Our Plundered Planet

by Fairfield Osborn

With disturbing clarity this book points out that we are more likely to destroy ourselves in our persistent and worldwide conflict with nature than in any any war of weapons get devised.

Genres: Ecology, Nonfiction, Science

217 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Osborn’s book is about 75 years old. It stands as a landmark in its concerns for human impact on the environment and has been credited with inspiring further research and action. “Parts of the earth, once living and productive, have … died at the hand of man. Others are now dying….This book is divided into two parts – the first which will suggest that man, despite the extraordinary mental accomplishments…has been, is now and will continue to be part of nature’s general scheme. The second part of the book is an attempt to show what man has done in recent centuries to the face of the earth and the accumulated velocity with which he is destroying his own life sources.”

I must file it as an artifact rather than as a useful tool. There is little in Osborn’s approach that hasn’t been better focused and acted upon since his time. There are some sections that just grate on my sensibilities: (Osborn is discuss ‘intelligent care’ of the soil for agricultural purposes.) “An outstanding illustration of this …is provided in Italy by the Pontine Marshes. Originally this was a region of fertile farms. These marshes resulted from putting the surrounding mountain slopes to cultivation in an effort to feed the growing population in the days when Rome was a great power. Gradually those who lived on the coastal plains had to move away from their formerly productive lands for their streams became chokes with silt that washed down from the country above them, and in time a large part of the coastal area became a malarial swamp which threatened the health of all those who lived near by. One of the causes of the fall of Roman civilization may well have bee the declining health of Rome’s people, resulting, in turn, and to some degree, from the misuse of her land…From the fourth century A.D., until the twentieth century the marshland defied every attempt made by man to reclaim it. Emperors and Popes…tried what skills they had against the dangerous wasteland, but with no results (until Mussolini with) modern engineering skill, scientific knowledge…heavy labor…converted (the marshes) to fertile farmland.”

There is a lot more to consider here but here are a few of the issues.
• The erosion issue isn’t dealt with directly.
• The value of marshland diversity and as a buffer isn’t discussed.
• The agricultural practices that put chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides into the environment are virtually ignored.
• The need of Italy’s population for additional agricultural production were key to the Roman Empire’s use of Egypt and other conquered territories for agricultural production.
• A healthy Pontine Plain would not have solved Rome’s needs.

There are other examples where engineering solutions are cited as modern solutions but “unintended consequences” are not considered. Osborn is right to bring out how man must change some practices if many species are to thrive in our changing world. His “call to action” was needed. But, there is not much in his recitations that is of more than historical interest.

2.5*

[Adam Orford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating historic read. Groundbreaking environmentalism from an almost Victorian-era viewpoint.

Concepts that appear in Our Plundered Planet (1948) that are typically attributed to later times:

Population as major contributor to natural resources loss (typically referenced to The Population Bomb, 1968)

The sun as a boring star in the vast scheme of the universe and essential elements of the Drake Equation (1961).

Humanity’s existence as the last few minutes pr seconds of time in the Cosmic Calendar (popularized by Carl Sagan in Cosmos and The Dragons of Eden (1977))

Tech treadmills. Reliance technology to resolve tech-created problems, such as fertilizer for mechanized ag (pointed to Cochrane 1958).

Anthropocentric argument for conservation (combined with rejection of ecocentroc view). Ie, We shouldn’t destroy the environment because it’s not good for us, rather than because it is inherently wrong to do so.

DDT killing birds and pesticides generally being awful (Carson, Silent Spring, 1969)

Call for massive government intervention in conservation. Contribution of environmental crisis to war. And much more.


Five stars as an important historical document. Three stars for its author’s (age-appropriate but nonetheless very regrettable) racism.

[Nadine Lebrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre troublant qui résonne souvent juste, près de 70 années plus tard. Cet essai de Fairfield Osborn, président de la société zoologique de New York est le premier qui soit éminemment écologique. Notre planète surpeuplée et pillée par l'avidité de l'homme court à sa perte car chaque organisme de la Terre est interdépendant.

"La terre aujourd'hui appartient à l'homme et par là se trouve posé le problème de savoir quelles obligations peuvent accompagner cette possession sans limites."

L'auteur y aborde des problèmes d'une actualité brûlante: la famine, la surpopulation anarchique, l'abus et la dangerosité des produits chimiques, la disparition de certaines espèces animales,... Une analyse réalisée au scalpel et résolument prémonitoire.

Aux côtés d'autres personnalités éminentes, Albert Einstein lui-même a cru bon laisser un avis sur ce livre:

"On sent d'une façon aiguë en lisant ce livre la futilité de la plupart de nos querelles politiques comparées avec les réalités profondes de la vie."

L'auteur de "Brave New World" ("Le Meilleur des Mondes") Aldous Huxley en dit:

"Puisse ce livre retenir l'attention qu'il mérite absolument par la portée suprême du sujet et la lucidité du style."

En effet.
____________________________________________

Here is a disconcerting book which happens to sound accurate and topical, although it has been written in 1948, by Fairfield Osborn, president of the New York Zoological Society. This essay has appeared very influential in the growth of the environmental movements. Overpopulated and plundered by man's greed, our Earth is in jeopardy. Every organism is interrelated.

Topical issues are brought up: famine, overpopulation, chemicals' abuse and dangerousness, certain animals species extinction,... The analysis is detailed and undoubtly premonitory.

"We are more likely to destroy ourselves in our persistent and world-wide conflict with nature than in any war of weapons yet devised."

Along with famous key figures, Albert Einstein endorsed this book.

Reading it, one feels very keenly how futile most of our political quarrels are compared with the basic realties of life."

Author of "Brave New World" Aldous Huxley also urges to read the book and stresses on the essay's impact and lucidity. Indeed.

[Hypathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Au lendemain de la deuxième guerre mondiale, après l'apocalypse nucléaire de Hiroshima et Nagasaki d'août 1945, Fairfield Osborn décrit déjà dans cet ouvrage les dommages que nous causons à notre biotope Terre, le seul que nous ayons, à la diversité des espèces animales, à l'épaisseur de la terre "du dessus", celle qui s'érode et dévale inexorablement les pentes et sans laquelle il nous est impossible de simplement vivre car c'est d'elle que nous tirons notre subsistance, de la surpopulation qui menace en envahissant les espaces des autres terriens, en artificialisant et désertifiant autour de nous. Cet ouvrage est précurseur bien que son auteur soit oublié : cela fait désormais 73 ans qu'on nous avertit qu'il n'y a pas de salut pour notre espèce en exploitant la Terre comme une mine, et en rompant comme nous le faisons avec le cycle organique selon lequel elle est organisée. Osborn s'alarme déjà du déboisement, du défrichage et du surpâturage pour nourrir des bêtes pour qu'une population toujours en augmentation puisse manger de la viande, de la dévastation de notre environnement provoquée par nos guerres incessantes. Malgré des chiffres qui ne sont plus d'actualité, ils ont en général doublé, triplé, voire quadruplé, malgré le fait que le livre ait été écrit avant la "Révolution verte" des années 60 qui a permis de décupler les rendements agricoles grâce à la chimie du pétrole (intrants), rendements qui désormais baissent car nous avons mortellement usé la richesse et la vie des sols, y aura-t-il une nouvelle version du "progrès technique" qui nous permettra de sortir de l'ornière où nous nous sommes empêtrés ? Pour Fairfield Osborn la réponse est non, à moins d'une révision drastique de la façon dont nous occupons la Terre. A redécouvrir. Nous ne pourrons en tous cas pas dire que nous n'avions pas été prévenus.