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TSW: What are the origins of the environmental
movement and what are the significant measures taken
to combat environmental problems
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1960’s Environmental Movement Begins
• In 1962 Rachel Carson wrote the book
Silent Spring
• Pesticides like DDT poisoned eagles'
foods and weakened eggshells
• Americans took warnings to heart and
1/2 million copies of the book were in
sold 6 months
• The Chemical Industry was outraged
by the book
• A 1972 ban on DDT led to gradual
improvements in population.
"Over increasingly large areas of the United States
spring now comes unheralded by the return of
birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent
where once they were filled with the beauty of
bird song."
(Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)
• Wildlife experts
believe there may have
been 25,000 to as many
as 75,000 nesting bald
eagles in the lower 48
states when the bird was
adopted as our national
symbol in 1782
• By the early 1960’s eagles
faced extinction with only 450
nesting pairs existing in the
U.S.
• Laws were enacted to protect
the eagles and eliminate the
use of DDT. There are now
nearly 4,500 adult bald eagle
nesting pairs in the U.S.
What does it say about a nation when
its national bird is endangered?
The Movement Blossoms
• Smog
– fog with smoke and chemicals
• Oil Spills
– Exxon Valdez
• Nuclear Disasters
– Three Mile Island
– Chernobyl
• Pollution
– Love Canal and other areas faced
serious pollution problems as a result
of illegal dumping
Smog in Los Angeles
Smog in Atlanta
Smog in Denver
Smog in DFW
Exxon Valdez Spill of 1989
• The oil tanker ran
aground on a reef in
Puget Sound.
• 10.9 million gallons
of oil were spilled
• The accident resulted
in the largest oil spill
clean-up response
ever mobilized.
Exxon Valdez
Three Mile Island
• March 28, 1979 in
Harrisburg, Penn.
• Reactor at nuclear
facility overheated
and radiation
escaped
• Citizens evacuated
• Left the public in
great doubt about
the safety of
nuclear power
• Since 1973, 60 US facilities
shut down and no new facilities
have opened.
Chernobyl
• April 1986 in the Ukraine
• Soviet workers were poorly
trained
• A reactor overheated
resulting in a massive
explosion that released
radiation into the atmosphere
• Soviets attempted to cover
up the disaster
• The area and the people
suffer the effects of the
disaster still today.
Chernobyl
How would you like to live
next to a nuclear power plant?
What about the water?
Would you swim? Fish?
Drink?
Where do you get your water?
Love Canal
• In the late 1970’s a
• Resident Lois Gibbs
community in Niagara
organized the neighborhood
Falls, NY began
and demanded the federal
noticing increased
government address the
health problems such as:
problems
– cancer
• local and state officials
– miscarriages
were not cooperating
– birth defects
• 1978 entire nation
• Residents discovered
• That same year 200 families
they were living on top
were relocated
of a toxic waste dump.
Love Canal (continued)
• In 1980 Pres. Carter
declared the area a
federal disaster area
• 600 remaining
families new
locations
• 1984 sued company
that dumped
• $20 million awarded
• Site was cleaned up
Grassroots Effort Begins
•
•
•
•
Earth Day -1970
Environmental awareness
Campaigns against littering
Demonstrations against air
pollution
• Sierra Club
• the Audubon Society
• the Wilderness Society
Government Steps In
• Environmental
Protection Act was
signed in 1970 by
President Nixon
• set and enforce
pollution standards
• promotes research
• Coordinates antipollution activities
Government Steps In
• Clean Air Act
• 1970
– Nixon tried to
Veto
• est. emission
standards
– factories
– automobiles
Government Steps In
• Clean Water Act
– 1972
– Nixon attempted to
veto this bill also
• Endangered Species Act
– 1973
• These laws produced a
dramatic improvement in
some areas
Ralph Nader
1965 Unsafe at Any Speed
• Charged that automobile
manufactures put style, cost, and
speed ahead of safety
• The auto industry hired P.I.’s to
uncover information that would
discredit him…and found none
• But the incident came to public
light and they became much more
aware of safety issues
Nader’s efforts spurred Congress
• National Traffic and Motor
Vehicle Safety Act
• 1966
• recalls for defects
• industry subject to feds
• safety standards incorporated
into car designs
TAKS
1. Air pollution in growing urban areas is
most often caused by –
•
•
•
•
A
B
C
D
inefficient home-heating systems
fossil-fuel-powered motor vehicles
electric-powered light-rail systems
nuclear-powered electric generators
TAKS
• We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as
inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of this
country . . . does not reproduce itself, and therefore is
certain to be exhausted ultimately.
• —President Theodore Roosevelt in his Seventh Annual
Message to Congress, 1907
1. The quote was used to gain support for the
creation of the —
–
–
–
–
A
B
C
D
Environmental Protection Agency
National Conservation Commission
Greenpeace organization
Sierra Club
TAKS REVIEW
• The problems we face are not limited to one coast or one region. From the
contaminated waters of Boston Harbor to the pollution of San Francisco Bay;
from the closed shellfish beds of the Chesapeake to the growing "dead zone" in
the Gulf of Mexico; from the Puget Sound Superfund sites to the PCB-ridden
striped bass of New York; coastal pollution is pervasive and growing more
deadly with each passing year.
— Congressional Record, June 1989
1.
Population growth in coastal regions has contributed to
the problems described above by -–
–
–
–
A creating a need for more highways
B causing an increase in flooding and soil erosion
C creating a demand for more clean water
D producing increasing amounts of sewage and other
waste products
Student Assessment
• http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessmen
t/resources/online/2001/eoc/ushistory.html
• http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessmen
t/resources/online/2002/eoc/ushistory.html
The Politics of Protest (Ch. 26)
• The Student Movement (Section 1)
– Port Huron Statement, Tom Hayden, counterculture
• The Feminist Movement (Section 2)
– Equal Pay Act, EEOC, Betty Frieden
• The Civil Rights Movement (Section 3)
– affirmative action, Allan Bakke, busing
• Saving the Earth (Section 4)