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Space
Coast Audubon Welcomes Dr. Ross McCluney to April Meeting
Article
Courtesy of Dr. Ross McCluney
“We Are Taking Apart the Life-support System
of Planet Earth!” So writes Dr. Ross McCluney in his new book
published
this year, Humanity’s Environmental Future. “Without
a major change in direction, we may be the first species to extinguish
itself,” he says.
McCluney will present his views on this subject at
the Space Coast Audubon general meeting on Friday, April 16, at
7:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Rockledge. He will describe
civilization’s steady advance over the last several millennia
as a natural expression of humanity’s genetically
based drive toward improved living conditions.
“In the early days, nature was considered an
obstacle to overcome, so we worked hard to build protections from
the perceived dangers. This included advanced weaponry and strong
buildings to protect us from predators and the vagaries
of weather and climate. Along the way we invented writing and the
printing press, so our new knowledge could be safeguarded in detail
over the centuries. We invented new medicines to prolong life. And
energy-intensive factories
for manufacturing the amazing variety of products we feel are essential
for life in the 21st century. Our development
of these technologies, coupled with the very recent discovery and
exploitation of fossil fuels, has made possible
our very advanced civilization. It also made possible profound new
works of art, science, and literature.”
But all good things come with a price, he says. Following
the recent very rapid growth in world population—coupled with
powerful new technologies for exploiting and altering nature—McCluney
describes the many signals earth is now giving us that it’s
had enough: global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, fisheries
nearing exhaustion, soil erosion and depletion, and the coming peak
in world oil production. “There are real limits to growth,”
he says, “and we have reached them.”
With many other scientists around the world, McCluney
is raising the alarm, pointing to the fact that humanity is extinguishing
plant and animal species at the appalling rate of 200 or so each
day. He quotes author Daniel Quinn and scientist
Alan Thornhill as saying that we are systematically replacing nonhuman
biomass with human biomass. “If the process continues,”
McCluney says, “there will be nothing left for us to eat but
each other!”
In his presentation, McCluney will describe how we
came to this dangerous place and will suggest some remedies we can
pursue. “The scientists who have studied these matters carefully
have concluded that we have at most a couple of decades to turn
things around, to back away from the cliff toward which we are headed,
and find a variety of better, truly sustainable ways to live.”
McCluney will elaborate on these themes in his presentation, which
will be followed by a discussion period and book signing session.
Dr. McCluney is a principal research scientist at
the Florida Solar Energy Center, where his duties include research
and program management. He obtained a B.A. in Physics from Rhodes
College in Memphis, Tennessee and an M.S. in physics from the University
of Tennessee in Knoxville where he studied the diffraction of light
by sound waves. From 1966 to 1967, he worked as a research engineer
for Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York, where he developed
a holographic interferometer for testing optical systems. He received
his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Miami in 1973, where
he continued his work in holographic interferometry. For his Ph.D.
dissertation research, he studied the scattering of light by marine
microorganisms using a laser scatterometer of his own design. McCluney
worked as an oceanographer for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, from 1973 to January 1976. He joined
the Florida Solar Energy Center in 1976 following his stint at NASA
and is currently the principal investigator there on a multi-year
contract with the U. S. Department of Energy to pursue research
in window energy and illumination performance.
McCluney was an organizer of the University of Miami’s
observance of the first Earth Day Teach-In of 1970 and edited The
Environmental Destruction of South Florida, a book published by
the University of Miami Press in 1971. He has been studying, writing,
and lecturing on energy and environmental policy for over two decades,
and currently serves as Vice President of Floridians for a Sustainable
Population. Author to over 60 technical papers on a variety of subjects,
McCluney’s textbook, Introduction to Radiometry and Photometry,
was published by Artech House in 1994. He is author and editor,
respectively, of two textbooks, Humanity’s Environmental Future,
and Getting to the Source, the latter being an anthology of essays
by prominent environmental writers on environmental values, both
books published by SunPine Press of Cape Canaveral in March 2004.
McCluney taught UCF course PHI 3033, Philosophy, Religion, and the
Environment, based on these books at the University of Central Florida
Cocoa campus over the 2003–2004 academic year.
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Membership Application for the Indian River
Audubon Society Chapter and the National and State Audubon Societies
(Download Form)
TV Tip!
On Thursday and Sunday evenings at 8:30 p.m., the BCC TV channel
offers a program called Nature Scenes. According to our own Pat
Meyer, this program will be enjoyed by Auduboners as well as anyone
else who loves nature. Check your local listings for details!







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