Environmental History of the US: Some Important Thinkers

From Frontier Worldview to the Environmental Movement

Names to Know:Henry David ThoreauJohn MuirTheodore RooseveltRachel CarsonAldo Leopold

                    

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

American Bison/American Buffalo – hunted almost to extinction during the 1800’s.

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 ->

desertification, Earth will look like the moon.– Used Science, Case Studies (Mediterranean)– Need for Resource Conservation

Government and Citizen Involvement (1870-1930)

• Forest Reserve Act, 1891– Fed Gov’t 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

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 -> Grand Canyon (protect public lands

from destruction, excavation, etc)– Later:– 1916: National Park Service (manages all

parks, monuments and historical properties)

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

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

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

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

Recent Past

• Less Large Scale (really? 2010) Big Idea Activities

• Kyoto Protocol (1997)– Objective to Slow Global Warming– US Withdraws 2001

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

• Professor• Sand County Almanac (1949)• Land Ethics, Environmental Ethics,

Nature and Wildlife Preservation

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.