(excerpt from) The Huffington Post
Barry Commoner, Pioneering Environmental Scientist and Activist, Dies at 95
Barry Commoner, a pioneering environmental scientist and activist, died Sunday (9/30/2102) at age 95…
…Many Americans embraced Commoner’s ideas about workplace hazards, nuclear power plants, and recycling. But he grew frustrated by the influence of corporate America over both political parties and by the failure of the mainstream environmental movement to join forces with other progressive movements to heed his warnings and challenge the basic tenets of the free-market system.
In 1979 Commoner helped form the Citizens Party, hoping it would gain influence similar to that of the Green Party in Europe. The next year Commoner ran as the party’s presidential candidate…
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-904-7614, [email protected]
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected]
The Green Party salutes Barry Commoner for his environmental and
political leadership
WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates and leaders remembered Barry
Commoner, leader in the movement to build an alternative party in the
US, who died on September 30 at the age of 95.
“Barry Commoner was one of the first environmentalists who understood
that saving the planet meant challenging the power of the corporate
political parties in the U.S.,” said Jill Stein, Green candidate for
President (http://www.jillstein.org). “He was a global leader in the
effort to promote clean, renewable energy, especially solar, rather
than dangerous nuclear power plants that maximized the profits of the
wealthy. He warned us of the dangers of garbage incineration,
promoting ‘reuse, reduce, and recycle’ as a saner solid waste
strategy. More recently, he dismissed the genetic engineering of our
food system as junk science.”
Dr. Commoner was the Citizens Party candidate for President in 1980.
He help created an international network of environmental parties in
the early 80s, which included the Green Party in West Germany. His
most vivid memory of the 1980 campaign was when a reporter in
Albuquerque asked him, “Dr. Commoner, are you a serious candidate or
are you just running on the issues?”
Like the Green Party, Barry Commoner linked environmental issues to
social and economic justice, peace, women’s rights, civil rights, and
labor movements:
“Nothing less than a change in the political and social system,
including revision of the Constitution, is necessary to save the
country from destroying the natural environment…. Capitalism is the
earth’s number one enemy.”
“Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go
somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
If you don’t put something in the ecology, it’s not there.”
Barry Commoner argued that post-World War II industrial methods, with
their reliance on nonrenewable fossil fuels, were the root cause of
modern environmental pollution. He was one of the first scientists to
warn of the dangers of climate change. In 1970, the year of the First
Earth Day, Time Magazine put Dr. Commoner on its front cover, calling
him the Paul Revere of Ecology.
“It’s very important that, in 1990, people understand that the control
strategy has failed, that prevention is the only way to go, and that
prevention means confronting the corporations where they live and
where we live,” said Dr. Commoner.
MORE INFORMATION
“Green Party prepares for Oct. 3 protests over Green nominee Jill
Stein’s exclusion from the presidential debates”
Green Party press release, October 2, 2012
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=554
Jill Stein on Democracy Now!, hosted by Amy Goodman, live from Denver
during the Obama-Romney debate on Oct. 3:
http://www.jillstein.org/democracy_now_s_live_debate_talkback_with_jill_stein
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
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Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
~ END ~
Rest in Peace, “Dr. Ecology”
Another third party legend gone. Like Benjamin Spock though, he should really be better known for his science and writing than for his attempts at being a politician.
Rest in peace, my friend. The peaceful revolution is coming.