May, 1982 College of the Atlantic Nonprofit Organiz. Bar Harbor, ME 04609 U.S. Postage Paid Bar Harbor, Me. Permit #47 COA News Dr. Rene Dubos 1901-1982 Dr. Rene Dubos, bacteriologist, environmentalist and a founding trustee of College of the Atlantic, died in New York City, February 20 on his 81s birthday. A dedicated research scientist with a deep compassion for the human condition, Dr. Dubos personified the values of human ecology. In his writings, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, he stressed the connections between all living things: "Microbes exhibit a profound resemblance to man in their physical makeup, in their properties, in their response to various stimuli. They also display associations with other living things which have perplexing and revealing analogies with human societies." Dr. Dubos believed that education should illuminate this interconnectedness and produce "experts of aims, that is people who can think creatively, rather than simply experts of means." In a message for the 1981-82 COA catalog, he wrote: "Training people so that they can think about human problems in a creative way is extremely difficult. Nobody knows how to do it, and my suspicion is that it cannot be done unless we introduce into our educational system some kind of formula where students learn to deal with problem solving. For as soon as one deals with problem solving or anything concerning human life, one understands that a solution cannot be solved solely by technology. Rather a solution will demand that one have a sense of history, consider the socioeconomic forces and reflect the dreams of people." To help COA realize its vision of an educational cur- riculum devoted to the study of human ecology, Dr. Dubos generously lent his name, inspiration and efforts. College of the Atlantic was fortunate to count such an outstanding person among its friends. Rene Dubos Photo by Lawrence Moberg Reason For Optimism will soon be overpopulated and its resources depleted; food shortages will be catastrophic; pollution will alter the climate, Rene Dubos was an optimist about the human spirit and its capacity for poison the environment, rot our lungs, and dim our vision. I survival. The following is excerpted from the final article he wrote. It believe, as do many others, that industrial civilization will appeared in the April issue of United Magazine, a publication of United Airlines. eventually collapse if we do not change our ways - but what a big if this is. As I lie here in a hospital bed in my 81s year, I am Human beings inevitably alter the course of events and more convinced than ever that life can be celebrated and en- make mockery of any attempt to predict the future from an joyed under the most trying and humbling of circumstances. extrapolation of existing trends. In human affairs, the logical The warmth of parents hugging their children, the fath- future, determined by past and present conditions, is less omless joy of smiling faces, the sensate pleasures of a stroll important than the willed future, which is largely brought down a country lane, or through the bustling diversity of a about by deliberate choices - made by the free will. Our city street have not been increased by education or civilization. societies have a good chance of remaining prosperous But the disarray and disenchantment so common in because they are learning to anticipate, long in advance, the technological societies reveal the extent to which many of us shortages and dangers they might experience in the future if fail to take advantage of this innate ability to appreciate the they do not take technologically sound preventive measures. simple wonders of life. Abundance of goods, physical comfort, A key to overcoming the passivity born of pessimism is and control of disease are clearly not sufficient to bring about to remember that the really important problems of our times individual happiness and harmonious social relationships. are not technical. They originate in our thoughts, our uncer- Everywhere in the countries shaped by Western civi- tainties, or our poor judgement concerning parascientific lization, the amenities of existence are threatened by environ- values. Unclear values allow us to accept the possibility of mental degradation and the impression that humankind has nuclear war for reasons of national prestige when every lost control of its affairs. The deteriorating conditions in our sensible person knows that the inevitable result of nuclear cities, our adversarial relationship with nature, the futile warfare would not only be immeasurable damage to every occupations that waste our days are - unnecessarily and living and inanimate thing on earth, but also the virtual unconsciously - determined more by technological collapse of Western civilization. imperatives than by our choice of desirable human goals. At the Center of Human Environments at Wave Hill in To rediscover our innate celebration of life, the first Riverdale, N.Y. that bears my name, we have begun obstacle to be overcome is the widespread belief that things documenting stories of how single individuals have started are going from bad to worse and that little can be done to movements that successfully changed the social and biological reverse the trend. environments around them. Lakes and rivers once given up Certainly great tragedies do exist. Paradoxically, how- for "dead" have been rejuvenated, as have the communities ever, much contemporary gloom comes not from actual tragic that flank them. The assumption behind our forums on energy situations but from the prospect of social and technological conservation and land development is that by using the five difficulties that have not yet occurred and may never E's - ecology, economics, energetics, es-thetics, and ethics materialize. We are collectively worried because we accept - Homo sapiens can create "humanized" environments that the highly inaccurate predictions that, if demographic and are stable, profitable, pleasurable, and favorable to the health technological growth continues at the present rate, the earth of the earth and the growth of civilization.