The “Greening” of Vladimir Vernadsky: How The Russellites Sabotage Science

by William Jones

hile the name Vladimir Vernadsky is still not invariably opposed to placing restrictions on continued as widely known here in the technological progress. Indeed, without such progress, Was it should be, given his prominence as one Vernadsky knew the human race would quickly be on of the greatest scientific thinkers of the last century, the the road to extinction. prevalent view of Vernadsky is largely based on a fraud Now on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his perpetrated by the acolytes of that Malthusian genoc- birth, it is fitting that we set the record straight and expose idalist, Bertrand Russell, whom economist and states- the fraud which has been imposed on an unknowing man Lyndon LaRouche so aptly labeled the most “evil public by the Greenie acolytes of Russell and his cohorts. man in this century.” To the extent Vernadsky is known within the American scientific community, he is largely Who Was Vladimir Vernadsky? seen as some sort of early ecological guru. The fraud of Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was born in 1863, the this view, tragically, has also become prevalent within son of economist Ivan Vasilievich and Anna Petrovna Russia itself, where there is less excuse for it, as Verna- Vernadsky. The elder Vernadsky had been instrumental dsky’s works have been widely publicized in his native in the movement which led to the freeing of the serfs by language. His name is often equated with that of wacko Alexander II in 1861. He was also instrumental in intro- Gaia worshipper, James Lovelock, who belatedly also ducing the works of the anti-Malthusian American econ- labeled himself a “Vernadskyian,” although Vernadsky’s omist Henry Charles Carey to the Russian intelligentsia, world-view was, in fact, diametrically opposed to that works which caused great enthusiasm among leading Greenie mystic. Russian economic circles. Carey’s writings were rapidly While Vernadsky was a natural scientist, who provided a solid scientific basis to the notion of the “biosphere,” so much abused these days by the lunatic Greens, he saw the productive activity of man, a result of the bio- sphere, but transforming it into a higher state, as the most important element in its contin- ued development. The stage of the biosphere characterized by the intellectual activity of man Vernadsky called the noösphere (noös is Greek for mind). Unlike the Greenies who believe that mankind should shut down its industrial activity in order to become “one with nature,” Vernadsky believed that it was precisely man’s creative ability to de- velop his technology, to develop new ideas resulting in productive breakthroughs, that provided man with essentially “unlimited re- Archive Collection, Russian Academy of Sciences sources.” While insisting that such advances Over the door of his office, Vernadsky kept the picture of George be implemented with scientific rigor, he was Washington that had always hung in his boyhood home.

4 Fall–Winter 2013 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY translated into Russian. Young Vladimir, however, was more attracted to science than to economics. A portrait of George Washington graced his boyhood home, and later, the same portrait hung in his laboratory office. Abraham Lincoln was characterized by Vernadsky as a “hero for all times,” paraphrasing a famous work by Rus- sian writer, Mikhail Lermontov, “A Hero for Our Time.” Vernadsky became acquainted at an early age, thanks to his father, with the work of the great 15th century scien- tist, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, whom Vernadsky, as a young professor, would laud in his lectures on the history of science, as the founder of modern science, leading into the Renaissance:

One of the predecessors of the ideas of Copernicus was Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa (1401–1464) to whom I have Archive Collection, Russian Academy of Sciences previously referred. The son of German peasants, a Vernadsky (on the right) photographed here together with faithful and passionate representative of the Catholic other members of the left faction of the Russian Duma. Church, he was one of the most original and prodigious minds of his time. In his works we find the seeds of a everywhere the influence of these ideas of Cusa, with variety of ideas that have since become a part of con- which Copernicus was also acquainted. The signifi- temporary thought. He died in 1464 soon after the dis- cance of the works of Cusa was also seen in other areas covery of printing, and his works were left in manu- of thought as well, and his the works are continually script form, threatened with the same fate as was cited, primarily by the more innovative spirits, through- common with many of his predecessors, becoming out the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.1 known only much later, when all direct living contact with them had disappeared. But the works of Cusa Studying the work of Alexander von Humboldt, par- avoided this fate. He was published 40 years after his ticularly Humboldt’s epic summary of the science of his death, but before his direct influence had waned. The day, Cosmos, Vernadsky devoted himself to the field of first (now extremely rare) edition appeared in Rome in science as his best means of contributing to the progress 1501. It was the first appearance in human thought of man, specializing in mineralogy and soil science, and since the ancient Greeks of the representation of the later geochemistry. While maintaining a clear political Earth turning on its axis, and revolving around some engagement all his life, he felt that the progress he was point in space, which Cusa considered to be, not the making in the development of science represented his Sun, but rather a certain pole of the Universe… We see greatest contribution to his country and to the world. When the took power in Russia, Vernadsky, one of the founders of the Constitutional Democratic (Ka- det) Party traveled to Ukraine, still under the Whites, in order to avoid arrest. When he finally decided in 1921 to return to work in Bolshevik Russia where the Kadet Party was now banned, this put an end to any direct politi- cal activity on his part, although he would exert a great deal of influence with regard to science policy in the Soviet Union. Making his major discovery in the early 1920s of the inexorable role of life in the development of the Earth’s surface, Vernadsky went on to make major breakthroughs in a variety of related fields, particularly in mineralogy and soil science, and created an entirely new field of science—biogeochemistry. Vernadsky also be- came the first person in Russia in the 1920s to lobby for a major research program for developing atomic energy. Archive Collection, Russian Academy of Sciences

Vernadsky, here in in 1926, cannot cease to examine 1. Vernadskii, V.I. “Izbrannye trudy po istorii nauki” Nauka, Moscow, that phenomenon of life that so engaged his life’s work. 1981. p.101.

21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Fall–Winter 2013 5 Vernadsky is credited with the most comprehensive enrich and enhance it, so too does man’s productive ac- elaboration of the notion of the biosphere. His discovery tivity become an element in the biosphere, enriching and of the unique quality of life to rapidly envelop over an enhancing its productivity. This was characterized by entire area of the globe once it appeared on the scene, the increase of energy throughput occasioned by man’s came to Vernadsky in his self-imposed exile in his be- activity and by the ability of man to support ever more loved Ukraine during the period of the efficiently an ever-increasing population. This is due to in the early 1920s. Vernadsky was astonished at first by man’s development of technology, a result of his noetic the speed with which life proliferated and he took it upon activity. And, placed on the cusp of a new century with himself to measure that rate. In the chaos of the Russian the discovery of the atom, Vernadsky felt that the rate political world following the Bolshevik Revolution, Ver- of development of technological progress was exponen- nadsky also found solace and hope in his discovery of tially increasing. Writing in the 1930s, Vernadsky states: this elemental force of life to rapidly expand and pro- liferate, a force which he felt ultimately characterized In the course of the last half millenium, from the 15th to the universe as a whole, including man’s consciously di- the 20th Century, the development of man’s strong in- rected social and economic development. Later, in 1939, fluence over his surrounding nature and his compre- Vernadsky would write: hension of it, continued apace, growing ever more powerful. During this period the entire surface of the It is evident that the phenomenon of the expansion over planet was encompassed by a single culture: the dis- the entire surface of the planet by a single species de- covery of printing, a knowledge of all earlier inacces- veloped broadly in the case of aquatic life such as mi- sible areas of the globe, the mastery of new forms of croscopic plankton in lakes and rivers, and with some energy—steam, electricity, radioactivity, the mastery of forms of microbes, essentially also aquatic, on the thin all the chemical elements and their utilization for the film of the Earth’s upper surface, and was disseminated needs of Man, the creation of the telegraph and the ra- through the troposphere. For larger organisms, we ob- dio, the penetration into the surface of the Earth to the serve this almost in full measure with certain plants. For depth of one kilometer by boring, and the ascension of man this begins to appear in our time. By the 20th Cen- men in aerial machines to a height of more than 20 ki- tury the entire globe and all the seas have been encom- lometers from the surface of the Earth, and of mechani- passed by man. With the rapid progress of communica- cal devices, to a height of more than 40 kilometers. tions, mankind is able to maintain continual contact Profound social changes, having been given support by with the entire world, and in no place is he alone or the broad masses, thrust their interests into the first helplessly lost in the immensity of Earth’s nature.2 rank, and the question of eliminating malnutrition and famine, became a realistic option that could no longer In the same way that life becomes a predominant force be ignored.3 in the lithosphere, bringing to it new processes which These words of Vernadsky are a far cry from any “Green” manifesto, which one would expect from his depiction as a proto-ecologist. Vernadsky’s Outlook Vernadsky was well aware that his new conception of the biosphere was a ground-breaking one. He also knew that it required a larger audience in order to achieve its full import. While his first major work on the topic, The Bio- sphere, was quickly translated and published in French in 1929, the publication of his other writings would take a longer time to appear in translation, if at all, particu- larly with regard to an English translation. By the 1930s, Vernadsky was working on a series of papers, under the

Archive Collection, Russian Academy of Sciences general title “Problems of Biogeochemistry,” which sum- marized his mature views on the role and meaning of the Much of Vernadsky’s legacy lies in numerous manuscripts biosphere and on man’s increasingly preponderant role now preserved by the Russian Academy of Science. 2. Vernadsky, V.I. “Scientific Thought As A Planetary Phenomenon,” 21st Century Science & Technology, Spring-Summer 2012. p. 19. 3. Ibid., p. 30.

6 Fall–Winter 2013 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY in its development. The position of Malthus, the classic spokesman of zero He was particularly population growth, is too well known to dwell on here. anxious to have But also Charles Darwin, who essentially viewed man as these papers pub- another form of beast, somewhat like a clever ape, took lished in English, to his cue from the work of Malthus. As he himself admits, make the English- it was a reading of Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle speaking scientific of Population which prompted Darwin to compose his world fully aware of Origin of Species. Vernadsky had during his student days his new conception encountered the work of Pastor Malthus on population, of man and the uni- and rejected it outright. Referring to Malthus’ fundamen- verse. tal thesis, Vernadsky writes: The presence in the United States Malthus doesn’t realize that his fundamental results of Vernadsky’s son, lead to entirely different conclusions. You might say George, and of his that they are simply not true, because he did not take daughter, Nina, into consideration the fact that, estimating accurately G. Evelyn Hutchinson was a both of whom had the long-term growth of human population geological- member of that stable of characters emigrated after the ly, as regards food and the necessities of life, the expan- who followed Bertrand Russell’s Bolshevik Revolu- sion of plant and animals comprising it, must inevitably population-control agenda. tion, put them in an increase with greater force and speed, expressing a ideal position to fos- more rapid rate of reproduction, than that of the popu- ter knowledge of their father’s work here, even as it was lation. It’s necessary to always have this correction in taking shape in Russia. Also at Yale was a young Russian mind. Historically, it is only the irrational elements in professor, Alexander Ivanovich Petrunkevitch, the son of our social system that make it difficult to clearly ob- one of Vernadsky’s political mentors and close collabo- serve the effect of this natural phenomenon.4 rators in the Kadet movement, Ivan Ilyich Petrunkevitch. Alexander Ivanovich had also been a former student of Man is capable of creative thought, said Vernadsky. Vernadsky, and, after his emigration, became a zoologist And thanks to this capability, he succeeded in develop- at Yale, specializing in the study of spiders. ing in the material world around him new sources of en- George Vernadsky was a professor of history at Yale ergy, the latest example of which, in Vernadsky’s day, University. Also at Yale was a British geologist and lim- was atomic energy. nologist named G. Evelyn Hutchinson. Hutchinson was Because of this unique something of a typical by-product of the inter-war period noetic capability, man at Britain’s institutes of higher learning, particularly at succeeds in moving to Cambridge, where Hutchinson received his education. energy sources ever This was at the time a hotbed of Darwinism, Malthusian- more potent, ever ism, and philosophical re- more dense, from ductionism. Names like Ju- fire, to coal, to oil, to lian Huxley, J.B. Haldane, nuclear. The develop- Bertrand Russell, anthro- ment of man is char- pologist Gregory Bateson, acterized, therefore, as well as novelist, H.G. by increasing energy- Wells, are prominent in density, or more spe- this context. Bateson and cifically, energy-flux Haldane were particularly density. Because of close friends of Hutchin- this creative ability, son at Cambridge. What man, in contrast to united this crowd was their all other species, was Hutchinson created the field of commitment to Darwin- not facing limits to “population ecology” which ism and to a neo-Malthu- growth, but was ca- treated man as simply another sian world outlook, which pable of continually animal species. Vernadsky early realized has always remained at the that Malthus’s predictions heart of the British imperial 4. Vernadskii, V.I., Khimicheskoe stroenie biosfery zemli i ee okru- were fundamentally flawed. world-view. zheniia. Nauka. Moscow. 2001. p. 302. (emphasis added)

21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Fall–Winter 2013 7 developing new resources which could support an ever- quite aware of the general nature of Russell, who dur- expanding population. Verandsky’s rejection and un- ing the 30s was touting himself as an interpreter of the equivocal refutation of the arguments of Pastor Malthus “philosophical implications” of Einstein’s relativity theo- early in his career was no aberration, as the Greenies ry. Writing in his diary in 1938 with regard to A.E. Fers- would have it, but rather the hallmark of his fundamental man, a protégé and collaborator, whom he often chided philosophical and scientific outlook. for his lack of political courage, Vernadsky commented: “A.E. belongs to that type of scientist who feels his view The Russellites of nature is so great, that he does not notice the paltriness But Malthusianism was something of an endemic phi- of that ‘view’ when juxtaposed to the real greatness of losophy for the British Empire, dedicated to the preserva- nature itself, like B. Russell.” tion of its hegemony over world political and economic But Russell’s views were rather mainstream for Brit- developments, and was widespread at places like Cam- ish intellectuals of an “imperial” outlook. And G. Evelyn bridge and Oxford. One of the key representatives of the Hutchinson was a man of the same mold. So at Yale, Malthusian viewpoint was Bertrand something happened to the project Russell, who touted himself a math- of publishing Vernadsky’s works in ematician and philosopher. Never English. Hutchinson was given a ma- one to conceal his views, Russell jor role in the editing of Vernadsky’s was quite open about his genocidal writings. Hutchinson created a field policies. Writing in a 1954 article of dubious scientific worth called published in Crux, the journal of the “population ecology” or “mathemati- Union of Catholic Students of Great cal ecology.” While his scientific Britain, entitled “Birth Control and work in that field was largely directed World Problems,” Russell explains toward the populations of animal his view: species, he, like Darwin, extrapolat- ed his findings in the animal world to Opponents of birth control make the world of man, warning that limits much of possible improvements in Bertrand Russell’s genocidal policies made must be imposed on the growth of the agricultural production either by him in the words of Lyndon LaRouche “the human population. His “niche theo- new methods or by irrigation of most evil man of the century.” ry” of evolution described how each deserts. What they refuse to face is species, including man had to find its that there is a limit to what can be done in this way, “niches” in this world of competition for Lebensraum and whereas there is no limit to the increase of geometrical resources. Sadly, however, each species was relegated to progression. If the population of the world were to con- its own particular “niche,” beyond which it could no lon- tinue to increase at a constant rate, however slow, there ger progress. As a professor at Yale, Hutchinson would would in time be only standing room, and no land go on to create a whole gaggle of ecology freaks, includ- whatever would be left for food production. Sooner or ing biologist E.O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy of the World later therefore the increase of population must cease. Wildlife Foundation, and many, many others. Because Shall the cessation be brought about by war, by pesti- of his widespread influence, Hutchinson is characterized lence, or by starvation? No other possibility exists for as the “father of ecology,” although he himself attributed the opponents of birth control—unless indeed, they that title rather to Charles Darwin. were to advocate large-scale sterilization, which they find even more abhorrent. The Fraud Already during his time at Yale in the 1930s, Hutchin- Later, Russell (an early proponent of nuclear war son had learned of the work of Vernadsky, probably from against the Soviet Union) and his circles would help to his friend and colleague Alexander Petrunkevich. While spread the virus of his misanthropic world-view to an Hutchinson didn’t know any Russian, he had obtained entire generation of Soviet scientists under the aegis of a copy of the 1929 French edition of Vernadsky’s The such “collaborative” “scientific” organizations such as Biosphere and had his students read sections of it in his the Pugwash Conferences and the International Institute class. Hutchinson saw the possibility of using aspects of for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Aus- Vernadsky’s work for his own purposes while suppress- tria. Russell would utilize the danger of “nuclear win- ing Vernadsky’s own world-view. Given Hutchinson’s ter” in order to brainwash scientists about the need for reductionist view of man, Vernadsky’s idea of the noö- a no-growth, “green” agenda. While Vernadsky was not sphere and the role of human creativity in overcoming alive when Russell wrote that particular tract, he was

8 Fall–Winter 2013 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY “limits to growth,” even reflected in chemistry, was, because of his “ex- the more focused monograph, The pertise” in the field, given the task of Biosphere, was absolutely anathema editing George Vernadsky’s transla- to him. tion of two of his father’s papers in a Hutchinson had studied limnology series Vernadsky labeled “Problems of at Cambridge during the post-World Biogeochemistry.” Although George War I period in England, where the eu- Vernadsky had translated both of genicist movement was having its hey- these papers, Hutchinson would only day. Evelyn imbibed his zero-growth publish the second of the two, and philosophy literally from mother’s this heavily expurgated, in the Trans- milk. His mother, Evaline, a radical actions of the Connecticut Academy feminist, was an early adherent of sex of Arts and Sciences in June 1943. psychologist Havelock Ellis, and a Hutchinson had thus begun a project close friend of eugenics matron, Mar- Vernadsky’s lectures on geochemistry of introducing an “expurgated” Ver- garet Sanger, who fled to England from at the Sorbonne were published in nadsky to the American public for the the United States to find more fertile French in 1924. purposes of promoting his own geno- ground for her anti-human philosophy. cidal agenda. The Hutchinsons were an integral part of the Cam- And what was Hutchinson’s agenda? In December bridge social circle, which included the Darwins, the 1948, Hutchinson published a paper in Scientific Month- Huxleys, the Batesons and the Haldanes. At Cambridge, ly entitled “On Living In the Biosphere.” While he did not Hutchinson would strike up a close relationship with J.B. on this occasion try to drag in the name of Vernadsky, he Haldane, who would later provide the backing of West- clearly is starting to pave the way in that direction: ern science for the checkered career of Alexander Opa- rin, the chief antagonist of Vladimir Vernadsky’s views in Looking at man from a strictly geochemical standpoint, post-war Russia.5 Here he also struck up a friendship with his most striking character is that he demands so Gregory Bateson, with whom he would collaborate at much—not merely thirty or forty elements for physio- Yale in laying the basis for the counter-culture movement logical activity, but nearly all the others for cultural ac- of the 1960s. When Bateson hooked up with the Ameri- tivity… We find man scurrying about the planet look- can social anthropologist Margaret Mead, Hutchinson ing for places where certain substances are abundant; would also become her friend and mentor, and in fact, then removing them elsewhere, often producing local her copy editor. Hutchinson was also close to British au- artificial concentrations far greater than are known in thor and radical feminist, Rebecca West, who was for a nature. Modern man, then, is a very effective agent of time the wife of H.G. Wells. zoogenous erosion, but the erosion is highly specific, Hutchinson received a professorship at Yale in 1928 affecting most powerfully arable soils, forests, accessi- and Yale would ever remain the lair from which he would ble mineral deposits, and other parts of the biosphere spin his web of deviltry and deceit. He also served, to- which provide the things that Homo sapiens as a mam- gether with Mead, on the staff of the American Museum mal and as an educatable social organism needs or of Natural History in New York. Hutchinson, Mead, and thinks he needs. The process is continuously increasing Bateson, as well as cultural anthropologist Ruth Bene- in intensity, as populations expand and as the most eas- dict, would all participate in the conferences organized ily eroded loci have added their quotas to the air, the by the Josiah Macy Foundation in 1946, which were in- garbage can, the city dump, and the sea. strumental in creating the basis for the “alternative life- styles” that would be foisted on America in the latter Elsewhere in the same paper he writes: part of the 1960s, in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy. The population of the world is increasing, its available resources are dwindling. Apart from the ordinary bio- Editing Vernadsky logical processes involved in producing population It was undoubtedly his connection with Petrunkevitch saturation already known to Malthus, the current dis- that brought Hutchinson into a position to influence the harmony is accentuated by the effect of medical sci- Vernadsky “legacy” in the U.S. Hutchinson, now retool- ence, which has decreased death rates without altering ing himself from limnology, the study of lakes, to bio- birth rates, and by modern wars, which one may sus- pect put greater drains on resources than on popula- 5. See article by Meghan Rouillard, “A.I. Oparin: Fraud, Fallacy, or tions. Terrible as these conclusions must appear, they Both?” 21st Century Science & Technology, Spring 2013. have to be faced.

21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Fall–Winter 2013 9 The whole Russellite program is concisely presented in the process of evolution had a directionality to it, lead- these remarks. To bring Vernadsky into this mix required ing to the development of man and characterized bio- some serious elisions in the written record. logically, as Vernadsky notes, by the development of the In the paper published in the Transactions, Hutchin- central nervous system. Dana, like Vernadsky, held that son eliminated entirely Vernadsky’s first paper in the se- evolution had a directionality culminating in man in an ries “Problems of Biogeochemistry,” on the pretext that epoch characterized chiefly by man’s mental activity, “its propositions have become well-known through the which Vernadsky called the noösphere and Dana cepha- other writings of the author (Vernadsky) and of his stu- lization. dents, and there is no need of a translation at the present This was by no means the only cut that Hutchinson had time.” This was quite a remarkable statement given that made in the Vernadsky paper. He effectively eliminated almost none of Vernadsky’s works had then (June 1944) almost all discussion of Vernadsky’s seminal remarks on been published in English.6 Hutchinson readily admits the work of Louis Pasteur on chirality and Vernadsky’s with regard to the second paper that “some abridgement idea of different “states of space.”7 Not unexpectedly, has been found desirable for the sake of clarity, but it is Hutchinson also eliminated portions of the manuscript in believed that all the ideas set forth in the which Vernadsky expressed his unlimited original have been preserved in the pres- confidence in the continuous progress of ent text.” Fat chance that that will happen! man’s development through his creations Vernadsky, who knew of Hutchin- of new ideas leading to technological ad- son through his work on limnology and vances. What remained was only a thin through his son’s and Petrunkevitch’s let- carcass of the real Vernadsky. ters, was excited by the fact that his paper Soon afterward, in January 1945, Ver- would be published in the United States. nadsky’s “Notes on the Noösphere” were He was following the project closely published in American Scientist without through correspondence with George such elisions. It is probable that George, and expressed gratitude to Hutchinson who was sincerely intent on publishing his for taking it on. But getting the final copy, father’s work in the United States and was he was somewhat taken aback by some aware of his father’s concerns about the of the cuts made by Hutchinson. Writing first translation, made sure that Hutchin- to George on September 15, 1944, Verna- son did not take a scalpel to this important dsky expressed his concern: Vernadsky’s entire philosophi- statement. The “Notes on the Noösphere” cal outlook was imbued with also contains an extensive reference to the I’m very grateful to you and Hutchinson. the knowledge that the mind of work of James Dwight Dana. I’m just not in agreement with the omis- of man was a new and powerful sion on page 502 of the reference to geological force in the universe. Creating a Green Movement Dana [geologist James Dwight Dana], Of course, in 1944, it was an uphill who established the empirical generalization of the climb in the United States, indeed, in the world at large, role of the central nervous system in the course of geo- to introduce the notion of the genocidal population re- logical time. The power of the central nervous system duction program. The Second World War had done increased by leaps and bounds. You can observe this in that all too effectively. “Population control” had been any paleontology textbook. pretty much discredited by the Nazi program. And in It’s funny that when I was working on this question in the United States as elsewhere, there was a strong belief Moscow, I found at the Moscow University, after many in the notion of scientific progress, similar to the belief years, American journals in which Dana defended so beautifully expressed in Vladimir Ivanovich’s work at himself against the theologians. the time, specifically in his 1938 Scientific Thought As A Planetary Phenomenon. It would take a few decades While Dana at a late stage in his career accepted the before humanity would be prepared to accept these spe- basic idea of evolution, he believed (unlike Darwin) that cious arguments in favor of its own demise. The opportunity for introducing this “paradigm shift” 6. The entire text of “Problems of Biogeochemistry, Part II” was pub- in American society came in the 1960s. The brutal assas- lished in English by 21st Century Science & Technology (Winter sination of President John F. Kennedy and the initiation 2000–2001). “Problems of Biogeochemistry, Part I” was also pub- lished by 21st Century Science & Technology (Winter 2005–2006), utilizing the English manuscript copy of the text translated by George 7. See article on Louis Pasteur, this issue, and Vladimir I. Vernadsky, Vernadsky, and discovered in the Bakhmeteff Archives at Columbia “On the States of Physical Space” 21st Century Science & Technolo- University. gy, Winter 2007–2008.

10 Fall–Winter 2013 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY by President John- torical, but a planetary change as well. We live in a son of that “long transition to the noösphere.” war in Asia” helped By noösphere, Vernadsky meant the envelope of to plunge an entire mind that was to supersede the biosphere, the enve- generation of young lope of life. Unfortunately the quarter-century since people into a frantic those words were written has shown how mindless search for “alterna- most of the changes wrought by man on the biosphere tive life-styles.” This have been. Nonetheless, Vernadsky’s transition in its was chiefly charac- deepest sense is the only alternative to man’s cutting terized by the hip- his life-time short by millions of years. The succeeding pie movement and articles in this issue of Scientific American may contain its “back to nature” useful hints as to how this alternative may be brought outlook. Here was about. an ideal opportu- The brutal assassination of President nity to introduce on Two years later, in 1972, a newly constituted Club of John F. Kennedy was a decisive a broad scale those Rome issued a report called The Limits To Growth, which transformation of American culture zero-growth ideas depicted an even more drastic scenario. The report was away from its traditional notion of which had been published by the UN Commission on Environment and progress. anathema to an ear- Development. The Russellite agenda was thus introduced lier generation. at the highest level of government. And now there was a In 1970, the “mainstream” scientific journal Scientific mass movement of disenchanted youth around which to American devoted an entire issue to the theme of “The organize for this genocidal program. Biosphere.” The introductory article was by none other And Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky was made into a than G. Evelyn Hutchinson. While he had not inserted guru of this new movement as well. New Age geologist Vernadsky’s name in his 1947 diatribe, he would place and entrepreneur John Allen, who was spending his time it firmly in the center of this new effort to create a Green in the early 1960s in San Francisco’s hippie stronghold, zero-growth movement. “The concept [of the biosphere] Haight-Ashbury, with beat poet William Burroughs and played little part in scientific thought,” Hutchinson writes others of his ilk, came across a book by Hutchinson enti- in his Scientific American piece, “until the publication, tled The Ecological Theater and Evolutionary Play, which first in Russian in 1926 and later in French in 1929 (under also referenced the work of Vernadsky. Allen quickly the title La Biosphère), of two lectures by the Russian min- placed Hutchinson’s Vernadsky on the banner of a series eralogist Vladimir Ivanovitch Vernadsky. It is essentially of half-baked projects, beginning with a hippie commune Vernadsky’s concept of the biosphere, developed about in New Mexico, called Synergy Ranch, and later an up- 50 years after [Eduard] Suess wrote, that we accept today.” scale and alleged The other articles in the magazine, dealing with the high-tech version of carbon cycle, the oxygen cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the the commune, called role of agriculture, while written by different people, Biosphere II, which were also centered around the theme struck by Hutchin- he marketed as a son: The activity of man on the planet is creating an eco- predecessor to space logical disaster and must therefore be limited. colonization. Al- Hutchinson, of course, could not completely eradicate len even succeeded Vernadsky’s concept of the noösphere, so he simply as- in convincing some serted that Vernadsky had been mistaken in his view of people from NASA, human development. At the end of his article, Hutchin- who had been bitten son writes: by the Green bug, as well as a number Vernadsky, the founder of modern biogeochemistry, of otherwise serious was a Russian liberal who grew up in the 19th century. scientists from Rus- Accepting the Russian Revolution, he did much of his sia, that his up-scale work after 1917, although his numerous philosophic hippy commune was references were far from Marxist. Just before his death the wave of the future This Biosphere edition of the on January 6, 1945, he wrote his friend and former stu- in space exploration. mainstream Scientific American dent Alexander Petrunkevitch: “I look forward with Synergy Press also was the first “shot across the great optimism. I think that we undergo not only a his- published the first bow” by the Greenie movement.

21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Fall–Winter 2013 11 coEnglishnflict translationwith them, ofstr Vernadsky’siving toward sThe the Biosphere transformat—needion of- cally,ments through in the English the gre language,at breakthro weug hopehs in to in provideformatics Amer and- nalesstural to say,condit in iaon heavilys in the redacted directio nedition. of the maximum satis- spaceican scientists technolo withgies that wh ichgiant, have on twhoseightly coshouldersnnected they the facJamestion of Lovelock,the mater ial,the enso-calledergy, and father aesth etiofc ne“climateeds of wmighthole standworld fromthrough which the itonter seene ta and way th forwardrough ef ficifor emannt je-t machange,”nkind. with his thesis of Mother Earth, or Gaia, to transpkind, nowortat ioenmired,n. in the worst financial crisis in histo- whomUnders mankindtanding must that bow“the inface submission, of the plan alsoet— beganthe bi o-to ry.“We Perhaps are the und optimismergoing no exhibitedt a crisis, so w stronglyhich per bytur Vernabs the- spreferencehere—i sVernadsky being rad icallas hisy cpredecessor,hanged chem evenically though by man he, fadsky,int of even heart,” in Vernaperiodsds kyof sarepressionid, “but the and grea worldtest watwar,ersh mayed bothhad node libeknowledgerately an ofd, Vernadskychiefly, uncon beforesciousl the y,”1980s. Verna dsky ihelpn mank to mobilizeind’s scie peoplentific thtodayough tot, suchbegin asto institute happens thoseonly calledAs a f result,or thes toe cthehan extentges to Vladimirbe delibe Ivanovichrately gui dedVernadsky by hu- onceneeded in changes a millenn whichium; will we enable are ex mankindperiencing to sclaunchientifi ac mais knownn thoug ath t,all for in on thely tUnitedhen would States, the he bi oissp widelyhere be seen trans- in achnewievemen era of growthts, the andequa developmentl of which many in the g “noösphere,”enerations of fotherme formd into of Hutchinson’sthe noösphere, “ecological as is necess guru.”ary for 21st ma nCenturykind to ourand atonc helpestors free never a generation saw. Stand froming thatat th deadlyis wate rshedmental, su illr-- floScienceurish. &V ernTechnologyadsky und anders Executivetood that Intelligence this transfor Review,mation vnesseying known the fu astu re“environmentalism.” that is opening up before us, we should rebothqui redassociated that each with ind theivid Americanual take re statesmansponsibili andty, and econo tha-t be happy that we were destined to experience this, and to thmiste e ffLyndonorts of LaRouche,all peoples havebe joi takenned toupon solve themselves global pro theb- take part in the creation of such a future.” This was the letaskms, of by introducing strengthenin theg po reallitical Vernadsky and othe tor t iesthe am Americanong na- stand taken in life by the eminent scientist, thinker, and tipublic,ons, ex topandi the Americanng the lim scienceits of the community, biosphere and and ste particupping- humanist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, the 150th anni- oularly,t int too thespac youngere, and dgenerationiscovering ofn ewAmericans. sources of energy. versary of whose birth is being widely celebrated through- HeVernadsky placed par wasticu laoner em ofpha thes giantsis on the of sciencecreation during of cond thei- out the world today. tilastons century, favorable a man to the whose develo ideaspment were of often free far sc ienaheadtific thofo hisught, times. the rat Andional science transfo progressesrmation of bynatur standinge, the pr oneven- the References ______tishoulderson of war, of an itsd giants.the eli mNowination when of povermankindty an isd faced hung erwith as The article draws on original works of V.I. Vernadsky, which are cited ththee Earmajorth’s popscientificulation task incr eases.of developing Here, he the allo tnewted anenergy im- in the text; the monograph Nauchnaya mysl kak planetnoye yavleniye [Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon] (Moscow: Nauka, poresourcesrtant role needed to science, to support being ourem bragrowingced to population an ever gre ateandr 1991); as well as selected works published in the collection Vladimir deof gdevelopingree in public techniques life, “for s cience,here on in Earth point and of fa inct, cosmic is pro- Vernadsky. Otkrytiya i sudby [Vladimir Vernadsky. Discoveries and fospaceundly for democ detectingratic; inand it therethwarting is ‘neit theher threatsJew nor thatGen tilmaye,’ Destinies] (Moscow: Sovremennik, 1993); Nauchnoe i sotsialnoye znacheniye deyatelnosti V.I. Vernadskogo [The Scientific and Social ”face and us its from signi thatfica nceregion, in the as nwitnessedoösphere bywi llthe con recenttinuous mely- Significance of the ActVernadskyivities of Institute V.I. Veof Geochemistryrnadsky] ( Leandni Analyticalngrad: ChemistryNauka, grteoriteow. T hi overs, hi s Chelyabinsk, forecast, re sou thend thought—ands strongly in o ur spirit—of age of 19The89) Biogeochemical; V.I. Vernadsky i so Laboratoryvremennost founded[V.I. Verna bydsky Vernadsky and the Co inn- trVernadskyemendous is pr moreogress important in science than and ever. tech noByl ogintroducingy, specifi- te1929mpor ary now Worl d]stands (Mosco w: as Nau ka the, 19 86 Vernadsky). Institute of the full depth of his scientific and philosophical achieve- Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. 21st CENTURY MORE AVAILABLE ABOUT VERNADSKY FROM SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY On the States of Physical Space Evolution of Species and Living Matter Some Words About the Noösphere Vladimir I. Vernadsky Vladimir Vernadsky Vladimir I. Vernadsky In this first English translation of a 1938 Spring-Summer 2012 Vernadsky's 1943 work develops his article draft, Vernadsky proposes that living On Some Fundamental Problems of conception of the human mind as a matter exists as droplets of a Riemannian Biogeochemistry geological force. space, dispersed within the Euclidean Vladimir I. Vernadsky Spring 2005 space of the inert matter of the biosphere. A 1936 commentary on the ongoing work On the Fundamental Material- Winter 2007-2008 of the Laboratory of Biogeochemistry of Energetic Dierence between Living V.I. Vernadsky and the Contemporary the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. and Nonliving Natural Bodies in the World Winter 2005-2006 Biosphere Academician Erik Galimov ON THE NOËTIC PRINCIPLE Vladimir I. Vernadsky The first complete English translation of Spring 2013, Summer 2013 Vernadsky and Dirichlet's Principle e Science of the Biosphere and a 1938 article by the innovative Russian Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. biogeochemist, who saw the human mind Astrobiology A review prompted by an examination of as the highest development of natural Academician M. Ya. Marov an English translation of V.I. Vernadsky's processes. Translated by Jonathan Spring 2013 paper on biogeochemistry. Tennenbaum and Rachel Douglas. e Vernadsky Strategy Winter 2005-2006 Winter 2000-2001 Colonel Alexander A. Ignatenko Spring 2013 e Transition from the Biosphere to Back print issues (prior to 2006) are available at $10 each (U.S.) and $20 (foreign) e Noösphere Electronic back issues are $10 each. Vladimir Vernadsky Spring-Summer 2012 Purchase online at the website store, or send a check or money order to 21st Century P.O. Box 16285, Washington, D.C. 20041

2212 Fall–Winter Summer 201 20133 2 1st21st CE CENTURYNTURY SC SCIENCEIENCE & & TEC TECHNOLOGYHNOLOGY