Historical Overview of the Modern Environmental Movement

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Historical Overview of the Modern Environmental
Movement
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In the beginning

• 10,000 years ago the human population began to
  rise after the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution.
• Humans settled to become farmers instead of local
  hunter-gatherers.
• This meant managing local resources (food, water,
  fuel) sustainably around the settlement

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Industrial Revolution

• Began in the early 1800s
• Produced goods and services for nearly all, but
  demanded the burning of large amounts of trees
  and coal.
• Required large-scale mining.
• Land was cleared, natural waterways were
  polluted, cities became crowded and smoky.

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James Fenimore Cooper

• 1820s
• Wrote Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, and The
  Prairie.
• Natural resources are not infinite.
• Nature must be preserved for future generations.
• Pollution and other activities endanger life on
  Earth.

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Ralph Waldo Emersonand Henry David Thoreau

• Wrote about a reverence for the natural world.
• Described an almost mystical experience.
• Transcendentalists.
• Not a scientists.

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1900-1960Environmental Awareness Grows
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Theodore Roosevelt

• U.S. President 1901-9
• Instrumental in founding the U.S. Forest Service
  and National Parks.
• Believed the health of the nation depended upon
  the health of the land.

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John Muir

• Perhaps the first preservationist.
• Believed that nature for be preserved for its own
  sake, not to provide resources for humans.
• Said nature is a mirror reflecting the Creator.
• Founded the Sierra Club in 1892.
• Fought for the preservation of Yosemite National
  Park.

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Roosevelt and Muir in Yosemite 1903
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Gifford Pinchot

• A conservationist.
• Believed that forests should be used both to
  conserve the environment and to provide resources
  for humans.
• Muir and Pinchot disagreed over the Hetch Hetchy
  Dam project.

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William Hornaby

• 1913 wrote the influential book, Our Vanishing
  Wildlife.
• 1914 Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died in
  the Cincinnati Zoo.

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The Dust Bowl

• In the 1930s, in the grass plains of North
  America.
• Drought and winds turned the farms into dust and
  ruined agriculture.
• Likely caused by a combination of poor farming
  practices and a severe drought.

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The Green Revolution

• 1940s 1960s
• Modern agriculture boosted food production
  significantly.
• Required machinery and tremendous amounts of
  fossil fuel.
• New crops varieties were developed and fertilizer
  and pesticide use rose sharply.
• World population grew to about 3 billion.

14
Aldo Leopold

• Wrote A Sand County Almanac in 1949.
• Widely considered the most important
  environmental book ever written.
• Argues that we have an ethical responsibility to
  be good stewards of the land.

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1960sModern Environmental Movement Gains
Momentum in U.S.
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Rachel Carson

• Wrote Silent Spring.
• Warned of the effects of pesticides.
• As a result, DDT was banned.
• May have been a mistake, as DDT is an effective
  means to prevent malaria.

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1970s

• The movement goes global.
• A number of prominent NGOs (private
  organizations) were formed.
• Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace were both
  established in 1971.
• The first UN Earth Summit was held in Stockholm,
  Sweden in 1972.
• CITES Treaty 1975
• Many controversial environmental ideas were
  explored.

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1980s

• 1984 Union Carbide pesticide plant released 40
  tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas, immediately
  killing nearly 3,000 and ultimately killing
  15,000 people.
• 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine
  exploded. 4,000 immediate deaths, estimated
  30,000 deaths ultimately.

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1980s

• 1987 Montreal Protocol was signed, requiring
  nations to reduce CFC emissions.
• 1988 UN forms the Intergovernmental Panel on
  Climate Change (IPCC).
• 1989 Exxon Valdez runs aground and spills 10.8
  million gallons of crude oil into Alaskas
  Prudhoe Bay.

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1990s

• 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Focused on global warming and global economics.
• Green awareness became widespread in developed
  nations.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
• Green Party gains power in Europe.
• Ecotourism thrives.

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2000s

• 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa
  was largest to date.
• Focused on 5 areas
• Water and sanitation
• Energy
• Health
• Agriculture
• Biodiversity
• Kyoto Protocol became a legal requirement in 2005.