Bakalářská Práce 2013
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FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA UNIVERZITY PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI KATEDRA ANGLISTIKY A AMERIKANISTIKY ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES (bakalářská práce) Autor: Hrozová Hana (Anglická filologie) Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Jiří Flajšar, PhD. OLOMOUC 2013 Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně a všechny použité zdroje jsem uvedla v seznamu literatury. V Olomouci _______________ Podpis _______________ !! Poděkování Za metodické vedení, odbornou pomoc a cenné rady bych ráda poděkovala vedoucímu své bakalářské práce, Mgr. Jiřímu Flajšarovi, Ph.D. !! TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................5 2. ORIGINS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE UNITED STATES ...................7 2.1 PRESERVATION ......................................................................................................9 2.2 CONSERVATION ...................................................................................................10 3. DEFINITION OF ENVIRONMENTALISM .........................................................14 3.1 CONVENTIONAL VALUES VERSUS ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES ..............15 3.1.1 NATURE .............................................................................................................15 3.1.2 HUMANS ............................................................................................................15 3.1.3 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY .......................................................................16 3.1.4 PRODUCTION AND ECONOMICS .................................................................16 3.1.5 POLITICS ............................................................................................................17 4. BEGINNING OF MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT .....................18 4.1 SILENT SPRING ....................................................................................................19 4.2 THE FIRST EARTH DAY ......................................................................................22 5. ENVIRONMENTALISM SINCE 1970s TO 1990s ...............................................25 5.1 MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES .........25 5.2 MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ...............................................28 5.2.1 SIERRA CLUB ...................................................................................................30 6. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES .................................................................................32 6.1 OIL SPILL ...............................................................................................................32 6.1.1 EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL ............................................................................33 6.1.2.1 OIL POLLUTION ACT OF 1990 (OPA) ........................................................37 7. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................38 RESUMÉ .......................................................................................................................42 BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................44 ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................................50 ANNOTATION .............................................................................................................51 ANOTACE.....................................................................................................................52 1. INTRODUCTION Why I decided to write about environmentalism? It all started years ago, when I decided to follow vegetarian lifestyle and try to save innocent animals from being consumed. As I read books, articles and watched documents concerning vegetarianism and animal rights, I have realized that it is simply not enough just to stop eat meat. I wanted to do more to be excluded from cruelty we are causing to innocent species, who also have a right to live. That was the time when I became more concerned about the environment as well as human health. I think it is important to present this topic as it is part of our everyday life. We should not act selfishly and we should think about future generations. We need to deal with environmental issues and protect our health. The aim of my bachelor thesis is to present the development of environmental movement in America, I will focus on modern environmental movement, which covers period approximately from 1960s. I have chosen modern environmental movement, because it is still somehow connected to our present. It still affects our lives today in a good way as well as in a way that reminds us what we have done wrong in the past. Before the emergence of modern environmental movement, there was no environmentalism as such, but there were movements, whose aim was to protect natural resources in a different way. The movements are known as preservation and conservation. I introduce both movements and outline their main thoughts. Both movements are represented by prominent leaders, in case of preservation, it is John Muir and the conservation’s prominent figure is Gifford Pinchot. Then, I focus on explanation of the term environmentalism itself. After I explain what environmentalism mean, I compare the conventional values with the environmental values, which are also called “green” values. The modern environmental movement emerged around the time when Santa Barbara oil spill (1969) took place and it was also time when people were exposed to multitude of chemicals. One of the reactions on the current environmental situation was publication of the Silent Spring, book written by marine biologist, Rachel Carson. The other notable event, which possibly emerged modern environmental movement, is the first Earth Day, celebrated in USA in 1970. Both of the events are considered as milestones in history of modern environmental movement. The events also awakened 5 new thinking about environment. Simply noted, people started to worry about the environment they lived and its future. I provide details and background on both of the events and I finish the chapter with changes in environmental policy due to publication of Rachel Carson’s book and positive response of the first Earth Day. In the chapter, which deals with the environmental movement from 1970s to 1990s, I present the key legislation, which was passed during this era. The era was on its peak and we can consider it fairly successful. What is more, environmental organizations increased in membership and area of their concern broaden due to more people, who cared to protect their environment. Furthermore, during those twenty years, new organizations were established. I have selected Sierra Club for a detailed analysis, because it was one of the first organizations, which played an important part in emergence of environmental movement in USA. I present the main interests of the club and its activities. The Club’s main focus is to bring people to take a closer look on nature and experience it, all in order to preserve it and care for it. Finally, the last topic I will comment on is the environmental issues in the United States. The environmental organizations were mostly oriented on dealing with pollution and waste during the modern era, which had lasting impact on nature surroundings and on living conditions of citizens. In the chapter, I will focus on oil spills. The most notable event which happened, was the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989. The accident had a devastating consequences on not only people being dependent on fishing, but also on beautiful nature, which was polluted by oil. To sum up, the environmental movement is still developing and changing due to different approaches in the field of industry. There are more and more people, who are committed to living environmentally friendly, it is also due to environmental organizations, who advocate education on the problems we are facing now. 6 2. ORIGINS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE UNITED STATES Since the colonization of America the land has been exploiting. People could learn more about nature from the earlier works of purely American writers, I mean, there were also writers who followed the British tradition. The appreciation of wilderness has its roots in the American Romanticism, more precisely in transcendentalism. At the beginning of nineteenth century, there were “the cultural archetypes that represented three different attitudes towards the environment: the primitive, as represented in James Fenimore Cooper’s frontier hero, Natty Bumppo, the pastoral, as represented in Jonathan Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, and the commercial, as represented in Washington Irving’s restless Yankee, Ichabod Crane.”1 James Fenimore Cooper was the first American writer, who is inspired by American landscape. He was witnessing decay of the buffalo and other endangered species, such as panther. This “influenced Cooper’s understanding and appreciation of nature, and he was the first to criticize the human impact on the American environment.”2 We should not forget about the one of the early intellectual, Ralph Waldo Emerson and his well known essay Nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the earlier conservationists, who was realizing that human progress would change nature in the future. As John Adams argues in his article about R. W. Emerson. “On the one hand, Emerson praises nature and, especially the experience of nature, but