Environmental History: An Overview
G. Tyler Miller’s
Living in the Environment
13th Edition
Chapter 2
Dr. Richard Clements
Chattanooga State Technical Community College
Modified by Charlotte Kirkpatrick
U.S. Environmental History
Tribal and Frontier Era
Early Conservation Era
The Environmental Era
Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic
Cultural Changes and the Environment:
Hunter-Gatherer Culture
 Hunter-gatherers: Early and Advanced
societies
 Nomadic: seasonal movement
 Limited and local environmental impact:
Small population size, low resource use/person, migration,
lack of technology
 Generally work with natural processes
Comparing Earlier to Advanced
Hunter Gatherers.
Earlier Hunter-Gatherers
• Knowledge of surroundings
• Discovered which plants and
animals to use
• Where to find water
• Plant changes throughout the
year
• Game animal migrations
• High infant mortality, short
life-span = slow growth
Advanced Hunter-Gatherers
• Greater impact on the
environment
• Used more tools and fire
to convert forestlands
• Contributed to the
extinction of large animals
• Altered the distribution of
plants
Cultural Changes and the Environment:
The Agricultural Revolution (10,00020,000 years ago)
Agriculture: plant cultivation and animal
domestication
Slash and burn/
shifting cultivation (See Fig. 2-2 p. 23)
Essentially sustainable resource use
Increased environmental impact
Refer to Connections on p. 24
Slash and burn/
shifting cultivation (See Fig. 2-2 p. 23)
1
3
2
4
Cultural Changes and the Environment:
The Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution (mid-1700’s spread to
U.S. in 1800’s)
Shift to dependence on non-renewable
resources: Coal, Oil, Natural Gas
 Led to movement from handmade small-scale,
localized production to machine-made goods in
large centralized factories.
Dramatic increase in environmental
impact
Refer to Connections on p. 25
Industrialization outcomes
• Good News:
– Mass production of many useful and affordable
products
– Increase in Agricultural productivity
– Decrease in infant mortality
– Decrease in population growth rate
– increase in health, birth control methods, and
education
– Methods for controlling pollution
– Greater average income and old-age security
**Bad news: Our environmental problems of today
were caused by the rise of industrialization
Cultural Changes and the Environment:
The Information Revolution/Globalization
Information
Revolution
Rate of information increase and
speed of communication: Scientific
Information doubles every 12 years general
information doubles every 2.5 years
Globalizatio
n
Decrease
in cultural diversity
Environmental History of the United
States: The Tribal and Frontier Eras
 Tribal Era: Native Americans
 Native Americans generally low-impact
hunter-gather or agricultural societies
 Frontier Environmental Worldview:
European Settlement (1607-1890)
 Significant impact as wilderness frontier
was “tamed”
Buffalo range depletion
1500
1850
1870
1880
1906
Environmental History of the United
States: The Early Conservation Era
Period: 1832-1960
Concern over resource use
Preservation of public lands
Public health initiatives
Environmental restoration projects
Important Figures During The Early
Conservation Era (1832-70)
Henry David Thoreau
Writer and naturalist: Walden Pond; sought self-sufficiency, simple
lifestyle, and a harmonious coexistence with nature
George Perkins Marsh
Scientist and member of Congress from Vermont; Man and Nature;
questioned availability of resources;scientific studies and case
studies to show use and misuse of resources; formulated basic
resources conservation principles.
Important Figures During The Early
Conservation Era (1870-1930)
John Muir
Geologist, explorer, naturalist; studied Yosemite
Valley and Northwest; helped to establish the
Yosemite National Park; Founder Sierra Club and leader of the
preservation movement
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of U.S.; Conservationist; persuaded
Congress to allow president power to designate public
land as federal wildlife refuges; Established the U.S.
Forest Service to manage and protect the forest reserves
(Gifford Pinchot, chief, used sustainable use and multiple use);
Antiquities Act (Which created the Grand Canyon as a protected area)
Warm Up #2
1. How is a planetary management
worldview different from an Earth wisdom
world view?
2. Why do we say early hunter gatherers are
more earth wise than we are today?
3. What is slash and burn cultivation?
Important Figures During The Early
Conservation Era (Early 1900’s)
Public Health Improvements
Alice Hamilton
Expert in industrial medicine, investigated occupational
Hazards; Industrial poisons in the Unites States; opposed
lead in gasoline
Jane Addams
Established Hull house, public health boards, etc.
Important Figures During The Early
Conservation Era (1930-1960
Franklin
Roosevelt
Brought
the country out of the Great Depression
Established many programs to provide jobs and
promote environmental restoration:
•Low-cost purchase of large tracts of public land
from cash-poor landowners
•Established the Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC)
•Established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
•Built and operated many large Dam products in the
Western U.S., including Hoover Dam
•Enacted the Soil Conservation Act of 1935
Early Conservation Era (1940-60)
• 1940s and 50s preoccupation with WWII
and recovery
• 1933-1960 improved health care:
-public health boards
-public education about health issues
-vaccination programs
-reduced waterborne infectious diseases due
to increased sanitation and garbage
collection
Environmental History of the United
States: The Environmental Era
Period: 1960-2000
The environmental movement
The science of ecology
Spaceship Earth worldview
1980’s: anti-environmental movement
1990’s: environmental awareness
Important Figures During The
Environmental Era – Part 1 (1960’s)
 Rachel Carson: Silent Spring
(1962)
Individuals
Matter
on p. 33) (1963)
 (See
World
Wildlife fund
established
Wilderness act establishes National Wilderness
System (1964)
Environmental Defense Fund established(1967)
Land and Water Conservation Act(1965)
Clean Air Act begins (1963) updated in 1965,1970,
and 1990
Cuyahoga river catches fire (1969)
Paul Ehrlich: The Population Bomb; Garrett Hardin:
The Tragedy of the Commons
Spaceship Earth Worldview
fig. 2-8p.30
Important Figures During The
Environmental Era – Part 1 (1970’s)
Richard Nixon: EPA; ESA;
Celebrated 1st Earth Day April 20, 1970;
1972 Lots of other acts and the UN conference on Human Environment
in Stockholm Sweden
OPEC oil embargo; CITES Treaty(1973)
Roland and Molina discover CFC’s depleting Ozone; safe drinking water
act(1974)
Jimmy Carter: DOE,
Clean
Water Act; Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act;
Superfund
Amory Lovins: The Soft Energy Path(1977); Love Canal (1978);
Three Mile Island (1979); Preserved public lands in the National Park
system and National Wilderness system
Important Figures During The
Environmental Era – Part 1 (1980’s)
Ronald Reagan: anti-environmentalist
Appointed officials opposed to most of the existing
environmental and public land use laws and policies;
Increased energy, mineral development; cut funding on energy
conservation and renewable energy resources eliminated solar
energy tax incentives; lowered auto gas mileage standards and
relaxed water and air quality
Led to Wise –Use Movement
Other environmental issues of the 80’s:
Bhopal India pesticide leak; ozone hole discovered; Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion;
Montreal Protocol; greenhouse gases increasing; Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska
Important Figures During The
Environmental Era – Part 1 (1990’s)
Bill Clinton: environmental concerns a
priority
Even with opposition in a Republican Congress he was able to
veto many anti-environmental bills; Protected many more
public lands; SUV’s required to follow same air pollution
standards as regular cars; forest health priority; increase in
awareness of environmental issues.
Important Figures During The
Environmental Era – Part 1 (2000’s)
George W. Bush Jr.: environmental
concerns not a priority
Opposes participation in Kyoto treaty; cut funding
for EPA; relaxed water and air quality standards;
Opposed increasing gas mileage standards to
conserve energy; repealed or tried to weaken many
environmental measures put in place by Clinton,
Allowed drilling in ANWR.
Case Study: Aldo Leopold and His
Land Ethic
Individuals are interdependent
Ethics: respect for land
Shift from conqueror to member
Problems arise when land viewed as
a commodity
Preservation of the integrity,
stability, and beauty of land is right