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    Only ONE Earth: by Barbara Ward

    Uploaded by

    Koh Ahong
    only one earth

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Only ONE Earth: by Barbara Ward

    Uploaded by

    Koh Ahong
    357 views1 page
    only one earth

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    Only One Earth

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    only one earth

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    357 views1 page

    Only ONE Earth: by Barbara Ward

    Uploaded by

    Koh Ahong
    only one earth

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Study of the biosphere has led us to take a new

    look at the interaction of man with his planet. Right,


    "The False Mirror", by the Belgian surrealist artist

    Ren Magritte (1928).


    "We are", says Barbara
    Ward, "the generation to see through the eyes of
    the astronauts the astonishing 'earthrise' of our
    small and beautiful planet above the barren hori

    ONLY

    ONE

    zons of the moon".

    EARTH

    by Barbara Ward

    Text Copyright- Reproduction prohibited

    cannot
    help
    wondering
    whether we may not be present at
    one of those turning points in man's

    tidn

    affairs when the

    human

    to see

    its concerns from

    other suns.
    We belong to the genera
    tion that has brought nuclear energy
    to earth, made possible by computers

    teria, plankton, catalysts, levels of


    dissolved oxygen, thermal balances
    which alone permit the sun's searing
    energies to be transmuted and life to

    the

    carry on.

    itself and

    race

    begins
    a

    new angle of vision and, as a result,

    finds

    new

    openings

    for

    action,

    for

    courage and for hope.

    I cannot help wondering whether


    today's debates on the human environ
    ment, in their passion, scale and ori

    ginality, do not resemble the profound


    questionings of the accepted order
    which erupt into human history in
    times of radical change.
    One thinks of the intellectual ferment

    which, over two millenia ago, accom


    panied the end of China's feudal wars
    and

    the

    establishment

    of

    the

    first

    great centralized Han dynasty.


    In
    more recent history men had almost
    to

    stand

    on

    their

    heads

    to

    realize

    that the sun did not go round the


    earth, but the reverse. This "Copernican Revolution" is the archetype of
    fundamental change by which men
    learn to rethink, totally, their place in
    the scheme of things.
    Our own epoch is, I believe, such an

    age again.

    We belong to the genera-

    to

    that

    galaxies

    British

    economist

    and

    writer,

    Is

    co-author

    (with Ren Dubos) of 'Only One Earth',


    written specially for the U.N. Conference on
    the Human Environment (details page 33). Her
    other

    books

    Include

    "The

    Rich

    Nations

    and

    the Poor Nations" (1962), "Spaceship Earth'


    (1966), and "An Urban Planet" (1971). Bar
    bara Ward is at present Schweitzer Profes
    sor of International Economic Development
    at Columbia University, in New York.
    The
    full text of the article presented here will
    shortly be published by W.W. Norton (New
    York) In a collection of papers of the Dis
    tinguished Lecture Series at Stockholm, 1972,
    sponsored by the International Institute of
    Environmental
    Affairs
    and
    the
    Population
    Institute.

    used

    radio

    100,000

    each

    with

    simulation,

    telescopes

    million

    100,000

    acceleration

    other

    million

    and

    for

    ward projection of infinitely complicat


    ed human activities and provided us
    with

    instantaneous

    interplanetary

    worldwide

    visible

    and

    and

    audible

    communication.

    Above all, we are the generation to


    see through the eyes of the astronauts

    the

    astonishing

    small

    and

    "earthrise"

    beautiful

    of

    our

    planet above the

    barren horizons of the moon.

    Indeed,

    we in this generation would be some

    kind of psychological monstrosity if


    this were not an age of Intense, pas
    sionate, committed debate and search.

    So vast is the scale of change


    through which we live that there must
    be an equally vast range of competitors
    for first place as agents of upheaval.
    I wish to suggest three areas in which
    the concepts that are being virtually
    forced upon us offer a startling break

    from

    past

    patterns

    of

    thought

    and

    accepted wisdom.

    The
    making

    BARBARA WARD (Lady Jackson), well-known

    has

    uncover

    first
    the

    is

    the

    planet

    possibility
    unfit

    for

    of
    life.

    Hitherto, people have known that they


    could do local damage.
    They could
    farm carelessly and lose top soil or
    deforest or overgraze or mine out a

    survival, full or inmensely delicate and


    vulnerable

    mechanisms,

    leaves,

    bac

    Our experts also tell us what we do

    not know.
    Given our suddenly and
    vastly increasing numbers, our enor
    mous rise in the use of energy,
    including
    nuclear energy, and
    our
    fabulous mastery of molecular chem
    istry, we impinge on the fine balances
    and mechanisms of the total system
    in ways and with consequences that
    we too often are in no position to
    judge.

    Let

    me

    give

    traditional

    one

    vision

    boundless.

    It is

    of

    example.
    the

    Our

    oceans

    inconceivable to

    is

    our

    imagination that we should perma


    nently damage this infinity of water.
    But we have no idea of its capacity
    to absorb
    as it ultimately must
    virtually all the planet's wastes.
    In

    the

    last

    two

    or

    three

    decades,

    to give only one instance, a high


    percentage of the long-lived chlori
    nated hydrocarbons
    including DDT
    appear to have been absorbed into
    natural
    "sinks"
    in
    the
    biosphere.
    Recent
    sample-taking
    suggests
    an
    unexpectedly high dosage appearing
    in the oceans.

    nobody thought that the planet itself

    Does this mean that natural storage


    systems are filling up?
    Will further
    effluents reinforce irreversible damage
    to marine species known to be suscep

    could

    tible

    mineral.
    through

    They also contrived to live


    major
    natural
    disasters

    earthquakes, tornadoes, ice ages.

    But

    be at risk.

    Today our experts know something


    new.

    They

    know

    that

    air,

    soil

    and

    water form a totally interdependent


    worldwide system or biosphere sus
    taining all life, transmitting all energy
    and in spite of its rugged powers of

    Is

    to

    this

    such

    part

    substances

    of

    deeper

    as

    DDT?

    risk

    of

    deterioration from a steadily widening


    range

    of

    chemical

    wastes?

    We

    do

    not know.

    Rivers and lakes teach us that there

    are

    limits

    to

    water's

    self-cleansing

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