Paul Sears

Paul Sears was a strong advocate for ecological research grounded in the study of natural systems. He believed that ecologists should work closely with scientists from other disciplines, such as geology, anthropology, and sociology, to better understand the complex interactions between human societies and the natural world. Sears played an important role in the development and popularization of ecology as an academic discipline. He wrote his seminal text Deserts on the March during the height of the Dust Bowl. The book had a profound impact on the American public in terms of understanding ecological relationships and became relevant again in the 1960s during the environmentalism movement.