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Earth. No living creature is an island.
The actions of each individual affec r
orhers.
One of thc basic laws of ecology,
as stated by Dr. Barry Commoner in
his recendy published book,
The
Clos–
íng Círcle,
is rhar "cveryrhing is con–
necred ro everyrhing clse."
Undcrsranding che living machin–
ery of che earrh entails rbe under–
standing of simple biological princi–
pies ancl ccological concepts. Yet
modern education wirh its emphasis
on accumularing knowledge has of–
ten srressed meani ngless memo–
rization of erice terminology and dis–
associarcd faces. 1t has failed
to
put
across a praccical understanding of rhc
natural world.
R. Buckminsccr Fuller, in his book
Operatíng Manual for Spaceship Earth,
Southern lllinois Universiry Press,
1969, states, "One of rhe most inrer–
esting rhings ro me about our space–
ship is that
ir
is a mechanical vehicle,
just like an automobile. If you own
an auromobile, you realizc that you
muse pur oil and gas inro ir, and you
must put water in che radiaror
and cake carc of rh e car as a
wholc. ... We have nor bcen seeing
our Spaceship Earth as an integrally
dcsigned machinc which ro
be
per–
sisccnrly successful must be compre–
hended and scrviced in total."
Along wirh a new auromobile
al–
ways comes an operating manual for
che panicular model car. No one
would think of buying a new car
wirhour obraining rhe operaring
manual. Ir is essenrial co imparr ro
che operaror cerrain nccessary knowl–
edge for safeguarding the car"s conrin–
ued performance.
Earrh's Safccy Factor
Our planerary machine is much
more complcx than rhe automobile,
whicb can stop funcrioning due ro a
single faulty wire or plugged fue) line
or dozens of orher malfunccions.
Whar allows che earrh ro conrinue
funcrioning, in spire of che disrupred
cydes resulring from pollurion? The
answer is che complexiry of che
earrh's dcsign as a safcry factor.
" I would say rhat designcd inro