Informational
Poster
You are going to make an informational
poster.
Your poster will include:
A title for your poster (“Jimmy Carter &
the Environment” or “Environmental
Protection Agency”)
Colored picture of your person or event
(yes you can print it offline)
Description of all important contributions
to bettering the environment.
All Data Sources listed on the back of
the poster!!!!
Needs to be viewable from 10 Feet Away
or more
Must grab the Views Attention and teach
them something in less than a minute.
Be ready to present!
Environmental History of the United States
The Tribal Era
The Frontier Era (1607-1890)
The Early Conservation Era (1832 – 1960)
The Environmental Era (1960 – Present)
The Tribal and Frontier Eras
Tribal Era:
Native Americans:
5-10 million tribal people
 Native Americans for at least
10,000 years caused some
extinctions, but generally were
low-impact hunter-gather or
agricultural societies
 Most cultures had a deep
reverence for nature and did not
believe in land ownership.
Frontier Environmental Worldview:
European Settlement (1607-1890)
 Resources were thought to be
inexhaustible
 The land was viewed as hostile,
dangerous, and needing to be
conquered
 The frontier was to be conquered, and
this attitude is still a part of American
culture
Impacts of the Frontier
Environmental Worldview
The near extinction of the American
Bison
The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960)
 A few people warned Americans
of resource base degradation,
but now many listened to
warnings
 Conservationists urged protection
of public wilderness areas
Henry David Thoreau wrote Life
in the Woods, an environmental
classic about his observations of
nature for two years in the
Massachusetts woods
George Perkins Marsh, a
scientist and Vermont legislator,
published Man and Nature in
1864 in which he presented
studies to show resources must
be conserved
The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960)
 Between 1870 and 1930, the role
of the federal government and
private citizens increased to protect
natural resources
The Forest Reserve Act of 1891
established that federal
government was responsible for
protecting public lands from
exploitation.
John Muir was a geologist and
naturalist who founded the Sierra
Club in 1892. He lobbied for
conservation laws, he led the
preservationist movement to limit
use of public wilderness to hiking
and camping, he lobbied for a
National Park system, and he was
responsible for establishing
Yosemite National Park in 1890
The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960)
• President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) established
wildlife reserves and tripled the size of national forest
reserves.
• He persuaded Congress to grant the president power
to designate public land as federal wildlife reserves
• The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) was created in 1905
with Gifford Pinchot as its first chief.
• The Antiquities Act of 1906 allows the president to
protect areas of scientific or historical interest on
federal lands as national monuments.
• In 1907 Congress banned executive withdrawals of
public forests.
• Roosevelt is considered to be the best environmental
president.
• The National Park Service Act was passed by Congress in
1916
The Early Conservation Era (1832-1960)
Set backs to early conservation
Attempts at restoration
 Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and
Hoover promoted resource removal
from public lands at low prices to
stimulate economic growth
In the 1930s the government bought
land and hired workers to restore
the country’s degraded
environment
 Hoover proposed selling all public
lands to private interests for
economic development.
 The Great Depression was
devastating for the nation, but
forestalled the purchase of public
lands by private interests
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
established conservation projects
and public health projects in the
1930s.
The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC)
was established in 1933.
Two million people obtained work with
CCC restoring degraded
environments and building dams
providing jobs, flood control,
irrigation water, and cheap
electricity.
Important Figures During The Early Conservation Era
 Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)
Life in the Woods – he saw a loss of
wild species in the Northeastern
United States
 George Perkins Marsh
(1801-1882)
Man and Nature – questioned whether
resources were inexhaustible
 John Muir
(1838-1914)
Founder of the Sierra Club
 Theodore Roosevelt
(1858-1919)
 Gifford Pinchot
(1865-1946)
 Franklin Roosevelt
(1882-1945)
His term in office was called the
“Golden Age of Conservation” 190109
Appointed to manage and protect
forests USFS- Scientifically managed
forests (multiple use policy)
“The New Deal” and (CCC) Civilian
Conservation Corps- Restoration
projects including tree plantings, dam
and levee repairs
The Environmental Era (1960-Present)
Events that influenced the Environmental Movement
Minamata Bay, Japan – Methyl Mercury (1959)
Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (1962) –Impacts of
pesticide use
Oil polluted Cuyahoga River flowing through Cleveland,
Ohio, catches fire and burns
for 8 days. (1968)
The Science of Ecology
Paul Ehrlich –The Population Bomb (1968)
Garrett Hardin – Tragedy of the Commons
(1968)
Barry Commoner-The Closing Circle (1971)
Aldo Leopold – Sand County Almanac (1949)
Environmental Era
Firefighters battle a fire on Ohio's Cuyahoga
River in 1952. The polluted river caught fire
on several occasions between 1936 and 1969,
when debris and oil had concentrated on the
water's surface and ignited. A blaze in 1969
came at a time of increasing environmental
awareness and symbolized years of
environmental neglect. The Cuyahoga River
fires helped spur grassroots activism that
resulted in a wave of federal legislation
devoted to taking serious action against air
and water pollution.
A crushed
Caspian tern egg,
broken because
of DDT-induced
weakening of the
shell, next to a
normal egg.
Important Figures During The Environmental Era
Richard Nixon:
EPA – Environmental Protection
Agency (1970)
ESA – Endangered Species Act (1973)
strengthen the role of the federal
government in protecting
endangered species and their
habitats
Clean Air Act (1970)
Resources Recovery Act (1970)
Safe Drinking Water Act (1973)
Jimmy Carter:
DOE – Department of Energy (1977)
Superfund - Comprehensive Environment Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980 designed to clean
up abandoned hazardous waste sites like Love Canal, New
York
Carter used the Antiquities Act 1906 to triple the land in the National
Wilderness system and doubled the land in the National Park system.
The Environmental Decade - The 70’s
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
received its first real authority to
manage public lands under its control
with the passage of the Federal Land
Policy and Management Act in 1978,
85% of public lands are in 12 western
states. The law angered a number of
western interests whose use of public
lands was restricted for the first time.
Opposition to the Environmental Movement
A political campaign known as the
“sagebrush rebellion” resulted as
miners, ranchers, loggers, developers,
farmers, and others joined together to
try to greatly reduce government
regulation and to persuade legislators
to sell or lease these lands to private
interests at low prices
1980’s: Backlash Against Environmentalism
Environmental backlash
An anti-environmental movement formed to
weaken or rescind many of the environmental
laws passed during the 1960s and 1970s in order
to destroy the political effectiveness of the
environmental movement 1980’s: backlash
against environmentalism
1980’s: Backlash Against Environmentalism
Ronald Reagan – a self-declared
sagebrush rebel advocated less
federal control
 Greatly increased private energy
and mineral development and
timber cutting on public lands
during his eight years in office
 During this period federal funding
for research on energy conservation
and renewable energy resources
was drastically cut
 The “wise-use” movement was
formed in 1988, backed by coal, oil,
mining, automobile, timber, and
ranching interests. The goals were
to weaken/repeal environmental
laws and incapacitate the
environmental movement
Some Environmental Events of the 1980’s
Three Mile Island (1979) Pennsylvania, United States – nuclear
accident the core was exposed and there was small radiation leak.
Poor design an human error
Union Carbide Pesticide Plant (1984) Bhopal, India – Toxic fumes
from a pesticide plant killed 6000 people and injure between
50,000-60,000 people.
Chernobyl (1986) Ukraine – the world’s most serious nuclear
accident (explosion) 30 people killed thousand developed cancer
after the exposure.
Times Beach, Missouri (1986) – evacuated and bought by the EPA
because of dioxin contamination
Exxon Valdez (1989) – Oil tanker accident in Alaska’s Prince William
Sound
These events made the public more aware of the dangers of
ignoring the environment
Recent Event
BP – Gulf Oil Spill (2010) – Greatest environmental disaster in
United States history
Current Environmental Politics
Clinton Administration
Most environmental efforts since 1990 have been spent
trying to keep anti-environmentalists from weakening or
eliminating laws passed in the 1960s and 1970s
Bill Clinton appointed environmentalists to key positions in
environmental and resource agencies during the eight
years of his presidency
He protected more public land as national monuments in
the lower 48 states than any other president
Environmentalists have had to counter claims that
problems such as global warming and ozone depletion
are hoaxes or not serious