Barry Commoner's Contribution to the Environmental Movement: Science and Social Action (Work, Health and Environment Series)

Few people have made greater contributions to protecting and improving the environment than the scientist, teacher, activist Dr. Barry Commoner. For half a century, Dr. Commoner has been an international leader in the environmental movement. On the occasion of his eightieth birthday, a symposium was held at which invited speakers discussed his contributions to a wide range of environmental issues. This book, collecting many of the invited papers, provides fascinating insights into the life and work of one of the twentieth century's most influential scientists and social activists. Chapters contributed by other activists, scientists, and scholars including Ralph Nader, Tony Mazzocchi and Peter Montague cover many of Dr. Commoner's major contributions. In the final chapter Dr. Commoner concludes: "We, who are environmental advocates, must find a way—for the sake of the planet and the people who live on it—to join a historic mission to end poverty wherever it exists. That is what is yet to be done."

Since the 1950's, Barry Commoner has played a pivotal role in nearly every important phase of the environmental movement, including opposition to nuclear weapons testing in the 1950's, the science information movement of the 1960's, the energy debates of the 1970's, and on through pioneering research on organic farming, recycling, and toxic chemical substitution in recent years. This book is an invaluable guide, not only to Dr. Commoner's life and work, but also to the entire history of the modern environmental movement.