Land Ethic? What Land Ethic?

Abstract

SIR: Your editorial in the Oct. 4 issue, "A land ethic," by Karen Joy Skinner, is both well-stated and well-timed. The chemical industry and chemical research have been major contributors to current technologies which have a bearing on the ecology of the land, and it is exciting and. sanguine for them to be developing a concern about the effects of their technologies on land and the relation of their enterprise to a land ethic. The identification in your editorial of the chem­ ical and biochemical areas which should be of special concern in the near future is very per­ ceptive. And the sense of urgency combined with a healthy optimism about the possibilities shown in the editorial is both intelligent and re­ freshing. SIR: At last the NAS ozone study has appeared. But, it seems, we are no closer to the real an­ swer. Your short review (C&EN, Sept. 27, page 16) brought us up to date, but perhaps the real question has not been asked: Has there been a significant increase in the relative intensity of the UV radiation component of sunlight in the past few years? Surely, someone has made measurements, even decades ago, that could be used to answer this question. I hope someone is making mea­ surements now. The half-life of the ozone con­ troversy is at least a tenth of the time (40 to 50 years) estimated for the ozone concentration to reach half of its steady-state value, so we ought to be able to see a trend in relative UV intensity over four to five years. Thus, it seems to me that a few years of spectral monitoring data judged with respect to fluorocarbon production ought to show a definite increase in the UV component of sunlight, if the Rowland-Molina hypothesis is true. Let's hear from those workers in insolation who have made the measurements or let's get started if we have forgotten to collect the basic data. E. L. Lippert Jr., Ph.D. Corporate Technology, Owens-Illinois, Toledo Integrated science program SIR: It is gratifying to learn that at long last efforts are being made, such as the NSF funded pro­ gram at Northwestern University (C&EN, Sept. 27, page 17), to educate scientists with a knowledge of all the sciences, i.e. generalists. As noted in a speech some years back by Richard W. Lyman, Stanford University presi­ dent, the need for generalists has never been greater "to keep the tribes of specialists from running into each other." Could excessive specialization in medical sciences in absence of generalists be a limiting factor responsible for the slow progress in medical sciences despite prolific spending? It is noteworthy that one of the National Institutes of Health lists the laboratories of biochemical metabolism, biochemical phar­ macology, experimental pathology, chemistry, chemical physics, physical biology, biophysical chemistry, molecular biology, chemical biology, inter alia, in its organizational structure. Is such extreme specialization not a 20th century analog to the biblical Tower of Babel? As one with a science background more di­ verse than any planned program could possibly offer, I s...

Ética, ecología y ecosofía

“…El problema que se plantea según la mirada de Aldo Leopold y Potter es establecer, más allá de la posibilidad o no de vincular al hombre con las demás especies biológicas y el planeta mismo, cómo es posible tal vinculación en una reflexión ética, biológica, ambiental y moral con claras implicaciones educativas, políticas y sociales que busca repensar el rol del sujeto y de la mediación técnica y científica en el siglo XX. Ciertamente, cada uno lo hace con una visión particular, pero sus análisis convergen en aspectos similares en cuanto a la necesidad de conservación de la tierra y de las poblaciones bióticas que la habitan (12).…”