Address of the Past President: San Antonio, Texas, August 1991, Congressional Incentives for Landscape Research

Knight, Dennis

Biosphere sustainability is on our minds, and it has been for many years. In 1869 George Perkins Marsh, in his book Man and Nature, warned of the environmental degradation that followed modern civilizations. His observation saround the world, 122 years ago, are highly relevant to the kinds of ecological problems that we face today in North America. Eighty years later, in 1948, Fairfield Osborn wrote a book with the title Our Plundered Planet. His approach to the biosphere did not consider the importance of climate change and rain forest destruction, but he wondered if a democratic, capitalistic society could meet the challenge of environmental protection. He may have been sensitized by the writing of Karl Marx on the self-destructive tendencies of capitalism. With regard to agriculture Marx wrote, in Das Kapital, "All progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the laborer, but of robbing the soil." Fortunately, many have reminded us of the environmental problems that we face today. In particular, I think of the bold and scholarly writing of Paul Sears on the causes of expanding deserts, Paul Ehrlich on the implications of too many people, Garrett Hardin on the human predicament, and Lester Brown, who annually provides insights on the ecological state of the world. There are others. Such individuals have helped formulate strategies that, if adopted as public policy, could make our socio-economic system work. And sometimes our policy makers have taken note. With the support of the American public, we now have truly significant legislation that is designed to help resolve the ecological problems that threaten the sustainability of our biosphere. This legislation includes the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, the National Forest Management Act, and the progressive Farm Bills of 1985 and 1990. Public support for these initiatives is suggested by the fact that the President now addresses environmental concerns more frequently, and by the fact that a popular news magazine featured the earth on the cover of its "Man-of-the-Year" issue for 1989. Breaking a long tradition, Time focused on the earth's life support system rather than one individual of a single species. Such events are encouraging but environmental legislation often is weak and sometimes threatened. We still do not have a defensible national policy on the wise use of energy or water, and regrettably, the United States often hesitates to support programs that would help curtail the intolerable level of human population growth. Though some progress has been made, there is no reason for complacency. On this occasion, however, I want to discuss a few significant but not widely known aspects of federal legislation that provide ecologists with opportunities for the application of their knowledge. My focus will be on the Great Plains and mountains of western North America.

Address of the Past President: San Antonio, Texas, August 1991, Congressional Incentives for Landscape Research

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