Welcome to The Rene Dubos Center for Human
Environments, Inc. Whereas other organizations deal with the protection of
the environment, the Dubos Center is primarily concerned with the interplay
between human life and environmental situations. It complements the defensive policies of the environmental
movement by emphasizing the creative aspects of human interventions into nature.
Many
environmental organizations focus their activities on preservation, especially of the
environment, whereas the Center believes that humankind can exist only by transforming and
managing the environment. Admittedly, many human interventions
have been destructive, but many more have been constructive. The Dubos Center publicizes the positive
aspects of human activities to
illustrate that "man can improve on nature" a phrase first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.
The
Center acknowledges, of course, the importance of ecological constraints but its activities
are carried out within a humanistic context because technological solutions to
society's problems cannot be
successful without concern for their humanistic
aspects.