The twentieth century turned Western civilization upside down. Wars and upheavals resurrected the dark ages. It was extremely violent, perhaps the most violent era in history.   War War was especially virulent and, twice, it wrecked Europe and the world. It took the form of asphyxiating soldiers with neurotoxic agents, incinerating cities by bombing, genocide, destruction of villages and the slaughtering of farm animals, famine, ecocide and blasting two Japanese cities with atomic weapons. This kind of ferocious warfare was probably the result of failing to tame the factory civilization of the nineteenth century. The two world wars of the twentieth century killed close to 80 million people and left a terrible legacy for the future of humanity. Factories Mechanical and chemical and pharmaceutical factories were devastating the land and poisoning people on a massive scale. Skies were turning black; rivers were catching fire; pollution from the factories was co...

The reluctant US Environmental Protection Agency The power of the chemical industry in the United States all but wiped out the US EPA. The politicized department administers laws and regulations that prescribe what it can do. However, in practice, it’s the political appointees that decide what EPA does. Related to this political reality, and knowing the deep roots of industry influence in Congress and the White House, EPA does its work reluctantly most of the time.  In the case of  hazardous chemicals , EPA is scared to even do the minimum of protecting the health of Americans, much less protect the integrity and health of the natural world. Sky empty of birds The result of such calculated political indifference is bad for all life. In the last fifty years,  birds  in North America declined by 29 percent. Our skies are becoming empty of tiny and modest-sized flying animals. There are some 3 billion birds missing.  Perpetual use of deadly ...

In 1961, I left Greece for the United States. The reason for that life-changing decision was education. The University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin welcomed me and gave me a free education. I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Illinois and my doctorate from Wisconsin.   In college My education was a mixture of science and humanities. I combined zoology with Greek (ancient, medieval and modern) history, as well as Roman history and modern European (Russian, Soviet Union, Southeastern European and British) history. To this multidisciplinary bowl I added the history of science from my postdoctoral studies at Harvard. I did all this book reading, test taking, and writing a dissertation in ten years. The next step was finding work. By the time I graduated from Wisconsin, in 1972, I was married with my first child. This made earning a living imperative. I worked on Capitol Hill and the US Environmental Protection Agency for twenty-seven year...

Oikos / home in the Benitses Port, Kerkyra, Greece. Photo: Evaggelos Vallianatos The oikos / home paradigm The word ecology derives from the Greek word  οἶκος  (oikos, home, household). The German zoologist  Ernst Haeckel  coined the term in late nineteenth century in order to describe relations between animals and animals with their environment. Late nineteenth century was just as revolutionary as our time: the same aggression and thoughtlessness on all matters of the natural world.  This was a time when the footprint of humanity started crushing the world of animals and plants. Industrialization was the new paradigm for “progress.” Religious men, businessmen, politicians and academics wanted a piece of the action: controlling nature was at the heart of this emerging machine culture. Petroleum chemistry fueled the engines of production and destruction.  Haeckel and some of his contemporary European scientists could see that humans wer...

Opening ceremony of the Olympics in Athens, 2004. Courtesy Wikipedia. Prologue   Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, has a continuity of existence from ancient times to the present day.  In spite of multiple depredations inflicted on the country over millennia, Greek ideas, science, discoveries and practices forming the foundations of Western culture, have persisted. In this essay, the contours of Greek history are traced from the classical era to the present.  Through thick and thin, the essential body of knowledge that defines Greece’s legacy , and Greece as a country,  a re  preserved, sometimes underground for centuries, to emerge into the open during the Renaissance.  Today, the ideas of ancient Greece continue to inform and illuminate current problems and prospects of modern life. I hope that this essay reaches educated people who travel to Greece to see the ruins of ancient Greek civilization. I am urging them, includi...