Grinevald, Jacques

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Reviews & Notices 285leans on somewhat more than 600 citations for its theo-retical and empirical support, about two-thirds of themfrom the 1970s. About 10% of the sources are unpublished.(One passage of importance is even based upon an unpub-lished study as reported in a second unpublished study[page 194].) At one point in the book it is noted that doc-toral dissertations 'fade quickly into a deserved obscurity'(pages 29-30); would that this insight could have beenneeded!In conclusion, this book contains much good and other-wise well-meaning hortatory (although often unsubstan-tiated) advice. The models and suggestions presented maywell—as the Authors hope—stimulate valuable researchinto environmental attitudes and behaviours, and suchresearch would have both practical and theoretical signifi-cance. Indeed, at one point it is mentioned that ignorance isrampant in social psychology (page 148). On the otherhand, I simply cannot believe that field of endeavour is insuch an early stage of development, lacks such rigour, andis in such a state of disarray, as this book would seem tosuggest.ARTHUR H. WESTING, Senior Research FellowStockholm International Peace Research InstitutePipers Vdg 28S-171 73 Solna, Sweden;also Adjunct Professor of EcologyHampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.The Biosphere, by VLADIMIR I. VERNADSKY. (An abridgedversion based on the French edition of 1929.) SynergeticPress, Inc., Post Office Box 689, Oracle, Arizona 85623,USA; 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1 3AL, En-gland, UK: vi + 82 pp., portrait, 20 x 14 x 0.5 cm, stiff papercover, £3.95 (US $5.95), 1986.In 1926, a book entitled in Russian Biosfera was pub-lished in Leningrad by the 63-years-old Russian naturalscientist, mineralogist, and geochemist, Vladimir Ivano-vich Vernadsky, a distinguished and internationally res-pected Academician. This was the first scientific mono-graph entitled The Biosphere.Born in St Petersburg on 12 March 1863, in a liberallearned family, Vladimir I. Vernadsky died in Moscow on6 January 1945. Seven months later, on 6 August 1945, onthe day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Vernadsky'sobituary was read at the French Academie des Sciences inParis by the mineralogist Charles Mauguin. Vernadsky waswell known in Paris, where he spent many of his workingyears. The Biosphere was published after his longest stay inFrance, from July 1922 to December 1925. He was never soinvolved in the English-speaking world.The Biosphere was reissued in Moscow in 1967. Since the1970s, with their rising tide of environmental concern,Vernadsky's name has been practically a 'household word'of globally-minded ecologists in the Soviet Union (seeKendall E. Bailes, 'Science, Philosophy and Politics inSoviet Union: The Case of Vladimir Vernadskii', RussianReview, 40, pp. 278-99, 1981).The booklet published by Synergetic Press is in fact avery abridged English language translation based approxi-mately on the second and more widely disseminatedFrench edition: La Biosphere (Librairie Felix Alcan, 'Nou-velle collection scientifique', Paris, France: xii + 232 pp.,1929).Vernadsky's The Biosphere, published for the first timein the Anglo-Saxon world* by Synergetic Press, is not the* David B. Langmuir (Santa Monica, California) sent me re-cently a draft preface dated 1978 for a proposed project to publishThe Biosphere in English. Nothing came of it.much-needed academic edition, and indeed seems to memisleading. Part I, 'The Biosphere in the Cosmos' has here10 'chapters' and 37 pages, whereas the 1929 edition con-tains 67 sections and 92 pages. Part II, 'The Domain of Life'has here 7 'chapters' and 29 pages, whereas the 1929 editioncontains 92 sections and 108 pages. The appendix 'LivingMatter and the Evolution of Species' (of 1928) has 23 pagesin the French edition and here only 10 pages. The differ-ence is important but never explained.The preface of the 1926 Russian edition (not translatedhere) indicated that the two essays which form the volumeare independent but related by the same approach to life asa whole and as a planetary geological phenomenon. Thisview, wrote the Author, was elaborated from biogeochem-ical studies since 1917.The preface to the French edition (not translated) wasmore historically detailed than the present account. From1922 to 1928, the Author had published many Biospherestudies in the Revue Generale des Sciences. Comparativelyto the original Russian text, the French edition of 1929 wasrevised and in some parts remodelled. It should be men-tioned that The Biosphere was presented as a follow-up ofLa Geochimie (Librairie Felix Alcan, Paris, France: iii +407 pp., 1924), published previously in the same collectiondirected by the mathematician Emile Borel. Vernadsky'sGeochemistry (never translated into English) was his lec-tures given in 1922-23 as a professor at La Sorbonne. Ver-nadsky's book on the biogeochemical cycles of The Bio-sphere was translated into Russian in 1927 (a second edi-tion appeared in 1934), into German in 1930 (The Bio-sphere was translated also in Leipzig in 1930), and intoJapanese in 1934. In letters of 1937 to George Sarton, Ver-nadsky, also active as a historian of science, emphasizedthe historical material collected in his Geochemistry (seeS.R. Mikulinsky, 'Sarton and Vernadsky', Isis, 75, pp. 56-62, 1984).It is important to mention that Vernadsky's The Bios-phere was published after his most creative time in Paris,where he was stimulated by Bergson's Creative Evolution.He made acquaintance with Eduard Le Roy, Bergson'ssuccessor at the College de France, and his close friendPierre Teilhard de Chardin, then Professor of Geology atthe Institut Catholique. Vernadsky admired the overviewof the whole Earth as described by E. Suess: 'The impor-tance of life in the structure of the Earth's crust', Vernadskywrote in The Biosphere (p. 44), 'has penetrated only veryslowly into the scientific mind. It was as late as 1875 that E.Suess, of Vienna University, introduced the idea of TheBiosphere as a special layer of the Earth's crust, a layerpermeated by life. He thus gave expression of its presenceover the Earth's surface.'The concept of Biosphere was indeed coined by the Aus-trian geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914) in the last andmost general chapter of his slim 1875 book on the genesis ofmountains, Die Entstehung der Alpen, where he explainedhis first geotectonic views that were later developed fully inhis multi-volume Das Antlitz der Erde (1883-1909). 'Life'was eventually the final chapter of the last (1909) volume ofThe Face of the Earth. Vernadsky was concerned with therelationship of Man, as a living being, and the Earth, withMan's place in The Biosphere, and so was aware longbefore the UNESCO 1968 'Biosphere Conference' of aproblematique now called 'Man and the Biosphere'.Unfortunately, very few historical indications are givenin this edition either in the publisher's note or in the pre-face. Curiously, the 'biographical note' is about the writerof the preface, a professor in Moscow engaged in spacemedicine and aeronautics, and not about Vernadsky him-self! The only relevant reference is R. Balantine's Ver-https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900036584Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:49:04, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at286 Environmental Conservationnadsky in a translation from the 1979 Russian edition (Mir,Moscow, USSR: 207 pp., 1982). This, however, is more aphilosophical than a scientific biography. The only merit ofthis Synergetic Press publication is to reemphasize thename of this great figure of the history of living Earthsciences, because Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky is littleknown outside of Russian culture.An unpublished paper of Kenton E. Bailes, on 'Ver-nadsky and the Biosphere', was prepared in 1978 andintended for publication as an introduction to a translationof Vernadsky's last major work, which was published post-humously in Moscow in 1965. An English-language ver-sion, 'The Chemical Structure of the Earth's Biosphere andits Surroundings', was unfortunately never published.In retrospect, we agree that Vernadsky's theory of TheBiosphere did prove to be revolutionary. Linking Life (in-cluding microorganisms and civilized Man) and the evolv-ing Earth, his still-little-known work contributed to thedevelopment of an ecological world view that is opposed tothe Newtonian mechanistic paradigm. Assuredly, thename and the work of Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadskymerit far better consideration in international environ-mental education than they have received hitherto; butlatterly, with the progress of the environmental movement,things seem to be changing.JACQUES GRINEVALDUniversite de GeneveInstitut universitaire d'etudesdu developpement24 Rue RothschildCH-1202 GeneveSwitzerland.Notices(of books etc. that might otherwise be missed)Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring: An Environ-mental Education Program for Schools, by MARK K. MIT-CHELL & WILLIAM B. STAPP. Obtainable from ProfessorWilliam B. Stapp, 2050 Delaware, Ann Arbor, Michigan48103, USA: 150 pp., 22.8 x 15.2 cm, 70 photographs andcharts, paperbound US $6.80 postpaid, orders for 10 ormore are available at a 20% discount, 1986The Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring is aresult of extensive work with upper elementary, secondary,and university, pupils and teachers. It combines an instruc-tional model that is learner-centred and interdisciplinarywith a Water Quality Index. This Index, developed by theNational Sanitation Foundation, comprises nine water-quality parameters: dissolved oxygen, faecal coliform Bac-teria, pH, biochemical oxygen demand, temperature, totalphosphorus, nitrates, turbidity, and total solids.Students working together gain skills in water-qualitytesting, and in analysing the data collected. Students alsodevelop an understanding of water-quality parameters andof water quality in their community.The Manual also covers benthic macroinvertebrates asbiological indicators of water quality, a sample programmeformat, and examples of computerized graph results ofwater-quality data.Principal, at £3.75 (including postage and packing): add£1.00 for Air Mail elsewhere in Europe or Surface Mailoutside Europe.The report is now available of the papers, discussions,and conclusions, presented at the first Seminar for Euro-pean Park Rangers and Wardens. The 100-pages' reportpresents case-studies of the role of rangers in France, Bri-tain, West Germany, Denmark, Holland, and the Republicof Ireland, and includes discussions on the future develop-ment of ranger services in Europe. Obtainable against pay-ment (indicated above) from Principal Peter Townsend,Peak National Park Centre, Losehill Hall, Castleton, Der-byshire S30 2WB, England, UK.Liming Acidic Waters: Environmental and Policy Con-cerns, being the proceedings of a conference sponsored bythe Acid Rain Information Clearinghouse (ARIC), 33South Washington Street, Rochester, New York 14608,USA: single copy price US $15.00, postage included.The edited papers and remarks of twenty-two partici-pants at the conference, held in Albany, New York, inOctober 1985, provide a comprehensive summary of scien-tific understanding and policy implications. Included arepresentations by William Dickson, Swedish National En-vironmental Protection Board; Charles T. Driscoll, Syra-cuse University; Carl L. Schofield, Cornell University; R.Kent Schreiber, US Fish and Wildlife Service; and John M.Wooten, Peabody Holding Company, Inc.The proceedings have been edited for use by the generalreader. Single copy price is 15.00 postage included. Dis-counts are available for multiple-copy purchases, pleaseinquire of William Wagner, Manager of Communications.To order, send payment in US funds to: ARIC, c/o Centerfor Environmental Information, Inc., 33 South Washing-ton Street, Rochester, New York 14608, USA.European Park Rangers and Wardens: Report of a PilotTraining Seminar held at the Peak National Park Centre,Losehill Hall, Castleton, Derbyshire, England, UK: 100pp., 1986, obtainable at the Centre from Peter Townsend,Switching On to The Environment: The Critical Guide toEnvironmental Films. A new publication by the TelevisionTrust for the Environment (TVE), £5.95 or US $9.00,obtainable from TVE Directorate, 46 Charlotte Street,London W1P 1LX, England, UK.Around the world, leading film-makers have been turn-ing their cameras onto the causes of tropical deforestation,spreading deserts, marine pollution, and other major formsof environmental destruction. Switching On to The Envi-ronment is the first critical guide to these films.After a year's systematic search, just over 100 films werechosen from the ca 1000 films viewed. They include somethat are works of art and others that are scientificallyimportant but still rarely seen.The Guide's bias is towards issues where the environ-mental crisis is most severe. Thus anyone wishing to gainan insight into the causes of famine, catastrophic land-slides, flooding, and disasters such as that of Bhopal, willfind Switching On to The Environment an invaluableresource.TVE is an editorially independent Trust co-sponsored bythe U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and CentralIndependent Television. TVE links the resources and ex-pertise of television and environmental groups to increaseTV coverage of resource and development issues, therebyhelping to bring vital environmental truths to the attentionof the viewing world. Profits from the sale of the Guide willgo towards the publication of an updated guide in 1988.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900036584Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:49:04, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

Book Review: The Biosphere: The Biosphere, by VernadskyVladimir I.. (An abridged version based on the French edition of 1929.) Synergetic Press, Inc., Post Office Box 689, Oracle, Arizona 85623, USA; 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1 3AL, England, UK: vi + 82 pp., portrait, 20 × 14 × 0.5 cm, stiff paper cover, £3.95 (US $5.95), 1986

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