Environmental History: Learning from the Past

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Chapter 2

• Environmental History Learning from the Past

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentHuman History

• Homo sapiens have been on Earth 160,000 years
• Until 12,000 years ago we were hunter-gatherers,
  moving as we needed for food

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentThree
Cultural Changes

• Agricultural revolution
• Began 10-12,000 yrs ago
• Industrial revolution
• 150 years ago
• Information and globalization revolution
• 50 years ago

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Cultural Changes and the Environment Three
Cultural Changes

• Have increased our impact on environment in
  several ways
• More energy and technology
• Increased food production
• Expansion of human population
• Increase in resource use

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentHunters-Gathe
rers

• Most of our existence
• Collect edible plants, fish, hunt
• Lived in small nomadic bands
• Worked together to survive
• Population grew slowly
• Small environmental impact
• South Africa San, Khwe, Sho, Bushmen, and
  Basarwa
• Australia Spinifex people

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentHunters-Gathe
rers

• Small environmental impact due to
• Understanding of natural surrounding
• Low population
• Low resource use
• Migration to allow reparation
• Lack of technology

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentAgricultural
Revolution

• Agricultural Revolution-
• Began 10-12,000 years ago
• H-G ? settled, agricultural communities
• Plant cultivation developed
• Slash and burn/shifting cultivation
• Sustainable
• Grew food for subsistence
• Little impact on the environment-no machinery

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Agricultural Revolution
Good News
Bad News
Destruction of wildlife habitats from clearing
forests and grasslands
More food
Supported a larger population
Killing of wild animals feeding on grass or crops
Longer life expectancy
Fertile land turned into desert by livestock
overgrazing
Higher standard of living for many people
Soil eroded streams and lakes
Formation of villages, towns, and cities
Towns and cities concentrated wastes and
pollution and increased spread of diseases
Towns and cities served as centers for trade,
government,and religion
Increase in armed conflict and slavery over
ownership of land and water resources
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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentIndustrial/Me
dical Revolution

• Industrial/Medical Revolution-
• Began in England in 1700s
• U.S. in 1800s
• Huge shift in culture

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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentIndustrial/Me
dical Revolution

• Cultural shifts
• Renewable (wood, water) ? nonrenewable
• Localized goods ?large scale, machine made
• Rural ? urban
• Increased crop yields/acre w/ farm machinery
• Population ? sharply
• Environmental impact ?

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Trade-Offs
Industrial-Medical Revolution
Good News
Bad News
Increased air pollution
Mass production of useful and affordable products
Increased water pollution
Higher standard of living for many
Increased waste pollution
Greatly increased agricultural production
Soil depletion and degradation
Lower infant mortality
Groundwater depletion
Longer life expectancy
Increased urbanization
Habitat destruction and degradation
Lower rate of population growth
Biodiversity depletion
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Cultural Changes and the EnvironmentInformation
and Global Revolution

• Information and Global Revolution-
• 1950s
• New technology to gain rapid access to global
  info
• TV
• Telephone/Cellphone
• Satellites
• Computers
• Did You Know?

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Trade-Offs
Information-Globalization Revolution
Good News
Bad News
Computer-generated models and maps of the
earths environmental systems
Information overload can cause confusion and
sense of hopelessness
Remote-sensing satellite surveys of the worlds
environmental systems
Globalized economy can increase environmental
degradation by homogenizing the earths surface
Ability to respond to environmental problems more
effectively and rapidly
Globalized economy can decrease cultural diversity
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Environmental History of theUnited States4 Eras

• The environmental history of the US can be
  divided into 4 eras
• Tribal
• Frontier
• Early Conservation
• Environmental

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Environmental History of the USTribal Era

• Tribal Era-
• Native Americans
• 10,000 years before European settlement
• Hunter Gatherers
• Slash and burn/shifting cultivation
• Small populations
• Low environmental impact

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Environmental History of the USFrontier Era

• Frontier Era-
• Early 1600sEuropean settlement
• Frontier environmental worldviewvast and
  inexhaustible resources
• Tribes and land conquered
• Public?private land
• Government declared frontier officially closed in
  1890

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Environmental History of the USEarly
Conservation Era 1832-1870

• Early Conservation Era-
• Alarm at resource depletion
• Urged part of unspoiled wilderness be protected
  as legacy to future generations
• Thoreau (Life in the Woods) and other writers
  addressed these issues but not taken seriously
• Active role of government increases
• Environmental change within democracies involves
  voicing opinions through elected officials,
  legislation, budgeting, and lobbying by special
  interest groups.

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Environmental History of the USEarly
Conservation Era1870-1930

• Actions ? role of government and private citizens
  in resource conservation

• 1891-Forest Reserve Act established federal
  government as responsible for protecting public
  lands
• 1892-John Muir founded Sierra Club and led
  preservationist movement
• 1890-Yosemite National Park

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Environmental History of the USEarly
Conservation Era1870-1930 cont.

• Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1908
• Established wildlife reserves and tripled size of
  national reserve
• President given power to designate public land as
  federal wildlife reserves
• 1905-US Forest Service
• 1906-Antiquities Act President can protect areas
  on federal lands as national monuments (Grand
  Canyon)
• Golden Age of Conservation

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Environmental History of the USEarly
Conservation Era1870-1930 cont.

• 1916-National Park Service Act creates National
  Park System
• President Hoover wanted to return or sell federal
  lands but the Great Depression left people unable
  to do business
• GOOD THING!!

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Environmental History of the USEarly
Conservation Era1930-1960

• Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
• 1933-Civil Conservation Corp (CCC)
• 2 million people employed
• Restore degraded environment, built dams, parks,
  etc.
• 1940s and 50s had little change

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Aldo Leopold

• 1887-1948
• Forester, writer, conservationist
• Wrote A Sand County Almanac
• Describes the Land Ethic

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Case Study Aldo Leopold and HisLand Ethic

• Individuals are interdependent
• Humans are a part of nature
• Ethics humans have an ethical responsibility to
  preserve nature.
• Shift from conqueror to member
• Problem arises when land viewed as a commodity.
• Preservation of integrity, stability, and beauty
  of land is right.

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Types of Environmental Laws

• Some of the key types of environmental protection
  laws in the United States (see Appendix in book)
• Setting pollution standards (e.g, Clean Air Act)
• Cleanup and restoration ("Superfund Act"
  Comprehensive Environmental Response,
  Compensation, and Liability Act)
• Screening substances for safety (e.g., Toxic
  Substances Control Act)
• Requiring environmental impact assessment (e.g.,
  National Environmental Policy Act)
• Protecting ecosystems, resources, and species
  (e.g., Endangered Species Act)
• Encouraging resource conservation (e.g.,
  National Energy Act)

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Policy in the United States
Primary forces involved in making environmental
policy at the federal level in the United States.
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Environmental Groups

• Various mainstream environmental groups actively
  influence environmental policy in the United
  States
• Nature Conservancy works to evaluate, purchase,
  and protect critical habitat
• Sierra Club works to focus public attention on
  key environmental issues, especially with respect
  to land management and protection
• National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon
  Society, and World Wildlife Fund focus attention
  on wildlife conservation

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Environmental Groups

• Worldwatch Institute serves as a think tank and
  research center to compile and communicate
  environmental information
• Greenpeace focuses public attention by activism.

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Environmental Groups

• Recently experienced declined membership and
  reduced budgets
• Group of 10" largest U.S. environmental
  organizations depend heavily on corporate
  donations
• 6,000 grassroots organizations address issues of
  concern to citizens, focused locally, regionally,
  or on a specific issue.
• Anti-environmental groups focus on weakening or
  repealing existing environmental laws.

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1960s

• Environmental Era-
• Citizens began modern environmental movement
• 1962-Rachel Carson published Silent Spring about
  pesticide effects
• 1963-Clean Air Act
• 1964 Wilderness Act protecting tracts of land in
  the Wilderness System
• 1968-Garrett Hardin
• 1969-Spaceship Earth worldview

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1970s

• Environmental decade
• 1970-1st Earth Day
• Nixon
• 1970-EPA established
• 1973-Endagered Species Act
• 1978-Bureau of Land Management started to manage
  public lands through Federal Land Policy and
  Management Act
• Sagebrush rebellion

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1970s cont..

• Jimmy Carter
• 1977-Department of Energy (DOE)
• to reduce dependence on foreign oil
• 1977-Clean Water Act
• 1980-Superfund created in response to Love Canal
  to clean up abandoned hazardous waste
• Tripled land in National Wilderness system and
  doubled land in the National Park System

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1980s

• Anti-environmental movement formed to weaken laws
  of 60s and 70s
• Ronald Reagan
• Increased private energy, mineral
• development and timber cutting
• Funding for environmental resources cut
• The wise use movement formed to weaken
  government over environmental issues

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1990-2012

• George Bush Sr.
• Weakened protections on almost as much public
  lands as Teddy Roosevelt protected
• Increase fossil fuel use
• Relaxation on air and water quality standards
• 1992 attended the United Nations Conference,
  Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to
  discuss environmental issues

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1990-2012 cont.

• Clinton protected more public lands as national
  monuments than any other President.
• 1997-Kyoto Japan 161 nations
• met to negotiate a treaty to decrease
  emissions and slow climate change
• Environmentalists countering claims climate
  change and ozone depletion are hoaxes

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1990-2012 cont.

• George Bush Jr
• Followed in fathers footsteps
• Withdrew US totally from Kyoto treaty
• Frontlines Hot Politics

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Environmental History of the USEnvironmental
Era1990-2012

• Barack Obama
• Campaigned on strong environmental plateform
• As President has pledged to take actions to
  build the foundation for a clean energy economy,
  tackle the issue of climate change, and protect
  the environment.
• Obamas environmental policy is struggling under
  political and economic pressures
• Whats next?!