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.

Membership Application for the Indian River Audubon Society Chapter and the National and State Audubon Societies

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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!

Have you found a sick or injured bird or wild animal? If so, please contact:

Florida Wildlife Hospital (321) 254-8843