Four Laws of Ecology (Part I)

Background Information

I. About the Author

Barry Commoner (1917-2012 ) American environmental scientist, college professor, an author and a strong social activist. He received his bachelor’s degree in zoology from Columbia University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. As a scientist, he has contributed to share scientific knowledge with the public to raise their awareness of environmental problems and other human problems. In the late 1950s, Commoner became well-known for his opposition to nuclear testing. In 1966, he founded the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS) to study the science of the total environment. In 1970 he received the International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. His major works include Science and Survival (1966), The Poverty of Power: Energy and the Economic Crisis (1976), The Politics of Energy (1979) and Making Peace with the Planet (1990). 

II. Four Laws of Ecology

As a classic expression of the new environmentalism, Commoner expresses his four laws of ecology, as written in The Closing Circle: Man, and Technology in 1971.

1. Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, effects all; 2. Everything must go somewhere. There is no “waste” in nature and there is no “away” to which things can be thrown; 3. Nature knows best. Humankinds has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a nature system is, says Commoner,” likely to be detrimental to that system.”; 4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

III. Environmental niche 生态位

Also named ecological niche or simply niche. In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem, or how an organism makes a living. It is first proposed by Joseph Grinnell 1917. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors and how it in turn alter those same factors. More formally, the niche includes how a population responds to the abundance of its resources and enemies (e.g by growing when resources are abundant, and predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce). More formally, the niche includes how a population responds to the abundance of its resources and enemies (e.g. by growing when resources are abundant, and predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it affects those same factors(e.g. by reducing the abundance of resources through consumption and contributing to the population growth of enemies by falling prey to them). This concept is now also applies to enterprises management and market competition.

IV. Ecosphere 生物圈

In ecology, it can refer to a planetary ecosystem consisting of the atmosphere, the geosphere (lithosphere), the hydrosphere, and the biosphere. It also means the regions of the universe, especially on the earth, that are capable of supporting life. It is the biosphere and the planetary ecosystem that consist of all living organisms and their environment.

II. Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics 控制论

Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) He is an American mathematician and professor of mathematics at MIT and was awarded a Ph.D. by Harvard at the age of 18. The idea of “cybernetics” came to him at the beginning of the 1940s, prompted by his work on anti-aircraft defense and by contacts with colleagues in Mexico. It was made known to the world by the book Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, published in 1948. Cybernetics involves the theory of regulation and of signal transmission applied to technical devices, living beings and even societies. Two main ideas play in cybernetics: negative feedback with its stabilizing properties, and transmission of information, which helps to make a whole of the many parts of a complex system, whether living or not.

III. Eutrophication（水体的）富营养化

Eutrophication is the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system. In other terms, it is the “bloom” or great increase of phytoplankton in a water body. Negative environmental effects include hypoxia, the depletion of oxygen in the water, which induces reductions in specific fish and other animal populations. Other species may experience an increase in population that negatively affects other species.

IV. Food Chain 食物链

A food chain depicts a single path as animals of a single habitat eat each other. Arrows are used to show how the relationship progresses. For example, at the bottom of a backyard food chain would be sunflower seeds, which would be eaten by a bird, which, in turn, would be eaten by a cat. A food chain always begins with a producer, or an organism that makes its own food. A plant or animal can be in more than one food chain. Food chains and webs comprise different types of consumers. A producer and its seeds or fruit are always at the lowest level, followed by primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers. Trees and grass are producers. Examples of primary consumers, which eat producers, are mice and insects. Secondary consumers eat primary consumers. Examples are snakes and toads. Tertiary consumers, such as red-tail hawks or other raptors, eat secondary consumers.

V. DDT 杀虫剂

DDT, from its name, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethan, is one of the best-known synthetic pesticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history. First synthesized in 1874, DDT’s insecticidal properties were not discovered until 1939, and it was used with great success in the second half of World War II to control malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. In 1962, Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book catalogued the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health. The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide. An insecticide that is also toxic to animals and humans; banned in the United States since 1972.