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Barry Commoner’s Ecological Legacy
On his passing, it’s worth reflecting how much of Dr. Commoner’s most well known ecological catechism has been embraced by natural resource professionals:
Everything is Connected to Everything Else.
Everything Must Go Somewhere.
Nature Knows Best.
There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.
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Andy,
I don’t intend any disrespect to Dr. Commoner’s legacy, but I’m questioning the origins of the ideas you attributed to him in this post
First “everything is connected to everything else”
but different philosophies and religions have believed for many centuries, that not only is everything connected to everything else, but that everything is everything else.
From Wikipedia on Monism here:
“Every thing must go somewhere.” is this the conservation of matter and energy?
“Nature knows best.” This seems too facile to really be an idea. What would the Pompeiians say? Vesuvius knew best?
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” I looked this up and the attribution does not seem clear, but it does seem more the province of economists than ecologists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain%27t_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch
Looking up monism somehow led me to this poem of one of my favorite poets Rumi, a 13th Century Persian.