Environmental History: Looking to the Future by Learning from the Past

1. Environmental History: Looking to the Future by Learning from the Past GSI Living in the Environment 14th Edition Chapter 2 Los Angeles Smog

2. Essential Learning Questions / Objectives Define three major cultural and environmental changesthat have occurred since humans were hunter-gatherers. Describe the environmental history of the United Statesin terms of the Tribal and Frontier Eras, the Early Conservation Era, and the Environmental Era. Compare slash-and-burn agricultural practices with the modern advanced forms of farming. State the advantages and disadvantages of each. List individuals who made major contributions to conservation/environmental movements in the United States and briefly describe these contributions. Define environmental backlash. Briefly describe the effects of this backlash. Summarize the key environmental events of the 1980s in the U.S. and the World Compare and contrast the environmental policies of the Clinton administration and the Bush administration.

3. Cultural Changes and the Environment Hunter-gatherers Humans (Homo sapiens) have been in existence for about 160,000 years, a mere blink of an eye in terms of biological life. (early humans lived off the land – nomadic) Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution (10,000 to 12,000 years ago) Industrial-Medical Revolution (began in the 1700’s in England Progressed to United States in the 1800’s) Information and Globalization Revolution (since 1950 and especially since 1970) return

4. Cultural Changes and the Environment: Hunter-Gatherer Culture • Hunter-gatherers • Nomadic: seasonal movement • Usually limited environmental impact Race to Save the Planet: The Environmental Revolution Video Clip return

5. Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution * Early Agricultural practices With the agricultural revolution, people settled into communities, cultivated plants and domesticated animals. Slash-and-burn cultivation developed in tropical regions. Sustainable cultivation (such as seen with this rotational type) meant little impact on the land. Essentially sustainable resource use Modern Agricultural practices Encourages: monoculture, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. Causes problems like: soil erosion, habitat fragmentation, land, air and water pollution. Damage to humans and wildlife through the use of fertilizers and pesticides - eutrophication - genetic resistance Increased Environmental Impact return

6. 1 4 Clearing and burning vegetation Allowing to revegetate 10 to 30 years 2 3 Planting Harvesting for 2 to 5 years Slash and Burn and Shifting Cultivation return

7. Trade-Offs in the Name of Progress

8. Cultural Changes and the Environment: The Industrial-Medical Revolution • Industrial Revolution (mid-1700’s) higher standard of living couple with greater environmental degradation. • Shift to dependence on non-renewable resources (coal). The steam engine was the “workhorse” of the industrial revolution • Centralized factories now began to mass-produce goods. • Advancements in farming and medicine improve living conditions Race to save the planet: Industrial revolution video clip Dramatic increase in environmental impact

9. Cultural Changes and the Environment: The Information/Globalization Revolution • Information Revolution • Rate of information increase and speed of communication • Globalization leads to a world socially, economically, and environmentally more interconnected. • Decrease in cultural diversity • Awareness of environmental problems can lead us to respond effectively. • Information overload can lead to confusion and hopelessness. Oil in the Amazon – TV - 60 minutes The Internet Influence 60 seconds Little Green Men return

10. Environmental History of the United States The Tribal Era The Frontier Era (1607-1890) The Early Conservation Era (1832 – 1960) The Environmental Era (1960 – Present) return

11. Environmental History of the United States: The Tribal and Frontier Eras Tribal Era: Native Americans: 5-10 million tribal people Native Americans for at least 10,000 years caused some extinctions, but generally were low-impact hunter-gather or agricultural societies Most cultures had a deep reverence for nature and did not believe in land ownership. Frontier Environmental Worldview: European Settlement (1607-1890) Resources were thought to be inexhaustible The land was viewed as hostile, dangerous, and needing to be conquered The frontier was to be conquered, and this attitude is still a part of American culture Impacts of the Frontier Environmental Worldview The near extinction of the American Bison

12. The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960) • A few people warned Americans of resource base degradation, but now many listened to warnings • Conservationists urged protection of public wilderness areas Henry David Thoreau wrote Life in the Woods, an environmental classic about his observations of nature for two years in the Massachusetts woods George Perkins Marsh, a scientist and Vermont legislator, published Man and Nature in 1864 in which he presented studies to show resources must be conserved • Between 1870 and 1930, the role of the federal government and private citizens increased to protect natural resources The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 established that federal government was responsible for protecting public lands from exploitation. John Muir was a geologist and naturalist who founded the Sierra Club in 1892. He lobbied for conservation laws, he led the preservationist movement to limit use of public wilderness to hiking and camping, he lobbied for a National Park system, and he was responsible for establishing Yosemite National Park in 1890

13. The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960) President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) established wildlife reserves and tripled the size of national forest reserves. • He persuaded Congress to grant the president power to designate public land as federal wildlife reserves • The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was created in 1905 with Gifford Pinchot as its first chief. • The Antiquities Act of 1906 allows the president to protect areas of scientific or historical interest on federal lands as national monuments. • In 1907 Congress banned executive withdrawals of public forests. • Roosevelt is considered to be the best environmental president. The National Park Service Act was passed by Congress in 1916

14. The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960) Set backs to early conservation Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover promoted resource removal from public lands at low prices to stimulate economic growth Hoover proposed selling all public lands to private interests for economic development. The Great Depression was devastating for the nation, but forestalled the purchase of public lands by private interests Attempts at restoration In the 1930s the government bought land and hired workers to restore the country’s degraded environment President Franklin D. Roosevelt established conservation projects and public health projects in the 1930s. The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was established in 1933. Two million people obtained work with CCC restoring degraded environments and building dams providing jobs, flood control, irrigation water, and cheap electricity. return

15. Important Figures During The Early Conservation Era Life in the Woods – he saw a loss of wild species in the Northeastern United States • Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) • George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) • John Muir (1838-1914) • Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) • Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) • Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) Man and Nature – questioned whether resources were inexhaustible Founder of the Sierra Club His term in office was called the “Golden Age of Conservation” 1901-09 Appointed to manage and protect forests USFS- Scientifically managed forests (multiple use policy) “The New Deal” and (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps- Restoration projects including tree plantings, dam and levee repairs Back to Essential Questions

16. The Environmental Era (1960-Present) Events that influenced the Environmental Movement Minamata Bay, Japan – Methyl Mercury (1959) Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (1962) –Impacts of pesticide use Oil polluted Cuyahoga River flowing through Cleveland, Ohio, catches fire and burns for 8 days. (1968) The Science of Ecology Paul Ehrlich –The Population Bomb (1968) Garrett Hardin – Tragedy of the Commons (1968) Barry Commoner-The Closing Circle (1971) Aldo Leopold – Sand County Almanac (1949) Leopold Land Ethics Spaceship Earth Worldview Apollo 11 (1969) – photographs from space reminded us that we live on a unique miraculous planet The first annual Earth Day was held April 22, 1970 Endangered Planet : Impacts of the industrial way of life trigger the Environmental Revolution

17. Environmental Era Firefighters battle a fire on Ohio's Cuyahoga River in 1952. The polluted river caught fire on several occasions between 1936 and 1969, when debris and oil had concentrated on the water's surface and ignited. A blaze in 1969 came at a time of increasing environmental awareness and symbolized years of environmental neglect. The Cuyahoga River fires helped spur grassroots activism that resulted in a wave of federal legislation devoted to taking serious action against air and water pollution. A crushed Caspian tern egg, broken because of DDT-induced weakening of the shell, next to a normal egg.

18. Important Figures During The Environmental Era Richard Nixon: EPA – Environmental Protection Agency (1970) ESA – Endangered Species Act (1973) strengthen the role of the federal government in protecting endangered species and their habitats Clean Air Act (1970) Resources Recovery Act (1970) Safe Drinking Water Act (1973) Jimmy Carter: DOE – Department of Energy (1977) Superfund - Comprehensive Environment Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980 designed to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites like Love Canal, New York Carter used the Antiquities Act 1906 to triple the land in the National Wilderness system and doubled the land in the National Park system.

19. The Environmental Decade - The 70’s The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received its first real authority to manage public lands under its control with the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1978, 85% of public lands are in 12 western states. The law angered a number of western interests whose use of public lands was restricted for the first time. Opposition to the Environmental Movement A political campaign known as the “sagebrush rebellion” resulted as miners, ranchers, loggers, developers, farmers, and others joined together to try to greatly reduce government regulation and to persuade legislators to sell or lease these lands to private interests at low prices Back to Essential Questions return

20. 1980’s: backlash against environmentalism Environmental backlash - An anti-environmental movement formed to weaken or rescind many of the environmental laws passed during the 1960s and 1970s in order to destroy the political effectiveness of the environmental movement 1980’s: backlash against environmentalism Ronald Reagan – a self-declared sagebrush rebel advocated less federal control • Greatly increased private energy and mineral development and timber cutting on public lands during his eight years in office • During this period federal funding for research on energy conservation and renewable energy resources was drastically cut • The “wise-use” movement was formed in 1988, backed by coal, oil, mining, automobile, timber, and ranching interests. The goals were to weaken/repeal environmental laws and incapacitate the environmental movement

21. Some environmental events of the 1980’s Three Mile Island (1979) Pennsylvania, United States – nuclear accident the core was exposed and there was small radiation leak. Poor design an human error Union Carbide Pesticide Plant (1984) Bhopal, India – Toxic fumes from a pesticide plant killed 6000 people and injure between 50,000-60,000 people. Chernobyl (1986) Ukraine – the world’s most seriousnuclear accident (explosion) 30 people killed thousand developed cancer after the exposure. Times Beach, Missouri (1986) – evacuated and bought by the EPA because of dioxin contamination Exxon Valdez (1989) – Oil tanker accident in Alaska’s Prince William Sound These events made the public more aware of the dangers of ignoring the environment Recent Event BP – Gulf Oil Spill (2010) – Greatest environmental disaster in United States history Environmental Timeline

22. Current Environmental Politics Clinton Administration Most environmental efforts since 1990 have been spent trying to keep anti-environmentalists from weakening or eliminating laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s Bill Clinton appointed environmentalists to key positions in environmental and resource agencies during the eight years of his presidency He protected more public land as national monuments in the lower 48 states than any other president Environmentalists have had to counter claims that problems such as global warming and ozone depletion are hoaxes or not serious Bush Administration George W. Bush became president in 2001 and proceeded to weaken many environmental and public land use laws and policies Bush’s policies rest on increasing use of fossil fuels and a relaxation of air and water quality standards. He also tried to repeal or weaken most of the pro-environmental measures established by Clinton Moderate Republicans and most Democrats agree that environmental problems are too serious to be used as a political tool. They urge elected officials to become the world leader in making the 21st century the environmental century

23. Case Study: Aldo Leopold and His Land Ethic • Individuals are interdependent • Ethics: respect for land • Shift from conqueror to member • Problems arise when land viewed as a commodity • Preservation of the integrity, stability, and beauty of land is right

24. References: Race to Save the Planet: The Environmental Revolution (1990) Endangered Planet (1998)