Barry Commoner
by Vittoria Theodora Georgiadis
After World War II the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom began to build up their nuclear arsenals. Each country exploded hundreds of bombs for the purpose of testing their effectiveness and radius of destruction. After each bomb test there would be radioactive fallout that showered down on the land and other areas of the natural environment, and would contaminate the biosphere. Barry Commoner helped change this fact.
The environmental activist Barry Commoner was born in 1917 in St. Louis, Missouri where his love for nature blossomed in his early childhood. In 1937, Commoner earned a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Columbia University, followed by a master’s degree in Plant Physiology in 1938. He then obtained a PhD in Cellular Biology from Harvard University in 1941. Early in his career, Commoner quickly drew attention to how DDT and other pesticides polluted major water sources such as lakes, streams, rivers, and other ecosystems. Commoner's scientific career combined with his political perspective left a profound mark on environmentalism particularly because of his fierce defiance against the Pentagon and the nuclear weapons industry for creating environmental contaminants.
The dangers of the arms race between western nations and the Soviet Union were not lost on Commoner, who spoke out against the threat nuclear testing posed to human health and democracy. Commoner and the committee viewed the testing of the Hydrogen bomb as a violation of human rights. He made the public aware of how nuclear testing left behind large amounts of radioactive fallout; which were then biomagnified within the consumption of multiple species such as plankton, insects, fish, swallows, and the egg yolks of waterbirds. Commoner protested how the lack of public discourse surrounding nuclear fallout was a major threat to democracy. In 1950, Commoner published The Fallout Problem, which covered politically sensitive technological issues harming nature. Commoner sought to end the withholding of scientific information by creating a think tank called the Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI) with other scientists. Commoner’s robust voice in the committee amplified calls to expose how military secrecy corrupted scientific research. Amid a paranoid political atmosphere, the CNI defended democratic ideals by promoting public awareness of nuclear information. Commoner transformed the standards for ethical research through the CNI's demand for transparency and accountability.
In 1958, Commoner and the CNI also collaborated with the United States Public Health Service in the research for the baby tooth survey which discovered the widespread presence of a radioactive isotope in children's baby teeth. Strontium-90 is an artificially produced fission by-product made in nuclear weapons testing. This isotope was found to be ingested into humans through the consumption of contaminated food and water. Commoner’s research involved the collection of 17,000 donated baby teeth. The survey associated with the experiment contained questions such as: When did the tooth fall out? What is the child's date of birth? Where was the birth giver’s residence during pregnancy? The linkage of strontium-90 to the baby teeth painted a shocking picture of nuclear contamination particularly in children. Many people became enraged with the fact that strontium-90 was absorbed into humans and protested against the health hazard. As a result of this public outcry, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 which pledged to eliminate the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere and oceans.
In his later career, Commoner's advocacy for protecting the earth significantly contributed to the environmentalist movement. In The Closing Circle, his “Four Laws of Ecology” became foundational for drawing attention to the interconnectedness within maintaining the earth’s environment. He also offered a solution to the environmental crisis which he said would require society to meet the “inescapable demands of the ecosystem”. Commoner’s advocacy for the Partial Test Ban Treaty inspired a great number of student activists and other people whom he described to have been “born under the shadow of the bomb” as their lives were affected by a new age of nuclear technological advancement.
In summation, Barry Commoner's work embodies a fusion of scientific rigor combined with impassioned activism which ultimately left an ineffable mark on the environmentalist movement. His push for democratic scientific approaches in his collaborations with the CNI reflected his dedication to promoting the peaceful coexistence between humans and a safe and stable environment.
Bibliography
Egan, Michael. Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival the Remaking of American Environmentalism. Urban and Industrial Environments. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2007.
n.a. “Public Health Statement DDT, DDE, and DDD.” ATSDR, September 2002. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp35-c1-b.pdf.
transcripción en español
二戰後,美國、蘇聯和英國開始建立自己的核武庫。 每個國家都在測試核彈的有效性和破壞半徑的途中引爆了數百枚核彈。 每一次試驗都會把無數粒放射性沉降物灑在大地和自然生態上,從而污染生物圈。 巴里·康芒納協助了世界改變這現狀。
環境保育活動家巴里·康芒納在 1917 年出生於美國密蘇裡州聖路易市。他對大自然的熱愛在童年時期就已發芽。康芒納在1937年成爲哥倫比亞大學動物學學士,一年後又成爲植物生理學碩士。 在1941 年,他最終取得哈佛大學細胞生物學博士學位。 康芒納在他職業生涯的早期便使人們對DDT 和其他殺蟲劑對污染主要水源(如湖泊、溪流、河流和其他生態系統)所造成的影響引起了關注。 康芒納的科學生涯跟他的政治觀點息息相關—他對五角大廈和核武工業經過核試驗而產生的環境污染物展現出了激烈的反抗,此行動更為環保主義留下了深刻的烙印。
康芒納並沒有忽視西方國家與蘇聯之間軍的備競賽所帶來的危險,他大力宣傳核試驗對身體健康和民主社會造成的威脅。 他和委員會認為氫彈試驗是對人權的侵犯,也讓大眾意識到核子試驗是如何留下大量的放射性沉降物;這些沉降物又是如何在浮游生物、昆蟲、魚類、燕子和游禽的蛋黃等多個物種的食物鏈中產生生物放大作用。 康芒納在抗辨中提到,公共討論裏缺乏有關核沉降物的問題是對民主的一大威脅。 1950 年,康芒納出版了《THE FALLOUT PROBLEM》一書,書中提到政治敏感和危害自然的技術問題。 為了結束當時隱瞞科學資訊的習慣,康芒納與其他科學家共同創建了名為「核資訊委員會」(CNI)的智庫。 康芒納在委員會中的凌厲發言牽起了民間要求揭露軍事機密凌駕科學研究的呼聲。 在疑神疑鬼的政治氛圍中,CNI透過提高公眾對核子資訊的認識而捍衛了民主。 康芒納也透過 CNI 對公開透明問責制的要求改變了科學研究的道德標準。
1958 年,康芒納和 CNI 也與美國公共衛生局合作對美國兒童的乳牙展開研究,並發現這些乳牙普遍含有放射性同位素。 鍶-90 是核武試驗中產生的人造裂變副產物,這種同位素被發現透過食用受污染的食物和水進入人體。 康芒納的研究涉及17,000 顆捐贈的乳牙, 與實驗相關的調查包含以下問題:牙齒是什麼時候掉的? 孩子的出生日期是什麼時候? 孩子的母親在懷孕期間住在哪裡? 鍶-90 與乳牙的關係呈現出一幅令人震驚的核污染圖景,尤其是在兒童身上。 許多人被這消息激怒了,並對核試驗的健康危害提出抗議。 在人民的強烈抗議下,美國、蘇聯和英國於 1963 年簽署了《部分禁試核試驗條約》,承諾停止在大氣層和海洋中進行核武試驗。
康芒納在他職業生涯的後半倡導保護地球,也極力推行了環保運動。 他在《THE CLOSING CIRCLE》一書中提出的「生態四法則 」提醒人們在維護地球環境的同時,也要注意不同範疇的互通性。 他也提出了通過認為這需要社會滿足 "生態系統不可避免的需求"來解決環境危機的辦法。 康芒納倡導的《部分禁試核試驗條約》激勵了大量在核時代出生的學生活動家和其他被他稱為 「在原子彈陰影下出生」的人。
總而言之,巴里·康芒納的工作體現出嚴謹的科學與慷慨激昂的行動主義的互相融合,這融合最終在環保運動中留下了難以言喻的印記。 他在與 CNI 的合作中倡導民主的科學方法亦反映出他對於促進人類與安全、穩定的環境一起和平共處的使命。
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