[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Egan_Mike1.jpg” caption=”Michael Egan, assistant professor in the Department of History, has written a book about American biologist Barry Commoner. “]Barry Commoner, touted by TIME magazine as the “Paul Revere of Ecology” in 1970, is the subject of a new book by Michael Egan, assistant professor in the Department of History.

Published in April by the MIT Press, Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of American Environmentalism examines Commoner's social and scientific activism as well as the shift in American environmental values since World War II.

“At a point when global warming, air and water contamination, and the growing hazard of synthetic chemicals to human health are becoming more of a public concern, I could think of few more pressing issues than human relationships with the physical environment,” says Egan of his inspiration to write the book.

Commoner believed scientists had a social responsibility to provide citizens with the scientific information they needed to be aware of the world around them and participate in public discourse.

“I argue that Commoner's belief in the importance of dissent, the dissemination of scientific information, and the need for citizen empowerment were critical planks in the remaking of American environmentalism,” Egan explains.

Since the '50s, Commoner has drawn parallels between the environmental, civil rights, labour and peace movements, and connected environmental decline with poverty, injustice, exploitation and war, arguing that the root cause of environmental problems was the American economic system.

He raised awareness of the hazards of nuclear fallout and the environmental dangers posed by the petrochemical industry. He also pointed out the direct link between socioeconomic standing and exposure to environmental pollutants.

Commoner's Four Laws of Ecology included the assertion that “everything is connected to everything else,” which has implications on our day-to-day lives.

“Where our food comes from, how we get to work and how we heat or cool our homes have environmental repercussions,” says Egan. “Commoner put that together very effectively for a mainstream audience.”

Egan was interviewed on science blog The World's Fair and a New York Times interview of Commoner in June made reference to the book. In early June, Egan was invited to speak about Commoner's career at a dinner in New York celebrating his environmental achievements.

In August, he will present with Commoner on science, democracy and the environment at a session of the American Sociological Association's annual meeting. His current research investigates more broadly the kind of citizen science that Commoner was instrumental in creating.