10.01.12
He realized the US had f—– up, big time
And proceeded to do something about it.
In a “Last Word??? interview with The New York Times in 2006, videotaped to accompany this obituary online, Dr. Barry Commoner elaborated on his holistic views and lamented the inability of society to connect the dots among its multitude of challenges, “an unfortunate feature of political development in this country.???
— the New York Times
The Times obit provides a 12 minute interview, conducted by Pulitzer-winner Tim Weiner, with Commoner. It traces his career as a scientist and environmentalist.
As the former, Commoner discusses his major role in the cessation of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing during the Kennedy administration, achieved through assaying the levels of strontium 90, an element in radioactive fallout, in children’s teeth. He, along with others, had determined early that the generation of radio-isotopes during atmospheric testing posed a distinct and measurable threat to everyone. And then he went forward with a scientific plan to measure and prove it, by tracking strontium-90, which is taken up like calcium in bones and teeth.
Commoner discusses global warming as a dire threat as well as things that have been lasting environmental achievements in this country. Commoner cites the removal of lead from gasoline in 1970, and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency the same year to enforce the Clean Air Act which had been made more effective through amendments, as something which has made life demonstrably better.