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Early Environmental Movements (cont.)

Early Environmental Movements (cont.) . Environmental Science: An Introduction. On-line course: Slide # 10. The Early Environmental Movement. (cont.).

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Early Environmental Movements (cont.)

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  1. Early Environmental Movements(cont.)

  2. Environmental Science: An Introduction • On-line course: • Slide # 10

  3. The Early Environmental Movement.(cont.) • Developing from this Ecological worldview was the early environmentalists. This led to the formation of the National Parks System in both Canada and the US.

  4. Mid-Twentieth Century • Following the second world war, technology originally developed for wartime activities contributed to massive economic expansion. • Environmental problems soon became obvious: air pollution, water pollution, etc.

  5. Paradigm Shift • By the early 1960’s things started to change. • When society radically changes the way in which it views the world, a paradigm shift is said to occur. • Many believe that humanity is in the process of a major paradigm shift regarding our view of the environment.

  6. Paradigm Shift • Silent Spring • Carson's interest in writing about the dangers of DDT was rekindled, in 1958, when she received a letter from a friend in Massachusetts bemoaning the large bird kills which had occurred on Cape Cod as the result of DDT sprayings. The use of DDT had proliferated greatly since 1945 and Carson again tried, unsuccessfully, to interest a magazine in assigning her the story of its less desirable effects. By 1958 Carson was a best-selling author, and the fact that she could not obtain a magazine assignment to write about DDT is indicative of how heretical and controversial her views on the subject must have seemed. Having already amassed a large quantity of research on the subject, however, Carson decided to go ahead and tackle the DDT issue in a book.

  7. Paradigm Shift • Silent Spring took Carson four years to complete. It meticulously described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings, and caused cancer and genetic damage. A single application on a crop, she wrote, killed insects for weeks and months, and not only the targeted insects but countless more, and remained toxic in the environment even after it was diluted by rainwater. Carson concluded that DDT and other pesticides had irrevocably harmed birds and animals and had contaminated the entire world food supply. • The book's most haunting and famous chapter, "A Fable for Tomorrow," depicted a nameless American town where all life -- from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children -- had been "silenced" by the insidious effects of DDT. http://www.nrdc.org/

  8. Paradigm Shift YouTube - Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi YouTube - AMERICA - HORSE WITH NO NAME (1972) YouTube - Neil Young After The Goldrush

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