Representations of Nature Mediating Between Ecology and Science Policy: The Case of the International Biological Programme

This paper considers some aspects of the early history of the American contribution to the International Biological Programme (IBP), ecology's only venture into `Big Science'. It is argued that American ecologists were successful in obtaining generous funding for the IBP from the US Congress, thanks to a shared understanding of the way in which controlling nature was to be accomplished, expressed in the metaphor of the `cybernetic machine'. To support this argument, a literary analysis is performed on Congressional documents, on scientific and popular books and papers by ecologists, and on writings of the environmental movement. The paper explores how a dominant representation of nature, or mentalité, is brought about, and its political effects.