Paul Bigelow Sears (1891 – 1990)
American ecologist and conservationist

Born in Bucyrus, Ohio, Paul Sears obtained bachelor's degrees in zoology and economics, then earned a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Chicago. He spent most of his career as professor or head of various botany departments. In these positions, Sears researched changes in native flora as a result of human activities, conducted pioneering studies of fossil pollen, and studied the relationship between vegetation and climatic change. A respected and influential ecologist, he served as president of the Ecological Society of America (1948) and received the ESA's "Eminent Ecologist Award" in 1965. He spent the last ten years of his academic career as chair of the graduate program in conservation at Yale University and retired in 1960.

Sears was one of the few biological ecologists interested in human ecology , writing cogently and consistently in a field that he saw as a problem in synthesis. In his 1957 Condon Lecture at the University of Oregon, titled "The Ecology of Man," he mandated "serious attention to the ecology of man" and demanded "its skillful application to human affairs."

He considered ecology a "subversive subject," arguing that if it were taken seriously, it would "endanger the assumptions and practices accepted by modern societies, whatever their doctrinal commitments." But Sears was a optimist and believed that scientists would eventually agree because the nature of their work mandated that they have "confidence that the world hangs together."

As a conservationist, Sears believed that one of the basic lessons ecology teaches is that materials cycle and recycle through natural systems. Thus, he became a strong advocate of intensive recycling by human societies. He also taught that a return to greater use of human muscle power would be healthy for people because it would promote fitness and energy conservation , as well as an impact on the biosphere .

Sears was also one of the few prominent ecologists to successfully write for popular audiences. At least one of his popular books, Deserts on the March, first published in 1935, has become a minor American classic, reprinted in a fourth edition in 1980. The title provides an apt summary: in it, Sears documents the mistakes American farmers made in creating conditions that led to the disastrous Dust Bowl . This book had a major influence on the soil conservation movement in the United States.

Throughout his life, Sears believed that the best way to solve ecological problems was to teach every person about their own immediate environment : "Each of us can begin quite simply by learning to look about himself, wherever he may be." The touchstone of education, especially a scientific one, should be "the final ability to read and enjoy the landscape. While there is life there is hope, but only for the enlightened."

[Gerald L. Young Ph.D. ]

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Sears, P. B. Deserts on the March. 4th ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.

——. "The Processes of Environmental Change by Man." In Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, edited by W. L. Thomas Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1956.

——. Where There is Life: An Introduction to Ecology. New York: Dell, 1970.