Environmentalism
The roots of a movement
Roots of Environmentalism
• Several different branches of science and
social movement come together in today’s
environmentalism:
• Conservation
• Preservation
• Ecology
• Biodiversity
Conservation vs. Preservation
• The goal of conservation is sustainable use
and management of an economically
important natural resource so that people
can continue using the resource.
• The goal of preservation is to maintain
areas of the earth that are so far
untouched by human exploitation.
• “Conservation” is sometimes used to refer
to both principles.
“Harmonious Nature” Myth
• There is a persistent belief in many
cultures that in the “old days,” people lived
in harmony with nature.
• In fact, use and abuse of nature has a long
history in all human cultures.
Tragedy of the Commons
• First noted by William Forster Lloyd in
1833, and popularized by Garrett Hardin
in 1968.
• The Tragedy of the Commons principle is a
social or economic trap involving conflict
between individual interests and the
common good when using a finite
resource.
The Commons
• The principle of a “commons” sometimes
carries with it an idea that a finite
resource is actually limitless.
• In cultures where individual rights are
valued over group rights, any regulations
on use of a “commons” may be resisted as
a violation of individual rights.
The Tragedy
• An individual sees that he or she can get
the most benefit by using as much of the
resource as possible.
• The community may benefit most by
dividing a resource among individuals so
that the resource is not over-exploited and
will continue.
• Tragedy of the Bunnies game
Examples of Commons
• National Forests and other public lands
• North American bison herds prior to the
1800s
• Ground water
• World petroleum supply
• The Earth itself
Regulating the Commons
• Early European settlers in North America
passed the first conservation laws in this
country to prevent over-exploitation of natural
resources:
•
1626: Plymouth Colony passes a law to control cutting and
sale of timber.
•
1639: Newport, Rhode Island passes a law to restrict deer
hunting to six months out of the year.
•
1681: William Penn decreed that one acre of forest should be
left uncut for every five that were cut.
George Catlin 1796-1892
• American artist who
painted scenes of the
western frontier,
capturing landscapes
and cultures now
vanished.
• Catlin protested against
the slaughter of the
American Bison by
white Americans.
Conservation
Wild Birds - a “Commons”
• In the late Victorian era,
an earlier fashion for
plumes on ladies’ hats
exploded into huge
displays of wings,
plumes, and entire birds
on hats.
• Nearly 5 million wild
birds were slaughtered
annually for the fashion
industry.
Editor Forest and Stream:
In view of the fact that the destruction of birds
for millinery purposes is at present attracting
general attention, the appended list of native
birds seen on hats worn by ladies in the streets
of New York, may be of interest. It is chiefly the
result of two late afternoon walks through the
uptown shopping districts, and, while very
incomplete, still gives an idea of the species
destroyed and the relative numbers of each.
Robin, four.
Brown thrush, one.
Bluebird, three.
Blackburnion warbler, one.
Blackpoll warbler, three.
Wilson's black-capped flycatcher, three.
Scarlet tanager, three.
White-bellied swallow, one.
Bohemian waxwing, one.
Waxwing, twenty-three.
Great northern shrike, one.
Virginia rail, one.
Laughing gull, one.
Common tern, twenty-one.
Black tern. one.
Grebe, seven.
Pine grosbeak, one.
Snow bunting, fifteen.
Tree sparrow, two.
White-throated sparrow, one.
Bobolink, one.
Meadow lurk, two.
Baltimore oriole, nine.
Purple grackle, five.
Bluejay, five.
Swallow-tailed flycatcher, one.
Kingbird, one.
Kingfisher, one.
Pileated woodpecker, one.
Red-headed woodpecker, two.
Golden-winged woodpecker, twenty-one.
Acadian owl, one.
Carolina dove, one.
Pinnated grouse, one.
Ruffed grouse, two.
Quail, sixteen.
Helmet quail, two.
Sanderling, five
Big yellowlegs, one.
Green heron, one.
Birds in Danger
• In addition, songbirds were hunted for
food. Nature author Florence Merriam
counted over 2000 robins in a single
market stall in Washington, D.C.
• The Great Auk had already been hunted to
extinction early in the 19th century, and
hunting drove the Passenger Pigeon
extinct shortly after 1900.
Bird Conservation
• The American Ornithologist’s Union, formed
in 1883, lobbied for laws to protect songbirds
from being killed for fashion and for food.
• The National Audubon society, President
Theodore Roosevelt, and many church
groups successfully campaigned for passage
of the Federal Migratory bird treaty act in
1918.
Sanctuary System
• In 1903, President Roosevelt established
Pelican Island, Florida, as the nation’s first
bird refuge.
• During the 1920’s, the National Audubon
Society pressured Congress to establish a
wildlife refuge system.
Preservation
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
• American poet and semirecluse.
• At a time when people in
the U.S. were just coming
to see the wilderness as
beautiful, Thoreau’s
writings transformed
their vision and inspired a
new movement to
preserve wild places.
Thomas Moran 1837-1926
• American painter
and photographer
whose grand-scale
paintings of
Yellowstone inspired
the creation of the
first National Park
(Yellowstone) in the
U.S. in 1916.
John Muir 1838-1914
• Naturalist who spent
much of his time
traveling in the west,
especially the Sierra
Nevada mountains and
Yosemite.
• Muir’s activism helped
save Yosemite and other
natural areas.
National Park System
• Today’s National Park system sets aside
wild lands for preservation. This involves
a careful balance between public use (such
as hiking and tourism) and preserving the
land in as untouched a state as possible.
• In addition, the U.S.D.A Forest Service sets
aside official Wilderness areas for
preservation.
Ecology
Ecology as a Science
• Ecology is a branch of science that studies
organisms in their environment:
• Relationships between organisms in the
same habitat (community ecology)
• Relationships between organisms and
their habitat (ecosystem ecology)
• The distribution of organisms (plant and
animal geography)
Eugen Warming 1841-1924
• Danish botanist who is
credited with founding
“oecology” as a scientific
discipline.
• Wrote the first textbook
on plant ecology in 1895,
which was translated
into German and was
widely influential.
Eugene Odum 1913-2002
• American scientist who
was a pioneer of ecosystem
ecology.
• Published Ecology in 1963.
• His concept of the earth as
a set of interacting
ecosystems directly
influenced the
environmental movement.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
• The term “biodiversity” refers to the range
of different life forms in a given ecosystem.
A coral reef is highly diverse, whereas a
cornfield has little diversity.
• The term “biological diversity” was in use
before the 1960s. “Biodiversity” was
probably coined by W.G. Rosen and first
published by Edward O. Wilson.
E.O. Wilson 1929• American entomologist
and naturalist, and a
strong advocate of
naming and preserving
biodiversity.
• Developed the
controversial theory of
Sociobiology.
The Diversity of Life
• Published in 1992, Wilson’s The Diversity
of Life describes the sweeping diversity of
living organisms on the planet.
• Wilson also comments on the dichotomy
between humankind’s connection to the
natural world and our social attempts to
separate ourselves from nature. He argues
for preservation of all biodiversity.
Source of Biodiversity
• Evolutionary theory, the foundation of
modern biology, describes biodiversity as
the result of evolution.
• Diversity has varied during the Earth’s
history: extinction events have lowered
diversity, adaptive radiation has increased
diversity.
Distribution and Diversity
• Species are not evenly distributed over the Earth.
Some ecosystems are more diverse than others.
• Species distribution depends on many abiotic
factors such as climate, soil type, altitude, etc.
• Diversity may be increased by the presence of
specialized habitats, such as peat bogs, coral
reefs, etc., that require a high degree of
specialization.
Diversity and Disaster
• Diverse habitats tend to be more resistant to
localized disasters. A diverse grassland can
better withstand the introduction of a new plant
disease than a stand of corn can.
• However, the high degree of specialization
among organisms in highly diverse ecosystems
can increase the vulnerability of these species to
climate change. In past extinction events, coral
reefs have been the hardest hit.
Environmentalism
Environmentalism
• Environmentalism is a social movement
aimed at preserving biodiversity and the
earth’s environment.
• We are living in a major extinction event
— and humans are the cause of it.
Environmentalism is a response to human
activity that is causing extinctions of
species and of habitats.
Rachel Carson 1907-1964
• American marine
biologist and popular
science writer whose
publication of Silent
Spring in 1962 launched
the present
environmental
movement.
• Also known for The Sea
Around Us (1951)
Threats to Biodiversity
• Threats to diversity in an ecosystem
include:
• Habitat destruction
• Introduced species
• Pollution (chemical, genetic)
• Population (of humans)
• Overconsumption
Human Food Chain
• Humans are
omnivores, capable
of eating a wide
variety of foods.
• We can create a
human food chain by
looking at our meat
sources.
Grass-fed Food Chain
A cow can convert grass, which
we cannot eat, into meat, which
we can.
We obtain 8-10% of the energy
that a pasture-fed cow
consumes.
Industrial Food Chain
Corn, which could be
fed to humans, is fed
to feedlot cattle.
Because of
overproduction, corn
is cheap.
Cheap burgers
come at a high
A cow’s digestive system ecological cost. The
industrial food
is not adapted to eating
corn. The cattle are often chain is about 1/3
as efficient as the
sick, and much of the
grass food chain.
energy is wasted.
Carbon Cycle
• Carbon forms the backbone of all organic
molecules.
• Carbon from the atmosphere is “fixed” by
producers, which manufacture organic
molecules using the sun’s energy.
• Breakdown of these molecules releases
carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere.
Carbon Cycle
Global Warming
• “Global Warming” — better termed
“Global Climate Change” — has been
strongly linked to levels of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere.
• While natural events add carbon dioxide
to the atmosphere, humans activity also
contributes to carbon levels.
Fossil Fuels
• Fossil fuels are the remains of ancient
swamps. Plants fixed carbon as carbonrich organic compounds. Carbon
compounds accumulated in swamps over
hundreds of millions of years.
• In less than 200 years, humans have
burned nearly half of the world’s fossil
fuels.
Greenhouse Effect
Carbon and Temperature
Future Trends?
The outcome depends on what happens to the west Antarctic
ice shelf.
Current Effects
Discussion
• Consider where you stand on issues of
conservation, preservation, biodiversity,
and environmentalism.
• As a class, we will discuss our ideas and
our responses as individuals to the issues.