisms.
We will cite them and comment briefly, showing that, in essence, these are known laws of nature of the most general and fundamental level.
Law 1. Everything is connected with everything.
This law postulates the unity of the World, it tells us about the need to look for and study the natural origins of events and phenomena, the emergence of chains connecting them, the stability and variability of these connections, the appearance of gaps and new links in them, stimulates us to learn to heal these gaps, and also to predict the course of events .
Law 2. Everything has to go somewhere.
It is easy to see that this is, in essence, just a paraphrase of known conservation laws. In its most primitive form, this formula can be interpreted as follows: matter does not disappear. […]
Laws 1 and 2, as a consequence, define the concept of isolation (closedness) of nature as an ecological system of the highest level.
Law 3. Nature knows best.
The law states that any major human intervention in natural systems is harmful to it. This law, as it were, separates man from nature. Its essence is that everything that was created before man and without man is the product of lengthy trial and error, the result of a complex process based on such factors as abundance, ingenuity, indifference to individuals with an all-encompassing striving for unity.
In its formation and development, nature has developed a principle: what is collected, then disassembled.
This principle is beautifully articulated in the famous film Mark Zakharova"Love Formula". Remember, the blacksmith, breaking the carriage of Count Cagliostro to extend the repair period, utters the following maxim: "What one person does, another can always break." In nature, the essence of this principle is that no substance can be synthesized in a natural way if there is no means to destroy it. The whole mechanism of cyclicity is based on this.
A person does not foresee this in his activity, at least not immediately. Not everything that he "collects", nature can destroy. This is one of the impasses in the relationship between man and nature, although man himself is part of nature. […]
Man wants to be independent of nature, to be above it, and everything he does, he creates for his own comfort, for his own pleasure, and only for them. But he forgets that against the background of natural expediency and harmony, in words A.I. Herzen, "our comfort is pathetic and our debauchery is ridiculous." Probably, we should follow the call of our peasant poet Nikolai Klyuev: "... with God we will be gods ...". To do this, a person must subdue his pride. We will return to this idea at the end of the book.
Law 4. Nothing is free.
In other words, you have to pay for everything. In essence, this is the second law of thermodynamics, which speaks of the presence in nature of a fundamental asymmetry, i.e., the unidirectionality of all spontaneous processes occurring in it. When thermodynamic systems interact with the environment, there are only two ways to transfer energy: heat release and work. The law says that in order to increase their internal energy, natural systems create the most favorable conditions - they do not take "duties". All the work done without any loss can be converted into heat and replenish the internal energy of the system. But, if we do the opposite, i.e., we want to do work at the expense of the internal energy reserves of the system, i.e., do work through heat, we must pay. All heat cannot be converted into work. Any heat engine (technical device or natural mechanism) has a refrigerator, which, like a tax inspector, collects duties. This is payment for useful work, a kind of tax on nature.
COMMONER'S LAWS OF ECOLOGY
COMMONER'S ECOLOGY LAWS formulated by the American ecologist B. Commoner (1974) in a free fictional form laws (not in the strict sense, as is customary in natural science): 1) “Everything is connected with everything”; this means that the living dynamics of complex and branched ecological chains eventually forms a single highly connected system; in an abstract version, this statement repeats the well-known dialectical-materialist position about the universal connection of things and phenomena; at a more concrete level, it acts as a generalization of a cybernetic nature; 2) “Everything has to go somewhere”; this is an informal paraphrase of the fundamental physical law of the conservation of matter; here Commoner poses one of the most difficult problems of applied ecology - the problem of assimilation by the biosphere of the waste of human civilization; 3) “Nature knows best”; this law causes the greatest criticism in the literature; this proposition breaks down into two relatively independent theses: the first one, in solidarity with the well-known neo-Russoist slogan “Back to nature”, which today cannot be accepted as unrealistic; the second, related to the call for caution in dealing with natural ecosystems, is important and constructive; 4) “Nothing is given for free”; this environmental law combines the three previous laws; according to Commoner, “the global ecosystem is a single whole within which nothing can be won or lost and which cannot be the object of general improvement; everything that has been extracted from it by human labor must be replaced. Payment on this bill cannot be avoided; it can only be delayed.”
Ecological encyclopedic dictionary. - Chisinau: Main edition of the Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia. I.I. Grandpa. 1989
COMMONER'S LAWS OF ECOLOGY were formulated in the early 1970s. American scientist B. Commoner.
First law. Everything is connected to everything. This is the law on ecosystems and the biosphere, which draws attention to the universal connection of processes and phenomena in nature. It is designed to warn a person against rash impact on certain parts of ecosystems, which can lead to unforeseen consequences. (for example, draining swamps leads to shallowing of rivers).
Second law. Everything has to go somewhere. This is the law of human economic activity, the waste from which is inevitable, and therefore it is necessary to think both about reducing their number and about their subsequent use.
Third law. Nature "knows" better. This is the law of reasonable, conscious nature management. We must not forget that man is also a biological species, that he is part of nature, and not its master. This means that one should not try to conquer nature, but should cooperate with it. While we do not have complete information about the mechanisms and functions of nature, and without an accurate knowledge of the consequences of the transformation of nature, no "improvements" of it are allowed.
Fourth Law. Nothing is given for free. This is the law of rational use of natural resources. "... The global ecosystem is an integral whole within which nothing can be gained or lost, and which cannot be subject to universal improvement." You need to pay with energy for additional waste treatment, fertilizer - for increasing the yield, sanatoriums and medicines - for the deterioration of human health, etc.
Ecological dictionary, 2001
Barry Commoner became a well-known environmentalist through his widely circulated books. He succeeded in explaining to American society the danger of a frivolous attitude to the environment in popular science language. The famous Commoner's laws are a generalization of the conclusions that the researcher made over the long years of his professional career.
Biography of Commoner
The future scientist Barry Commoner was born in 1917 in New York, in a family of emigrants from the Russian Empire. He decided to devote his life to science. The young man entered which he graduated in 1941. The young specialist received a doctorate in biology. While still at university, he became interested in studying the problem of the destruction of the ozone layer.
The scientist's research formed the basis of several of his books on ecology. In them, among other things, Commoner's laws were published, which became the hallmark of the researcher. Some of the scientist's books were published even in the Soviet Union. At first glance, it may seem strange, but the Commoner was great for the USSR. The fact was that the American ecologist adhered to socialist views. A combination of leftist ideology and environmental studies became the foundation for his books The Closing Circle and The Technology of Profit. They also have Commoner's laws.
Capitalism harms the environment
Commoner believed that modern industrial technologies, as well as intensive fuel extraction, were a threat to all mankind. everything grows because of the desire of entrepreneurs and the state to extract maximum profit. Commoner criticize the capitalist system, in which it is nature that suffers the most.
The scientist also tried to convey to his readers the idea that the damage caused can no longer be compensated. Man has no opportunity to restore the lost ecosystem. Therefore, Commoner's laws were based on the need to prevent possible harm, and not to heal the wounds already inflicted by society.
Alternative energy sources
The American ecologist not only pointed out the shortcomings of modern production. He also offered solutions to get out of the current situation. Commoner has been a strong advocate for the use of renewable energy sources. The first is, of course, sunlight.
Commoner's ideas were expressed in the 70s. Today, you can see the implementation of many of his projects with your own eyes. Solar panels, windmills - all this has already become a common source of energy for rich countries. These technologies are used not only in large enterprises, but even in the homes of ordinary citizens. The market for solar panels in the US and Europe is growing at the fastest pace today.
Redistribution of benefits
Commoner's famous laws of ecology also refer to the social problems that have caused environmental pollution. The twentieth century widened the gap between rich and poor countries even further. In some states there is rapid technological progress, in others life changes very slowly.
These gave rise to the term "Third World countries". Mostly it's Africa. On the other hand, Asia has a huge problem of overpopulation. Giant Chinese cities are world leaders in the emission of smog and other harmful substances into the Earth's atmosphere.
Barry Commoner's laws are based on socialist ideas. The scientist proposed to distribute the world's wealth. According to his idea, the extra funds of wealthy societies should have been used to improve the lives of countries with a low standard of living. This would have avoided colossal environmental problems in these regions. Due to overpopulation, rivers become shallow, subsoil resources become scarce, and stable natural ties and chains are destroyed.
"Everything is connected to everything"
There are 4 Commoner's laws in total. The first of them is called "Everything is connected with everything." What is its logic? Commoner in his books tried to explain that everything that happens in nature is closely interconnected. If a person harms one part of the environment, then he naturally harms the rest.
Commoner's Law "Everything is related to everything" is also called the law of dynamic internal balance. This principle says that even small changes made by a person to the world around him, over time, develop into a catastrophe.
Consider an example. A company specializing in the sale of timber is cutting down the forest intensively. How can this affect the rest of nature? As the number of trees decreases, the amount of free oxygen also decreases. In addition, there are additional emissions of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere, which depletes the ozone layer. Finally, the last link in this chain will be the increase in ultraviolet radiation, which is harmful to all living organisms.
Darwin and buckwheat
It should be noted that Commoner's basic laws of ecology were formulated by him thanks to his knowledge of the work of his predecessors. As you know, the scientist in his specialized education was a biologist. He studied Darwinian theory a lot and was familiar with the biography of his famous predecessor in detail.
In one of his books, Commoner recounted a curious fact from the life of the founder of the idea of evolution. One day, farmers approached Darwin with a request for advice on how to increase the buckwheat crop. The scientist answered quite unexpectedly. He suggested that the peasants get more cats. Darwin, like Commoner, was well aware of the interconnectedness of everything that happens in nature. He understood that the new cats would exterminate the peasants who regularly spoiled the buckwheat crop. This story is a perfect illustration of what Barry Commoner wanted to say. The laws of ecology, as this example shows, are proved empirically.
"Everything has to go somewhere"
Commoner's second law affects the phenomenon of redistribution of substances in the environment. This principle, formulated is called "Everything has to go somewhere." In the natural state of nature, each substance has its own cycle of "life". Only that which can disappear in the future is synthesized in the environment.
Barry Commoner's laws state that this is a natural process. And it's hard to disagree with that. However, since humanity entered the modern era, it has been systematically producing artificial substances that are extremely difficult to destroy without consequences for nature. For example, these are DDT, polyethylene, etc. The same list can include resources extracted from the bowels of the earth. Refined and used oil leaves an indelible mark on the environment. B. Commoner's laws and his whole theory criticize such production. Oil, ore and other substances are converted into new compounds that cannot be dispersed in the environment.
Waste management
Man can no longer abandon modern industry. At the same time, it is also not possible to make it completely waste-free. Therefore, the scientist suggested at least minimizing the damage that production causes to nature.
The environmental laws of Barry Commoner state that, firstly, new technologies should be as resource-intensive as possible. Secondly, it is necessary to create such a production in which the waste of human activity could be used as a raw material. Finally, thirdly, if the release of harmful products is inevitable, then society is obliged to create a reasonable system for their disposal and disposal.
"Nature knows best"
Commoner's third law concerns the complexity of the world around us. Even modern man, with all his technologies, cannot know all the relationships within nature. The biosphere is made up of millions of different beings. It is divided into many zones. The flora and fauna of the world have evolved over billions of years. If a person intervenes in these processes, even if he wants to improve the situation around him, he will only cause additional harm.
Commoner's environmental laws urge people to be careful. Active transformations of nature can lead to the fact that our entire world will be unsuitable for normal life. Human interventions are represented by hundreds of illustrative cases in recent times alone. For example, the shooting of wolves in some northern forests has led to the fact that this natural area has lost its natural "orderlies". Sparrows were massacred in China. The inhabitants of the country believed that huge flocks of these birds harm crops. When the sparrows disappeared, insects took their place, and there was no one to eat them. Changes in the biological chain have led to even greater crop losses in China.
"Nothing comes for free"
This is Commoner's last law. He has another interpretation, which says that "you have to pay for everything." The law is based on the principle that the natural system always develops at the expense of the environment. A single biosphere consists of many parts. If something new appears in it, then it will surely replace something old.
The same can be said about the technological achievements of mankind. If we create something that affects nature, then this will lead to some losses in the environment. B. Commoner's laws of ecology are connected with the principle of internal dynamic balance, which was already mentioned in the description of the first law.
The scientist compared the transformation of nature with the payment of a bill. A person will have to destroy something old in order to get something new. At the same time, he can delay the inevitable payment "on a bill", but sooner or later he will still have to pay. The fourth law has a vivid example. This is agriculture. With the annual cultivation of vegetables in the same place, the level of nutrients in the soil (phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, etc.) decreases. Each time the harvest is getting smaller and smaller. In the end, a person has to either leave this area or treat it with fertilizers.
Ecotechnologies
Commoner proposed to create a new type of production that would work in harmony with nature. These are the so-called eco-technologies. The scientist believed that such projects could well be implemented if, by their logic, they coincide with the processes taking place in the biosphere or even continue them. Therefore, mankind should find out those principles, thanks to which nature maintains its balance. Already relying on these rules, society will be able to create environmentally friendly production.
An example is the situation with the processing of substances. In nature, they decompose only with the help of microorganisms. But some human waste only harms the environment. Therefore, according to Commoner, humanity should throw into the biosphere only what it itself can absorb. The rest must be processed artificially with the help of modern technologies. This is a matter of environmental feasibility.
In the 1970s, biologist and environmentalist Barry Commoner laid out in simple aphorisms the four rules of ecology for which he became widely known. Commoner managed to explain to society the dangers of a frivolous attitude to the environment in popular science language.
The future scientist was born in 1917 in Brooklyn. His father and mother were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. After graduating from the university with a bachelor's degree, in 1938 Commoner received a master's degree, and in 1941 - a doctorate. After World War II, he taught plant physiology at St. Louis University for more than 30 years. In the fifties of the XX century, Barry Commoner wrote several books about the dangers of nuclear testing for the planet's ecosystem. In the 1980s, he moved to New York City, where he became head of the Center for Biology and Natural Systems at City College.
His research during his scientific career became the basis for writing several popular science works on ecology. In two of them, "The Closing Circle" (1974) and "Technology of Profit" (1976), the scientist described four ecological principles. In his laws, Barry Commoner relies on the principle of dynamic equilibrium.
First Law
The most obvious illustration of the principle of dynamic balance is the first postulate formulated by Commoner - "Everything is connected with everything."
In the written works, the scientist tried to convey the idea that in the surrounding world all components are connected with each other. If humanity spoils something in one place of the biosphere, then this will certainly affect others. Any impact, even a small one, entails consequences, including negative ones.
This principle illustrates the vast number of connections between living things in an ecosystem and the environment, the biosphere and society, and the components of many systems.
In his work, Commoner relied on the scientific works of his predecessors. In one of his works, to illustrate the first principle, he recounted a story from the life of Charles Darwin. One day villagers came to Darwin for advice. They asked the scientist to tell them how to increase the yield of buckwheat. To which the scientist advised to get more cats: they will destroy the rodents that eat cereals, as a result of which the yield of the latter will increase.
Second law
The second postulate says: "Everything has to go somewhere." It follows from the fundamental law of conservation of matter. In nature, only those substances are synthesized that can subsequently be destroyed in a natural way. In accordance with the first principle, any pollution will return to the person back. This allows us to consider the problem of waste material industry in a new way. The synthesis of new substances by mankind, which cannot be destroyed without harm to the environment, has led to the problem of waste accumulation where they should not be. The same applies to mining: refined oil leads to pollution and environmental degradation.
The second law is based on the principle of redistribution of household waste and non-waste ecological production. When creating new technologies, it should be taken into account that they are less resource-intensive and also use processed products. In addition, it is worth using the most gentle way to dispose of garbage.
third law
The third principle formulated by an American biologist says: "Nature knows best." It is based on the theory of evolution. The organisms and combinations that exist in the modern world are the result of a long process of evolution and natural selection. Of the huge amount of substances, as a result of the selection process, those compounds remained that are most acceptable to earthly conditions and have enzymes that decompose them. Nature, through the competitive struggle of species for existence, left only the strongest organisms resistant to specific climatic conditions.
Active human transformation of the ecological environment (ecocide), biogeocenoses (cenozocide), as well as the extermination of plants and animals (genocide) can lead to
irreversible consequences, as a result of which the world will cease to be suitable for the existence of mankind. Without accurate knowledge of the functioning of the laws of ecosystems and biocenoses and the consequences of their change, no “improvements” of nature are possible. Random human intervention to solve problems can lead to even more damage. The mass shooting of sparrows in Asia, which, according to residents, harms crops, caused insects to take their place. The latter, having lost their natural enemies, increased their population and caused even more damage to crops. Changes in the ecological chain have led to greater yield reductions.
Fourth Law
The last principle, derived by Commoner, is based on the law of reasonable use of natural resources and says: "Nothing is free" or "Everything has to be paid for." This law combines the previous three. The biosphere, as a comprehensive ecosystem, is a single entity. Victory in one place is followed by defeat in another.
Saving money on protecting the environment turns into a health complication for a person, natural disasters and a decrease in favorable conditions for life. Everything that was obtained from it as a result of human labor must ultimately be reimbursed.
In his laws, Commoner brings to the fore the universal connection of natural processes. The progress of any natural system is possible only with the use of material, energy and information resources of its environment.
