Study of the biosphere has led us to take a new

look at the interaction of man with his planet. Right,

"The False Mirror", by the Belgian surrealist artist

Ren Magritte (1928).

"We are", says Barbara
Ward, "the generation to see through the eyes of
the astronauts the astonishing 'earthrise' of our
small and beautiful planet above the barren hori

ONLY

ONE

zons of the moon".

EARTH

by Barbara Ward

Text Copyright- Reproduction prohibited

cannot
help
wondering
whether we may not be present at
one of those turning points in man's

tidn

affairs when the

human

to see

its concerns from

other suns.
We belong to the genera
tion that has brought nuclear energy
to earth, made possible by computers

teria, plankton, catalysts, levels of

dissolved oxygen, thermal balances
which alone permit the sun's searing
energies to be transmuted and life to

the

carry on.

itself and

race

begins
a

new angle of vision and, as a result,

finds

new

openings

for

action,

for

courage and for hope.

I cannot help wondering whether

today's debates on the human environ
ment, in their passion, scale and ori

ginality, do not resemble the profound

questionings of the accepted order
which erupt into human history in
times of radical change.
One thinks of the intellectual ferment

which, over two millenia ago, accom

panied the end of China's feudal wars
and

the

establishment

of

the

first

great centralized Han dynasty.

In
more recent history men had almost
to

stand

on

their

heads

to

realize

that the sun did not go round the

earth, but the reverse. This "Copernican Revolution" is the archetype of
fundamental change by which men
learn to rethink, totally, their place in
the scheme of things.
Our own epoch is, I believe, such an

age again.

We belong to the genera-

to

that

galaxies

British

economist

and

writer,

Is

co-author

(with Ren Dubos) of 'Only One Earth',

written specially for the U.N. Conference on
the Human Environment (details page 33). Her
other

books

Include

"The

Rich

Nations

and

the Poor Nations" (1962), "Spaceship Earth'

(1966), and "An Urban Planet" (1971). Bar
bara Ward is at present Schweitzer Profes
sor of International Economic Development
at Columbia University, in New York.
The
full text of the article presented here will
shortly be published by W.W. Norton (New
York) In a collection of papers of the Dis
tinguished Lecture Series at Stockholm, 1972,
sponsored by the International Institute of
Environmental
Affairs
and
the
Population
Institute.

used

radio

100,000

each

with

simulation,

telescopes

million

100,000

acceleration

other

million

and

for

ward projection of infinitely complicat

ed human activities and provided us
with

instantaneous

interplanetary

worldwide

visible

and

and

audible

communication.

Above all, we are the generation to

see through the eyes of the astronauts

the

astonishing

small

and

"earthrise"

beautiful

of

our

planet above the

barren horizons of the moon.

Indeed,

we in this generation would be some

kind of psychological monstrosity if

this were not an age of Intense, pas
sionate, committed debate and search.

So vast is the scale of change

through which we live that there must
be an equally vast range of competitors
for first place as agents of upheaval.
I wish to suggest three areas in which
the concepts that are being virtually
forced upon us offer a startling break

from

past

patterns

of

thought

and

accepted wisdom.

The
making

BARBARA WARD (Lady Jackson), well-known

has

uncover

first
the

is

the

planet

possibility
unfit

for

of
life.

Hitherto, people have known that they

could do local damage.
They could
farm carelessly and lose top soil or
deforest or overgraze or mine out a

survival, full or inmensely delicate and

vulnerable

mechanisms,

leaves,

bac

Our experts also tell us what we do

not know.
Given our suddenly and
vastly increasing numbers, our enor
mous rise in the use of energy,
including
nuclear energy, and
our
fabulous mastery of molecular chem
istry, we impinge on the fine balances
and mechanisms of the total system
in ways and with consequences that
we too often are in no position to
judge.

Let

me

give

traditional

one

vision

boundless.

It is

of

example.
the

Our

oceans

inconceivable to

is

our

imagination that we should perma

nently damage this infinity of water.
But we have no idea of its capacity
to absorb
as it ultimately must
virtually all the planet's wastes.
In

the

last

two

or

three

decades,

to give only one instance, a high

percentage of the long-lived chlori
nated hydrocarbons
including DDT
appear to have been absorbed into
natural
"sinks"
in
the
biosphere.
Recent
sample-taking
suggests
an
unexpectedly high dosage appearing
in the oceans.

nobody thought that the planet itself

Does this mean that natural storage

systems are filling up?
Will further
effluents reinforce irreversible damage
to marine species known to be suscep

could

tible

mineral.
through

They also contrived to live

major
natural
disasters

earthquakes, tornadoes, ice ages.

But

be at risk.

Today our experts know something

new.

They

know

that

air,

soil

and

water form a totally interdependent

worldwide system or biosphere sus
taining all life, transmitting all energy
and in spite of its rugged powers of

Is

to

this

such

part

substances

of

deeper

as

DDT?

risk

of

deterioration from a steadily widening

range

of

chemical

wastes?

We

do

not know.

Rivers and lakes teach us that there

are

limits

to

water's

self-cleansing