Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of American Environmentalism

by Michael Egan

Chronicles the activist career of Barry Commoner, one of the most influential American environmental thinkers, and his role in recasting the environmental movement after World War II.For over half a century, the biologist Barry Commoner has been one of the most prominent and charismatic defenders of the American environment, appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1970 as the standard-bearer of "the emerging science of survival." In Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival, Michael Egan examines Commoner's social and scientific activism and charts an important shift in American environmental values since World War II.Throughout his career, Commoner believed that scientists had a social responsibility, and that one of their most important obligations was to provide citizens with accessible scientific information so they could be included in public debates that concerned them. Egan shows how Commoner moved naturally from calling attention to the hazards of nuclear fallout to raising public awareness of the environmental dangers posed by the petrochemical industry. He argues that Commoner's belief in the importance of dissent, the dissemination of scientific information, and the need for citizen empowerment were critical planks in the remaking of American environmentalism. Commoner's activist career can be defined as an attempt to weave together a larger vision of social justice. Since the 1960s, he has called attention to parallels between the environmental, civil rights, labor, and peace movements, and connected environmental decline with poverty, injustice, exploitation, and war, arguing that the root cause of environmental problems was the American economic system and its manifestations. He was instrumental in pointing out that there was a direct association between socioeconomic standing and exposure to environmental pollutants and that economics, not social responsibility, was guiding technological decision making. Egan argues that careful study of Commoner's career could help reinvigorate the contemporary environmental movement at a point when the environmental stakes have never been so high.

283 pages, Hardcover

First published March 23, 2007

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Egan’s biography Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival weaves together some of the most important ideological threads from the history of science, medicine, and environment. In this well written and organized biography, Egan dusts off contemporary notions of the environmental movement and presents the reader with Commoner’s “apparatus.” Commoner argued that scientists should engage the public by placing information in their hands and allowing political, ethical, and environmental decisions to be influenced by grassroots responses to the information.

Egan argues that this “apparatus” was once a potent tool and was influential in the establishment and empowerment of the early disarmament movement and more specifically in the public outrage concerning radioisotopes resulting from nuclear testing during the 1950s. Indeed, this apparatus, was central to the diplomacy and legislation leading up to the atmospheric nuclear test ban. Commoner also called for the use of the “precautionary principle” during a time when national security and corporate interests were seen as pillars of western freedom and survival.

By outlining Commoner’s alignment of scientific knowledge, technological innovations, and social justice, Egan illuminates the roots of the “environmental justice” movement typically associated with the 1980s/90s. In doing this, he also illustrates the public scientific debates that were representative of larger rifts amongst environmentalists and scientists throughout the 1970s, leading to the temporary dismantlement of Commoner’s apparatus for another 20 years or so.

This book is an exemplary model for an academic biography. It ties together major historical themes and ideas from several fields, yet never loses sight of Barry Commoner and his role as a public scientist. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the roots of ecology, environmentalism, social justice, and public science.