Environmental History LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Briefly outline the environmental history of the feet of white pine, leaving less than 6 billion board feet United States. standing in the whole state. 2. Describe the contributions of the following people During the 19th century, many U.S. naturalists began to our perspective on the environment: John to voice concerns about conserving natural resources. John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, George James Audubon (1785–1851) painted lifelike portraits of Perkins Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford birds and other animals in their natural surroundings that Pinchot, John Muir, Franklin Roosevelt, Aldo aroused widespread public interest in the wildlife of North Leopold, Wallace Stegner, Rachel Carson, Paul America (Figure 3.2). Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Wangari Maathai. 3. Distinguish between utilitarian conservationists />>}iÀÃÊ UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰÓÊ and biocentric preservationists. 4. Explain how a systems perspective helps us This portrayal is one of 500 engravings in Audubon’s classic, The Birds of America understand human impacts on the environment. , completed in 1844. Shown are two male Louisiana tanagers (also called western tanagers, top) and male and female scarlet tanagers (bottom). rom the establishment of the first perma- nent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, the first two centuries of U.S. his- F tory were a time of widespread environmen- tal destruction. European settlers exploited land, timber, wildlife, rich soil, clean water, and other resources that had been used sustainably by native peoples for thou- sands of years. The settlers did not recognize that the bountiful natural resources of North America would one day become scarce. During the 1700s and most of the 1800s, many Americans had a frontier attitude, a desire to conquer nature and put its resources to use in the most lucrative manner possible. Two characteristics of European settlers and their descendants drove this unsustainable resource use: rapid population growth and high per person consumption. European settlements tended to be more densely popu- lated than were those of natives, and settlers accumulated more permanent material goods (houses, roads, wagons, furniture, tools, and clothing).
Protecting Forests The great forests of the Northeast were cut down within a few generations of European settlement, and, shortly after the Civil War in the 1860s, loggers began deforest- ing the Midwest at an alarming rate. Within 40 years, they had deforested an area the size of Europe, stripping Min- nesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin of virgin forest. By 1897
the sawmills of Michigan had processed 160 billion board Courtesy Library of Congress
Environmental History 51 a prominent U.S. writer, lived for 2 years on utilitarian only after designating 21 new national forests the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, conservationist that totaled 6.5 million hectares (16 million Massachusetts. There he observed nature and A person who values acres). contemplated how people could simplify their natural resources Roosevelt appointed Gifford Pinchot lives to live in harmony with the natural world. because of their (1865–1946) the first head of the U.S. Forest usefulness to humans George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) was a Service. Both Roosevelt and Pinchot were but uses them farmer, linguist, and diplomat at various times sensibly and carefully. utilitarian conservationists who viewed forests during his life. Today he is most remembered in terms of their usefulness to people—such for his book Man and Nature, published in 1864, which as in providing jobs and renewable resources. Pinchot provided one of the first discussions of humans as agents supported expanding the nation’s forest reserves and of global environmental change. managing them scientifically (for instance, harvesting In 1875 a group of public-minded citizens formed trees only at the rate at which they regrow). Today, national the American Forestry Association with the intent of forests are managed for multiple uses, from biological influencing public opinion against the wholesale destruc- habitats to recreation to timber harvest to cattle grazing. tion of America’s forests. Sixteen years later, in 1891, the F orest Reserve Act (which was part of the General Land Law Revision Act) gave the U.S. president the au- Establishing National Parks thority to establish forest reserves on public (federally and Monuments owned) land. Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901), Grover Congress established the world’s first national park in Cleveland (1837–1908), William McKinley (1843–1901), 1872, after a party of Montana explorers reported on the and Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) used this law to natural beauty of the canyon and falls of the Yellowstone put a total of 17.4 million hectares (43 million acres) of River. Yellowstone National Park now includes parts of forest, primarily in the West, out of the reach of loggers. Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. In 1890 the Yosemite In 1907 angry Northwest congressmen pushed National Park Bill established the Yosemite and Sequoia through a bill stating that national forests could no national parks in California, largely in response to longer be created by the president but would require the efforts of a single man, naturalist and writer John an act of Congress. Roosevelt signed the bill into law but Muir (1838–1914) (Figure 3.3). Muir, who as a child
President Theodore Roosevelt (left) >`Ê Ê ÕÀÊ UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰÎÊ This photo was taken on Glacier Point above Yosemite Valley, California.
52 CHAPTER 3 Bettman/Corbis Images Courtesy National Archives
Joanne Hoyoung Lee/ KRT/NewsCom
a
iÌV ÊiÌV ÞÊ6>iÞÊÊ9ÃiÌiÊ UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰ{Ê Some environmental battles involving the protection of national parks were lost. John Muir’s Sierra Club fought with the city of San Francisco over its efforts to dam a river and form a reservoir in the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley, which lay within Yosemite National Park. In 1913 Congress approved the dam. The State of California is considering restoring Hetch Hetchy, at an estimated cost as high as $10 billion. Hetch Hetchy Valley before (a) and after (b) the dam was built.
b
emigrated from Scotland with his family, was a biocentric Controversy over preservation battles, such as the preservationist. Muir also founded the Sierra Club, a na- Hetch Hetchy Valley conflict, generated a strong senti- tional conservation organization that is still active on a ment that the nation should better protect its national range of environmental issues. parks (Figure 3.4). In 1916 Congress created the National In 1906 Congress passed the Antiqui- Park Service to manage the national parks and biocentric ties Act, which authorized the president to monuments for the enjoyment of the public, preservationist set aside sites that had scientific, historic, or A person who “without impairment.” It was this clause that prehistoric importance. By 1916 there were 16 believes in protecting gave a different outcome to another battle, national parks and 21 national monuments, nature from human fought in the 1950s between conservationists under the loose management of the U.S. interference because and dam builders over the construction of a Army. Today there are 58 national parks and all forms of life dam within Dinosaur National Monument. 74 national monuments under the manage- deserve respect and Preservationists convinced decision makers consideration. ment of the National Park Service. that to fill the canyon with 400 feet of water
Environmental History 53 conservation movement of the mid- to late 20th century ( Figure 3.5). His textbook Game Management, published in 1933, supported the passage of a 1937 act in which new taxes on sporting weapons and ammunition funded wildlife management and research. Leopold also wrote about humanity’s relationship with nature and the need to conserve wilderness areas in A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949. Leopold argued for a land ethic and the sacrifices that such an ethic requires. Leopold profoundly influenced many American think- ers and writers, including Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), who penned his famous “Wilderness Essay” in 1962. Stegner’s essay helped create support for the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Stegner wrote:
Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved Everett Collection/Newscom Everett roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will `Ê i«`Ê UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰxÊ Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste . . . Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac is widely considered an We simply need that wild country available to us, even if environmental classic. we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, would “impair” it. This victory for conservation a part of the geography of hope. established the “use without impairment” clause as the firm backbone of legal protection afforded our national During the 1960s, public concern about pollution and parks and monuments. resource quality increased, in large part due to the work of marine biologist Rachel Carson (1907–1964). Carson wrote Conservation in the Mid-20th Century about interrelationships among living organisms, including During the Great Depression, the federal government humans, and the natural environment (Figure 3.6). financed many conservation projects to provide jobs for In her most famous work, Silent Spring, published the unemployed. During his administration, Franklin in 1962, Carson wrote against the indiscriminate use of Roosevelt (1882–1945) established the Civilian Conser- pesticides: vation Corps, which employed 500,000 young men to Pesticide sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost plant trees, make paths and roads in national parks and universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes—nonselective forests, build dams to control flooding, and perform chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” other activities that protected natural resources. and the “bad,” to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish During the droughts of the 1930s, windstorms in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to carried away much of the topsoil in parts of the Great linger on in soil—all this though the intended target may be Plains, forcing many farmers to abandon their farms only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth and search for work elsewhere. The American Dust Bowl without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called alerted the United States to the need for soil conserva- “insecticides,” but “biocides.” tion, and President Roosevelt formed the Soil Conserva- tion Service in 1935. Silent Spring heightened public awareness and Aldo Leopold (1886–1948), a wildlife biologist concern about the dangers of using DDT and other and environmental visionary, greatly influenced the pesticides, including poisoning birds and other wildlife
54 CHAPTER 3 Environmental History, Politics, and Economics Incorporating a systems perspective into environmen- tal management can be a challenge. It is often difficult to predict the long-term or long-distance impacts of an activity. Consequently, management strategies that focus on one aspect of the environment can have unintended consequences. For example, in the 1990s California de- cided to require that MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) be added to gasoline to make it burn more cleanly, thereby improving air quality. However, shortly after MTBE was in- troduced, it began appearing as a contaminant in ground- water (MTBE is toxic). Similarly, there is a constant debate about whether wastes should be buried, thereby taking up space and sometimes leaching to groundwater, or inciner- ated, resulting in a variety of toxic air pollutants. However, a systems perspective can also present better solutions to some environmental problems. For example, rather than spraying pesticides, farmers can eliminate nest- ing spots for pests or import wasps that eat the pests. Like- wise, rather than decide between burying or burning wastes, Erich Hartmann/Magnum Photos, Inc. we can consider strategies to minimize or reuse wastes. ,>V iÊ >ÀÃÊ UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰÈÊ In 1968, when the population of Earth was “only” 3.5 Carson’s book Silent Spring heralded the beginning of the billion people, ecologist Paul Ehrlich published The Popu- environmental movement. lation Bomb. In it he described the stress that such a huge number of people impose on Earth’s life support system, and contaminating human food supplies. Ultimately, the including global depletion of fertile soil, groundwater, and book led to restrictions on the use of certain pesticides. other living organisms. Ehrlich’s book raised the public’s Around this time, the media increasingly covered envi- awareness of the dangers of overpopulation and triggered ronmental incidents, such as hundreds of deaths in New debates about how to deal effectively with population issues. York City from air pollution (1963), closed beaches and Ehrlich’s critics, in particular Julian Simon (1932– fish kills in Lake Erie from water pollution (1965), and 1998), countered that technological advances outpace the detergent foam in a Pennsylvania creek (1966). negative impacts of population growth. A decade into the Rachel Carson’s approach to the environment em- 21st century, both sides of this issue have strong advocates. phasized the value of taking a Ehrlich continues to point out water, climate, agriculture, systems systems perspective. A systems and other global stresses, while many economists counter perspective A perspective that perspective acknowledges that that the collapse Ehrlich predicted has not occurred. considers not just changes or activities in one place immediate or intended can impact environmental condi- The Environmental Movement effects of activities, tions in distant places or in the Until 1970 the voice of environmentalists, people con- but all of the impacts future. Further, these changes cerned about the environment, was heard in the United of those activities in can be difficult to predict and States primarily through societies such as the Sierra other places or at other times. may not be recognized until after Club and the National Wildlife Federation. There was significant or irreversible damage no generally perceived environmental movement until has been done. Carson’s example of a systems perspec- the spring of 1970, when Gaylord Nelson, former sena- tive was that pesticides intended to improve crop yields tor of Wisconsin, urged Harvard graduate student Denis could also kill other organisms. Since Silent Spring was Hayes to organize the first nationally celebrated Earth published, pesticides have been found around the globe, Day. This event awakened U.S. environmental conscious- including in the fatty tissues of polar bears, penguins, and ness to population growth, overuse of resources, and pol- deep-sea fishes. lution and degradation of the environment. On Earth
Environmental History 55 Todd Gipstein/NG Image Collection
Earth Day 1990 in Washington, DC UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰÇÊ
Day 1970, an estimated 20 million people in the United
States planted trees, cleaned roadsides and riverbanks, Pictures Christian Boisseaux/La Vie-REA/Redux and marched in parades to support improvements in re- 7>}>ÀÊ >>Ì >Ê UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰnÊ source conservation and environmental quality. In the years that followed the first Earth Day, environ- Wangari Maathi was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for her efforts advancing sustainability in her native Kenya and worldwide. mental awareness and the belief that individual actions could repair the damage humans were doing to Earth became a pervasive popular movement. Musicians and (1940–1911) established the Greenbelt Movement in other celebrities popularized environmental concerns. Kenya (}ÕÀiÊΰn). Maathai organized women in rural Many of the world’s r eligions—such as Christianity, areas, showing that they could simultaneously improve Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, their social, economic, and environmental conditions— Confucianism, and Jainism— embraced environmental that is, the sustainability of their communities. For her themes such as protecting endangered species and con- efforts, Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize trolling global climate change. in 2004. In 2012 global environmental concern was By Earth Day 1990, the movement had spread around expressed as thousands of people from around the world the world, signaling the rapid growth in environmental converged on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to pressure world consciousness. An estimated 200 million people in 141 leaders to take action on a variety of global environmental nations demonstrated to increase public awareness of problems. Figure 3.9 shows a timeline of selected the importance of individual efforts (“Think globally, environmental events since Earth Day 1970. act locally”) (Figure 3.7). The theme of Earth Day 2000, “Clean Energy Now,” reflected the dangers of global climate change and what individuals and communities could do: Replace fossil fuel energy sources with solar 1. How did public perception of the environment electricity, wind power, and the like. However, by 2000 evolve during the 20th century? many environmental activists had begun to think that the 2. What did Rachel Carson contribute to the individual actions Earth Day espouses, while collectively environmental movement? important, are not as important as pressuring governments 3. What distinguishes utilitarian conservationists and large corporations to make environmentally friendly from biocentric preservationists? decisions. Among the most important people in the 4. How can a systems perspective improve global environmental movement, Wangari Maathai environmental management?
56 CHAPTER 3 Environmental History, Politics, and Economics /iiÊvÊÃiiVÌi`ÊiÛÀiÌ>ÊiÛiÌÃ]ÊvÀÊ£ÇäÊÌÊÌ iÊ«ÀiÃiÌÊ UÊ }ÕÀiÊΰÊ
1970 1974
First Earth Day held in United States. ChlorofluorocarbonsChlorofluorocarbons are first hypothesizedhypothesized ttoo cause ozone thinninthinning.g. 1973
International treaty (Convention on International Trade in Endangered 1979 Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) protects endangered species. Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania has partial meltdown (worst Arab countries in Organization of Petroleum Exporting nuclear accident in U.S. history). Countries announce oil embargo against United States.
1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980
1982 1986 1989 International treaty (Convention on the Law of the Sea) developed to World’s worst accident at nuclear power Exxon Valdez oil tanker creates protect ocean resources. plant occurs in Chornobyl, Soviet Union. huge oil spill in United States.
1987 1984 International treaty (Montreal World’s worst industrial accident (Union Protocol) requires countries to Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India) phase out ozone-depleting kills and injures thousands. chemicals.
1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990
1991 1994 1997 1999
World’s worst oil spill occurs in International Conference on Forest fires destroy more tropical Human population reaches 6 billion. Kuwait during its war with Iraq. Population and Development forests than ever before; Indonesia held in Egypt. is particularly hard hit.
1992
U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) occurs in Brazil. rogerrosentreter/ iStockphoto
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000
2001 2011
President Bush decides the United In Japan, a tsunami floods and States will not ratify Kyoto Protocol, causes meltdown and extensive which mandates reductions in radiation contamination at three 2005 CO2 emissions. nuclear reactors. Hurricane Katrina devastates David McNew/Staff/ Human population reaches 7 billion. parts of the Gulf Coast; poor Getty Images,Inc. environmental management exacerbates effects of natural disaster.
2000 Michale Ainsworth/KRT/ NewsCom 2007 Peter Macdiar- mid/Staff/Getty Images,Inc. The International Treaty 2002 2004 2010 on Persistent Organic The Intergovernmental Panel on Pollutants requires Huge oil spill off Spain’s Record heat waves in Climate Change releases its fourth The Deepwater Horizon, an oil countries to phase out coast raises awareness Europe highlight threat report, concluding that “unequivocal” drilling platform in the Gulf of highly toxic chemicals. of ocean’s vulnerability. of climate change. warming of the climate system is “very Mexico, creates an oil spill that likely” due to human emissions. coats the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida.
2000 2002 2004 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 EnviroDiscovery Environmental Literacy
Because responses to environmental problems depend on the public’s awareness and understanding of the issues and the underlying scientific concepts involved, environmental education is critical to appropriate decision making. The emphasis on environmental education has grown dramatically over the years:
Ik^iZk^][r\hnkl^phkdZmma^bkl\ahhel% almost 100,000 U.S. high school students in 2011 took the College Board Advanced IeZ\^f^gm^qZfbg>gobkhgf^gmZeL\b^g\^%Z m^lmZ\\^im^][rZiikhqbfZm^er*0))\hee^`^l' Fhk^maZg,)lmZm^lk^jnbk^lhf^_hkfh_ environmental education in primary and secondary schools. Bg+)*+%ma^GZmbhgZe :]ZimZmbhgZg]Fbmb`Zmbhg^&E^Zkgbg`ihkmZe /Corbis Pictures © Fritz Hoffmann/In to provide curricular resources for climate a. Elementary school children around the world, such as these students testing educators. tap water in Shanghai, learn about the environment through direct experimentation. Bg+))2%ma^:llh\bZmbhgh_>gobkhgf^gmZe Studies and Sciences was formed to support college and university faculty and students. Ma^GZmbhgZe>gobkhgf^gmZe>]n\Zmbhg:\mh_ *22)k^jnbk^lma^>gobkhgf^gmZeIkhm^\mbhg Agency to increase public awareness and knowledge of environmental issues. Ma^N'G'=^\Z]^h_>]n\Zmbhg_hkLnlmZbgZ[e^ =^o^ehif^gm!+)).È+)*-"bl]^]b\Zm^] to improving basic education, including public understanding about environmental lnlmZbgZ[bebmr'Ikh`kZfl_h\nlhgfZchk themes, such as water, climate change, biodiversity, and disaster prevention. :lh_+)*+ma^:f^kb\Zg 58 CHAPTER 3 Environmental History, Politics, and Economics