Report on the Biosphere 1976

Abstract

& VERAL YEARS AGO PAUL SEARS called attention to the fact that a proper consideration of the natural laws governing the functioning of environment would require a series of drastic changes in most governmental and social systems. He called ecology the Subversive Science. And so it seems especially appropriate that we mark the two-hundredth year since that grand July 4th sedition with a symposium on ecology. Despite the occasion, I am not about to propose a revolution, or even a minor sedition. But I can't avoid wondering about that small group of rebels of two centuries back: were their doubts about the future any less than ours? How did they manage to thwart the endless plays for power and finally leave a stable yet flexible government capable of meeting and adapting to then unimaginable trials? We have the benefit of their success as we struggle to resolve the issues, not on how to grow into a new continent, but on how to stop growing into it and to remain within the limits of its resources. The issues facing us seem threatening enough, yet they cannot be larger than the challenges that faced our ancestors. And the objective is not different now: the preservation of the dignity of man. The principal challenge for us is to keep our system working under the pressures of soaring population and soaring demands for resources. We feel the need again for some clarity and simplicity similar to that left to us by the Founding Fathers. What can science offer?