Historical Background of Environmental Thinking

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Historical Background of Environmental Thinking

• It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to
  turn again to the earth and in the contemplation
  of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and
  humility. 
• - Rachel Carson

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Pre-Environmental Movement

• Earliest Environmental Thinking
• Concerns with people and overcrowding

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Doctrine of Population Growth and Resource
Scarcity

• Thomas Malthus (1798)
• Society has the ability to increase agricultural
  production at an arithmetic rate while population
  increases at an exponential rate.
• Development of economic scarcity-diminishing
  marginal returns as farmers seek ways to feed the
  masses.
• Concerns with population crash and cycle.

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Theory of the Steady State Economy

• John Stuart Mill (1848)
• Human population and wealth cannot continue in
  perpetuity.
• Some stationary state is reached where population
  and consumption are stabilized.
• Concerns with population growth, over-consumption
  and distribution of wealth

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Simplicity of Lifestyle

• Henry David Thoreau (1854)
• Simplicity of lifestyle creates minimal impacts
  on the environment
• Enjoyment of nature and natural environment
• Distinction between urban and rural lifestyles

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Conservation Movement

• Vanishing wilderness due to agricultural
  expansion
• Formation of national parks and refuges
  President Roosevelt and John Muir
• Organization of Sierra Club (1892) and Audubon
  Society (1905)
• Aldo Leopold (1949)
• Concern for and preservation of natural resources

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Environmental Movement

• 1900-1960
• Industrial Revolution
• World War I II
• Technological Growth and Expansion

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Silent Spring

• Rachel Carson (1962)
• Developed the idea of destruction of the
  environment from pollution.
• Correlated use of DDT with weakening eggshells in
  Birds
• Hypothesized a Silent Spring if trend continued

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Tragedy of the Commons

• Garret Hardin (1968)
• Destruction of public commodities due to human
  behavior.
• Described a common field overgrazed by farmers
• Application to today

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The Population Bomb

• Paul Ehrlich (1986)
• Destruction of the environment due to population
  growth.
• Brought attention to problem of overpopulation

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Earth Day 1970

• Movement toward cleanup of the environment
• Started the creation of environmental legislation
• EPA (1970)
• Clean Air Act (1970)
• Clean Water Act (1972)
• CERCLA (1980)

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Sustainability Movement

• Much of environmental legislation ineffective
• Environmental Problems escalating
• Greenhouse effect
• Ozone Depletion
• Solid Waste Disposal - Garbage Barge
• Nuclear Power - Chernobyl, Three Mile Island
• Extinctions

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Recreation of Earlier Ideas - Promotion of the
Idea of Sustainability

• Reduction of use - Thoreau
• Holistic approach - inclusion of economic and
  social problems with environmental problems -
  Mill
• Grassroots involvement - local communities

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The Ecology of Commerce

• Paul Hawken 1993
• Consideration of the true costs over time
• Design and development of products
• Elimination of waste by ensuring that all
  by-products are minimized and the waste produced
  is usable or 'food' for something else.

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THE NATURAL STEP

• IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE,
  NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY ARE NOT
  SYSTEMATICALLY SUBJECT TO INCREASING
  CONCENTRATIONS OF SUBSTANCES EXTRACTED FROM THE
  EARTH'S CRUST.
• IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE,
  NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY ARE NOT
  SYSTEMATICALLY SUBJECT TO INCREASING
  CONCENTRATIONS OF SUBSTANCES PRODUCED BY SOCIETY.
  
• IN ORDER FOR A SOCIETY TO BE SUSTAINABLE,
  NATURE'S FUNCTIONS AND DIVERSITY ARE NOT
  SYSTEMATICALLY IMPOVERISHED BY PHYSICAL
  DISPLACEMENT, OVER-HARVESTING OR OTHER FORMS OF
  ECOSYSTEM MANIPULATION.
• IN A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY RESOURCES ARE USED
  FAIRLY AND EFFICIENTLY IN ORDER TO MEET BASIC
  HUMAN NEEDS GLOBALLY.

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Assignment for Friday

• Pick a day, event, person or place in
  environmental history.
• Use this presentation, your book or the web.
• Put together a 1-minute talk on something that
  interested you a person, place or event in
  environmental history.
• We will go around the room on Friday giving each
  of you 1-minute.