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Daniel Botkin: The Myth of Constancy
| Article
# : |
19346 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1991 |
2,682 Words |
| Author
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Joseph M. Lubin
Joseph M. Lubin is a free-lance writer based in California
and
the former science editor for Voice of America. |
Facetiously, Daniel Botkin speaks of looking to nature for global renewal in the midst of environmental disasters as reminiscent of how his in-laws in New Hampshire once put up strawberry preserves for the winter. "We talk," he says, "as if nature were something we could bottle, put on the shelf, and take down occasionally to savor and admire. Indeed, this is the way that many nature preserves have been managed in the twentieth century."
In making the analogy, Botkin, professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is not simply referring to the forests of New England. His interests go far beyond environmental problems in the United States and are global in scope. He has studied elephants in Africa, moose in Michigan, and forests in New England, the Midwest, and Alaska; he has written a history of the hunting of the Pacific bowhead whale. His analysis of Great Lakes forests under global warming won the first prize of $50,000 in this year's George and Cynthia Mitchell Prize for Sustainable Development. George Mitchell heads one of America's largest independent energy companies and has a long-time interest in issues related to global growth.
Fascinated with physics, literature, and writing as a young man, Botkin finally focused on biology and ecology; the great outdoors became his real milieu of interest. But it is physics, he says, that provided the rigorous discipline that enabled him to come to grips with the data from his investigations. And the computer is the tool that permitted him to assemble the picture of nature and develop the insights that are challenging ecology today.
Global environmental problems range from global warming and acid rain to the destruction of our forests and the protective ozone layer that filters out the deadly ultraviolet rays of the sun. These problems stem from our use of natural resources and the effects of their use, including waste disposal. But while we do need more investigations and data, Botkin explains, the problem is more than a lack of information.
"It is more than how many barrels of oil were spilled, how many elephants are left in Africa, or how many trees we need to plant to reduce global warming," Botkin declares. "Our ability to resolve these problems and agree on solutions is hampered most by deep-seated and outdated myths that form a worldview and act as blinders."
As he goes on to explain: "Many theories about the environment that we
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