Environmental History: An Overview
Cultural Changes and the Environment
Anatomically modern humans have existed for approximately 100,000 years according to the fossil record.
From that time until about 12,000 years ago, humans were hunter-gatherers, who lived nomadic lives
hunting, fishing, collecting plants, and scavenging. Hunter-gatherers lived in small groups of fewer than
50 people and needed an expert understanding of their environment in order to survive.
At this time the human population was kept low by the high death rate, especially the infant mortality
rate. The average life span at this time was around 30 years.
Hunter-gatherers did exploit their environment, but their overall impact was still relatively small
because:
1.
2.
3.
4.
the overall population was small
tribes migrated often, spreading out the impact
lack of advanced technology
low resource use per person (small ecological footprints)
Approximately 12,000 years ago the agricultural revolution began in several locations throughout the
world. People changed their lifestyle away from hunting and gathering and formed settled farming
communities with domesticated livestock.
Early cultivation styles included slash-and-burn and shifting cultivation. Shifting cultivation involves
using a plot of land for only a few years before letting it lay fallow for a couple of decades in order to let
the nutrients replenish. There was no reason not to at this point, as land was plentiful in comparison to
the population.
Major consequences of the agricultural revolution include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
resource depletion and environmental degradation, especially around settled areas
deforestation and the accompanying erosion
increased spread of disease due to urbanization
increased conflict over land ownership
increased food supply, especially since excess could be stored
lower biodiversity, as native plants and animals were replaced with those that were valuable to
humans as a food supply
The overall impact on the environment of the agricultural revolution was still reasonably low at first
because:
1.
2.
3.
the lack of technology
low overall population size
plenty of land was available per person
Approximately 250 years ago, the industrial revolution began, leading to a rapid expansion of the
production, trade, and distribution of material goods.
Major consequences of the industrial revolution include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
the shift from wood (renewable) to fossil fuels (nonrenewable) as the main source of energy
even more intense urbanization, leading to concentrated pockets of waste and disease
huge increase in the available food supply
better quality of life for many (easily available goods and services, better health care, higher
average income)
As the food supply increases, the population it can support increases, which leads to increased food
production and so on and so on until you end up with about 6.4 billion people.
The overall impact on the environment of the industrial revolution was very high because:
1.
2.
3.
better technology (think of the super ax hacker)
exponentially increasing population
huge amounts of pollution from the industrialization
Approximately 50 years ago, the information revolution began, including the invention of the television,
telephone, home computer, internet, cell phone, etc. Information is now incredibly easy to come by, in
fact, in a lot of cases I think there is information overload.
No one really knows how this latest revolution is really going to affect the environment. I guess it
depends on how people choose to use the information that is now so easily available.
Environmental History of the United States: The Tribal and Frontier Eras
The environmental history of the United States is divided into four eras.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tribal (10,000 years ago – early 1600s)
Frontier (1607-1890)
Conservation (1832-1960)
Environmental (1960 – present)
During the Tribal Era, the only inhabitants of North America were the Native American Indians. Overall
they had a relatively low environmental impact because:
1.
2.
3.
very low population density
their lifestyle was a combination of hunting and gathering with limited agriculture and livestock
many Native American cultures taught a deep respect for the land
When the Europeans began to colonize North America, the Frontier Era began. The newly-arrived
Europeans viewed the continent as a giant storehouse of natural resources that was theirs to exploit.
Consider that they were leaving a relatively crowded area and arriving at a giant continent with very few
people around in comparison to what they were used to.
Forests were destroyed, war was waged on the Native Americans, and abundant plant and animal species
were wiped out.
North American Bison (Buffalo) – population dwindled from an estimated 30-60 million before colonization
to 85 by 1892.
Passenger pigeon – population dwindled from an estimated 5 billion before colonization to 0 by 1914.
Carolina parakeet – only parrot species native to the Eastern United States, went extinct in 1918.
Homestead Act of 1862 – each qualified settler was given 160 acres free.
By 1900, half of the country’s public land had been sold to private industry, such as timber companies,
railroads, and mining companies. None of these were particularly concerned about the environmental
consequences of their actions, as the country was seen as being too huge for that to matter.
In 1890, the United States government officially declared the frontier closed.
Environmental History of the United States: The Early Conservation Era: (1832-1960)
Thomas Malthus – “Principle of Population” stated that population would grow at an exponential rate and
eventually overrun the linear growth of the food supply. He is the first person to recognize the future
population explosion that occurred in the 20th century.
Henry David Thoreau – Wrote Walden a.k.a. Life in the Woods about living in harmony with nature. He is
considered to be the first influential environmental author.
George Perkins Marsh – Wrote Man and Nature, in which he set forward the basic principles of resource
conservation.
Forest Reserve Act of 1891 – Allowed the president to create National Forests out of publicly owned
lands. It is considered to be the first true piece of environmental legislation. The United States Forest
Service (USFS) was created in 1905 to manage the forest reserves.
John Muir – Leading preservationist of his time, believed that large areas of wilderness should be set
aside from human exploitation. Muir founded the Sierra Club, which remains to this day a large and
influential environmental organization that strives to buy chunks of land for preservation.
Theodore Roosevelt – President from 1901-1909, he was the first environmentally responsible president
and a strong conservationist.
Antiquities Act of 1906 – This law allows the president broad powers to protect areas of public lands
deemed to have scientific or historical interest. It has been used over 100 times to protect vast areas of
land, most significantly by T. Roosevelt, Carter, and Clinton.
Gifford Pinchot – He was the first head of the USFS and a strong conservationist. Pinchot believed in
managing the forests on the basis of the principles of sustainable yield (cutting trees no faster than they
can regenerate) and multiple use (using the land for a variety of purposes).
National Park Service Act (1916) – This law established the National Park Service to oversee the many
national parks. The current 56 national parks are classified as restricted use, meaning only
nondestructive activities are permitted there.
Alice Hamilton – She was an author who wrote about the effects of hazardous working conditions on
human health in the early 20th century.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – President from 1932-1945, he used government-funded programs to try to
improve the economy during the Great Depression. Many of these programs were environmentally
friendly.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – 2 million unemployed people were given jobs doing various things to
conserve the environment (planting trees, maintaining parks, protecting wildlife, etc) during the
depression.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – Built dams for flood control and hydroelectric power in the
Tennessee Valley. Large dams were also built in many Western states.
Soil Conservation Act of 1935 – Established the Soil Erosion Service to combat the effects of the Dust
Bowl and to prevent future occurrences.
Aldo Leopold – He wrote A Sand County Almanac, a collection of nature essays, the most famous of which
concerned the idea of land ethic, which meant that humans have an ethical responsibility to take care of
nature. His essays formed the basis for the environmental wisdom worldview.
Environmental History of the United States: The Environmental Era (1960-present)
Rachel Carson – She wrote Silent Spring (1962) which documented the influence of the pesticide DDT on
the environment, particularly birds. This extremely influential book is considered to be the beginning of
the modern environmental movement.
Wilderness Act (1964) – This legislation authorizes the government to set aside large tracts of public land
as part of the National Wilderness System, open to only nondestructive activities such as camping and
hiking. This is a preservationist law.
Paul Ehrlich – He wrote Population Bomb (1968), which predicted large scale famine in the 1970’s and
1980’s due to the population outgrowing the available resources. Since this didn’t come to pass, the book
is used by critics of the environmental movement as an example of the tendency of environmental
scientists to exaggerate the extent of potential problems.
Julian Simon – He wrote The Ultimate Resource (1981) in which he argued that a growing population is
actually good for the environment because humans are the best type of resource. Simon argues that
more wealth and technology will only lead to more resources.
Garrett Hardin – He is best known for his paper “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) which proposed the
idea that free-access resources will always be abused and therefore depleted by individuals who look out
for themselves ahead of the common good.
Richard Nixon – President from 1968-1974, this conservative Republican oversaw the implementation of
several groundbreaking pieces of environmental legislation. He was president during an era of
unprecedented public support for environmental issues.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – This government agency was established in 1970 with the
general goals of protecting human health and protecting the natural environment.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – This 1970 legislation forced all federal agencies to consider
the environmental effects of their programs before taking any action.
Clean Air Act – This 1970 legislation required the government to develop and enforce regulations to
protect people from the six most dangerous types of air pollutants.
Endangered Species Act – This 1973 legislation is designed to protect critically imperiled species from
potential extinction.
Jimmy Carter – President from 1976-1980, this Democrat strongly supported environmental causes. He
oversaw the creation of the Department of Energy to handle national energy policy. He used the
Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect land in all 50 states.
Superfund – This 1980 legislation, inspired by the Love Canal disaster, provided a large trust fund to deal
with severe environmental emergencies and prosecute the responsible parties.
Ronald Reagan – President from 1980-1988, this Republican enacted many policies that were
environmentally unfriendly, including lowering gas mileage standards, privatizing public lands, and
appointing similarly minded people in key cabinet positions. Reagan was a sagebrush rebel, who
believed that control over federal public lands should be given to individual states.
Wise-use movement – An anti-environmental movement that developed in the 1980’s with the intention
of weakening environmental laws and counteracting the influence of the environmental movement.
George H.W. Bush – President from 1988-1992, this Republican promised to be the “environmental
president” but basically did nothing beneficial as most of the policies started under Reagan’s leadership
continued unchecked.
Bill Clinton – President from 1992-2000, this Democrat favored environmental policies in theory, but
chose not to focus his efforts in this area. He was able to reverse a lot of the Reagan era policies by his
choice of people in key leadership positions. Probably his most notable environmental policy was to
protect large areas of national forests from roads and logging interests.
Al Gore – Vice-President under Clinton, this Democrat has authored several books on the environment.
He has become the spokesman for the dangers of global warming, highlighted by his 2006 documentary An
Inconvenient Truth.
George W. Bush – President from 2001-2009, this Republican is a puppet of big business, especially the oil
companies for which he used to work. He supports the short-sighted view of strengthening of the
economy at any environmental cost. He has basically repeated the policies of the Reagan era. Bush
reversed the Clinton decision to protect areas of national forests from road building.
Barack Obama – Obama has been favorable to the environment by guiding federal stimulus money
towards mass transit projects like high-speed trains and providing financial incentives for people to buy
environmentally friendly items like solar panels, water heaters, windows, and doors.