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Oct 30, 2023

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Slide 1 Environmentalism In U.S. environmental history While environmental history is not ONLY the history of environmentalism, this movement certainly plays a role in understanding Americans’ interactions with their environment.

Slide 2 Early laws and concerns: 1940s and ‘50s » Water Pollution: FWPCA (1948) » Smog deaths lead to increased concerns about air pollution » Identifying DDT impacts on butterflies » Air Pollution Control Act (1955) Pittsburgh, mid-day, 1944 The environmental movement in the U.S. began slowly, primarily as a reaction to what could be SEEN rather than the more nuanced environmental problems we think (and debate) about now. The first real environmental legislation in the U.S. dates back to 1948 with federal laws about water pollution. This law recognized the challenge of regulating a common resource like water at the city or state level. By dealing with this at the national level, the first steps were taken in preventing those upriver from contaminating everyone (and everything) downstream. The issue of smog was also a concern in early years, as episodes of smog killed more than 100 people and darkened skies. Paul Elrich who would go on to write “The Population Bomb”, was the first to draw attention to the effect of the pesticide DDT and its impact on butterflies in the 1950s. Image source: New York Times/Walter Stein/AP

Slide 3 Growing attention: 1960s » Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring draws attention to pesticides, especially DDT (1962) » The Quiet Crisis by Steward Udall (1963) » Clean Air Act (1963): study/cleanup/ federal control over interstate air pollution » Water Quality Act: federal control over water quality (1965) » First car emission standards 1965 » First endangered species law passed (1966) » Cuyahoga River catches on fire (again) in 1969 3 It was Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, though, that is seen as a key turning point in American attention not just about the impacts of DDT and pesticides, but more broadly to the impact of human activities on the environment, and disinformation campaigns by those who profit from these activities. Other books followed, and then a cascade of pollution control laws, including the Clean Air Act and the Water Quality Act, both of which created greater control by the federal government over these common resources. This was followed by the Endangered Species Act, which required federal agencies to prevent species from becoming extinct. Image Source: American Eagle Foundation

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Slide 4 Earth Day and beyond: 1970s » National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to use environmental impact statements (1970) » Pre-Earth Day activism, Earth Day April 22, 1970 » Nixon establishes the EPA (1970) » NOAA established to monitor and improve oceans (1970) » DDT banned (1972) » Growing energy crisis, culminating in 1973-74 embargo » Love Canal discovered (1978) 4 The rise of the environmental movement culminated in Earth Day, the same year that the National Environmental Policy Act required federal agencies to assess their actions/decisions for their environmental impact, rather than just for economic concerns. The EPA and NOAA were two more federal agencies established in the 1970s to monitor and prevent environmental harms. The energy crisis pushed the U.S. toward alternative fuels, at least for a bit, and in 1978, it was discovered that a neighborhood in Niagara Falls had been built on a toxic waste site, bringing national attention to the issue of waste dumping and pollution. Image Source: Buffalo News

Slide 5 More laws, more problems: 1980s » Superfund created in response to Love Canal (1980) » President Reagan cuts EPA budget by half (1981) » Ozone hole confirmed (1985) » Montreal Protocol signed (1987) » IPCC established to study climate change (1988) » Exxon Valdez spill, kills more than 250,000 birds (1989) 5 In 1980, the response to this issue of toxic waste contamination was the creation of the Superfund Act. This law taxed chemical companies and required polluters to pay for pollution clean up. It also directed and led identification and cleanup of these polluted sites. The 1980s saw the recognition of two major air pollution issues: the ozone hole and greenhouse gas- induced global warming. These are two separate issues! Sometimes students get confused, but they’re actually two separate things. So, just to explain, the ozone layer blocks the Sun’s ultraviolet rays, which can cause health problems including skin cancer. Scientists found in the early ‘80s that this layer was being depleted due to chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, which we were using in aerosol cans and cooling systems. The discovery of what was called the “ozone hole” above the Earth’s polar regions caused global alarm and in 1987, all United Nations countries agreed to phase out these contaminants. So meanwhile, the greenhouse effect and its amplification by human activities had been known about for decades at this point, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that the first global group was formed to study climate change. The 1980s were a time of increased action on environmental issues, but also new challenges. It was a high point in the environmentalist movement, when more than 70 percent of the country considered themselves environmentalists. By 2016, that number had dropped to less than half the country, and there is increasing polarization about and willingness to support environmental issues.