Environmental History of the US: Some Important Thinkers

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Environmental History of the US Some Important
Thinkers

                                                                                                                                                                                    
A Middle-Aged John Muir at His DeskJohn Muir National Historic Site. E1-21
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A Middle-Aged John Muir at His DeskJohn Muir National Historic Site. E1-21
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From Frontier Worldview to the Environmental
Movement Names to Know Henry David Thoreau John
Muir Theodore Roosevelt Rachel Carson Aldo Leopold


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The Frontier Era (1607-1890)

• Frontier Environmental Worldview
• Vast Inexhaustible Resources
• Hostile, Dangerous Wilderness to Be Conquered
• 1890 Frontier Closed no longer a line where
  the population density was less than 2 people per
  square mile

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American Bison/American Buffalo hunted almost
to extinction during the 1800s.
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Early Alarms (1832-1870)

• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
• Concerned with Species Loss in E. Massachusetts.
• Life in the Woods (1854)
• George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882)
• Scientist, Member of Congress from Vt.
• Man and Nature (1864) deforestation -gt
  desertification, Earth will look like the moon.
• Used Science, Case Studies (Mediterranean)
• Need for Resource Conservation

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Government and Citizen Involvement (1870-1930)

• Forest Reserve Act, 1891
• Fed Govt Responsible for Protecting Public Lands
  (Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley) Forest Lands
• John Muir (1838-1914)
• Founded Sierra Club
• Forest Preservation
• Yosemite (1890) and Sequoia National Park, Muir
  Woods
• Proposed National Park System

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Government and Citizen Involvement (1870-1930)

• Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
• President 1901-1909
• Gained Power to Designate Public Lands as
  Wildlife Refuges.
• Tripled Size of National Forest Reserves.
• 1905 US Forest Service (193 mil acres forests
  and grasslands)
• 1906 Antiquities (ruins and artifacts)
• Act -gt Grand Canyon (protect public lands from
  destruction, excavation, etc)
• Later
• 1916 National Park Service (manages all parks,
  monuments and historical properties)

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Great Depression and War (1930-1960)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Land Purchases From Private Owners
• Jobs Programs 1930s
• Civilian Conservation Corps (1933)
• Unemployed work planting trees
• Developing/maintaining parks
• Waterways, dams

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Environmental Awakening (1960-1980)

• Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
• Biologist
• Sea Around Us, 1951
• Silent Spring, 1962
• Effects of Widespread DDT Use
• Beginning of Modern Environmental Movement in US

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Environmental Awakening (1960-1980)

• Wilderness Act (1964)
• Muir Idea
• Undeveloped Land to be Protected
• Earth Day April 20, 1970
• Environmental Protection Agency (1970)
• Endangered Species Act (1973)
• Protection for species and habitats

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Environmental Awakening (1960-1980)

• Bureau of Land Management (1978)
• Restricts Uses of Public Land
• Maintain health, diversity and productivity
• Creates Friction (regulations of use, population
  growth)
• Push Back Wise Use Movement (1988) (more
  private, less government control)
• Department of Energy (1977)
• Develop Long Range Energy Strategy
• Superfund (1980)
• Task of Cleaning Up Abandoned Waste Sites

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Recent Past

• Less Large Scale (really? 2010) Big Idea
  Activities
• Kyoto Protocol (1997)
• Objective to Slow Global Warming
• US Withdraws 2001

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Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

• Professor
• Sand County Almanac (1949)
• Land Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Nature and
  Wildlife Preservation

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• All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single
  premise that the individual is a member of a
  community of interdependent parts.
• That land is a community is the basic concept of
  ecology, but that land is to be loved and
  respected is an extension of ethics.
• The land ethic changes the role of Homo Sapiens
  from conqueror of the land-community to plain
  member and citizen of it.
• We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity
  belonging to us. When we see land as a commodity
  to which we belong, we may begin to use it with
  love and respect.
• Anything is right when it tends to preserve the
  integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
  community.
• It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

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