The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and TechnologyFrom Chapter One: This book . . . begins with the ecosphere, the setting in which civilization has done its great—and terrible—deeds. Then it moves to a description of some of the damage we have done to the ecosphere—to the air, the water, the soil. However, by now such horror stories of environmental destruction are familiar, even tiresome. Much less clear is what we need to learn from them, and so I have chosen less to shed tears for our past mistakes than to try to understand them. Most of this book is an effort to discover which human acts have broken the circle of life, and why. I trace the environmental crisis from its overt manifestations in the ecosphere to the ecological stresses which they reflect, to the faults in productive technology—and in its scientific background—that generate these stresses, and finally to the economic, social, and political forces which have driven us down this self-destructive course. All this in the hope—and expectation—that once we understand the origins of the environmental crisis, we can begin to manage the huge undertaking of surviving it. |
Contents
The Environmental Crisis | 1968 |
The Ecosphere | |
Nuclear Fire | |
Los Angeles | |
Illinois Earth | |
Lake Erie Water | |
Man in the Ecosphere | |
Population and Affluence | |
The Technological Flaw | |
The Social Issues | |
The Question of Survival | |
The Economic Meaning of Ecology | |
The Closing Circle | |
Notes Acknowledgments | |
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accumulate activities agricultural air pollution algae algal amount animals atomic automobile bacteria Barry Commoner basic become biological birth rate capita carbon dioxide cent changes chemical complex cost course crop death rate degradation detergents displaced earth ecological economic system ecosphere ecosystem effects emissions energy engine environment environmental crisis environmental impact environmental pollution eutrophication example fallout fertilizer nitrogen fibers fish hazard human humus increase industry inorganic Lake Erie living things manufacture materials mercury modern technology molecules natural nitrate nitrogen oxides nonreturnable nuclear power nutrients operation organic compounds organic matter organic wastes output over-all oxygen pesticides phosphate photochemical smog plastic political pollution levels pollution problem population growth postwar private enterprise system production profit quotation radiation radioactive recent reduced reported result scientific scientists serious sewage smog soap social soil strontium 90 substance sulfur dioxide surface waters survive synthetic synthetic fibers United yield