2011/04/01 by John H. Hartig · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
paper · doi:10.1080/14634988.2011.574033
openalex publication_date 2011/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
When he walked into a classroom, the first thing the children noticed was the globe on his back. The school children probably did not get it at first, but then he smiled and put them at ease. Neither did they realize that he was a Carnegie and Guggenheim Fellow, that he participated in the development of the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the creation of the Experimental Lakes Area, that he was Science Advisor to the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, that he was Canadian Co-Chairman of the International Joint Commission's Science Advisory Board, nor that he was awarded the “A.C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award” from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and the “Rachel Carson Award” from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Planas, 2008). But his smile and engaging personality quickly won them over while he delivered his message to ‘know your ecosystem’ and keep it healthy.The man who walked into the classroom was Johnny Biosphere–the globetrotting persona of Jack Vallentyne. Jack Vallentyne made it his mission to reach and teach 15,000–20,000 children annually with his message of knowing and protecting your personal ecosystem, using the globe to get the children's attention—which it did. The globe was supported with two straps labeled biosphere and ecosystem. Each strap had doorbells on it that could be pushed and sounds of animals from different continents would result. He also wore a safari suit to help children recognize that his mission as a scientist was to explore the world of ideas and that exploration required considerable travel. He accentuated his safari suit with high top tennis shoes to make sure the children understood that he was a globe trotter. Jack continuously and effectively engaged these children in understanding that they are indeed part of their ecosystem home, and that what they do to their ecosystem, they do to themselves. Jack understood that efforts to protect our life support system must start with each person taking personal responsibility for caring for their ecosystem. Although trained as a scientist, he quickly came to understand that scientific terminology was often a barrier to bringing about societal change. So Jack adopted the persona of Johnny Biosphere to help transfer scientific knowledge to the general public in order to get them to know and care for the ecosystem they lived in and upon which they depended.Jack's early work and advocacy on phosphorus-induced eutrophication had a major impact on the 1972 Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which focused on controlling phosphorus inputs as the means of slowing and reversing accelerated aging of lakes. He then helped further science transfer on phosphorus-induced eutrophication through publication of The Algal Bowl: Overfertilization of the World's Freshwaters and Estuaries (Schindler and Vallentyne, 2008).In 1978, the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was revised based on new knowledge to address persistent toxic substances and called for use of an ecosystem approach (United States and Canada, 1978). I first met Jack while he was serving as Canadian Co-Chairman of the International Joint Commission's Science Advisory Board and I was working for the Great Lakes Water Quality Board. Jack used his position as co-chairman to further define an ecosystem approach as a more holistic way for planning, research and management of the Great Lakes basin, and to operationalize it in management through understandable and implementable actions (Christie et al., 1986). He and the U.S. co-chairman (Alfred M. Beeton) went on to win the best publication of the year award from the Editor of Environmental Conservation for their paper on use of ecosystem approach to manage human uses and abuses in the Great Lakes basin (Vallentyne and Beeton, 1986).When the remedial action plan program, designed to restore impaired beneficial uses in degraded areas of the Great Lakes, became codified in the 1987 Protocol to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, I got to work closely with Jack to further define the ecosystem approach concept from a management perspective and to transfer it to practitioners working in these degraded watersheds (Hartig and Vallentyne, 1989).Jack was truly a visionary and an internationally known environmental educator. He felt strongly that if we are going to change the world and protect it, we have to start with the children. I can still hear him asking the question: “Have you been good to your ecosystem today?” Jack's work lives on in the many children, people, and programs that he touched with his message. It was an honor to know him and to work with him, and it is quite a tribute to him that there is such widespread acceptance of use of an ecosystem approach in managing watersheds and bioregions throughout the world, and that this approach has become a fundamental tenet and necessary technique in our global quest for sustainable development.