Planet Earth's Lifeguard

The obits and accolades are rolling in for Barry Commoner, the 95-year-old pioneer environmentalist and biologist who was described as Planet Earth's Lifeguard in the New York Times. This is a great moniker for a remarkable man who was encouraging us to "make peace with the planet" in the 1960's and was a strong voice of support for establishing Earth Day in 1970. His Making Peace With the Planet was published in 1990 and one of the first environmental books I purchased.

A professor at McMaster University, Michael Egan, wrote a biography of Commoner and praises his diverse career:

He should be in any top five list of American environmental leaders, up there with Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Alice Hamilton. It may be heretical to say it, but I think he’s a more important figure in American environmentalism than Rachel Carson, if only because of the range of issues he addressed and the methods he brought to his activism. Over his career, Commoner worked on nuclear fallout, pesticides, water contamination, air pollution, toxic metals, the petrochemical industry, population, energy and nuclear power, urban waste disposal, dioxin, recycling, and all manner of other environmental issues.

That is heady company, even though those other names may be more familiar.

I had forgotten about his Four Laws of Ecology but they still make sense:

1) Everything is connected to everything else
2) Everything must go somewhere
3) Nature knows best
4) There is no such thing as a free lunch

Jesus offered "blessed are the peacemakers" in the Beatitudes and we are realizing that making peace with all living things and the ecosystems of which they are part is essential for our wellbeing and survival. So bless Commoner and others like him who were saying what needed to be said long before it was popular.

Ever heard of this uncommon Commoner?