Unit 3 - The Rise of Environmental Concerns Flashcards
George Perkins Marsh*
His ideas became the foundation of the conservation movement
Published Man and Nature or The Earth as Modified by Human Action, in 1864
“the operation of causes set in action by man has brought the face of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon.”
Warned of the ‘dangers of imprudence and the necessity of caution’
National Parks & Conservation, John Muir & Theo Roosevelt*
John Muir: naturalist and writer who was instrumental in founding many National Parks and cofounding the Sierra Club
Theodore Roosevelt: created 5 new national parks, 51 federal bird sanctuaries, 18 national monuments, 4 national game refuges, and more than 230M acres of public land
These were key acts in establishing the Conservation Movement
Aldo Leopold - The Land Ethic*
“The land ethic changes the role of Homo Sapiens from conqueror of the land community to a plain member and citizen of it” - The Sand County Almanac
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise”
Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” and DDT*
Carson argued that DDT was harmful to the environment and to the human population, but faced backlash from the government and scientists at the time
People didn’t know about the effects of those chemicals and ignored Carson’s claims, but eventually her efforts were celebrated once science showed how bad DDT was for the population
How did people perceive Rachel Carson’s claims at the time of Silent Spring and what were the underlying reasons?*
At the time, people wanted to control nature entirely, and were sharply opposed to people who were in support of environmentalism or not controlling nature
The Desolate Year was a publication by chemical company that argued how bad the world would be without chemicals and pesticides, countering Rachel Carson’s arguments
How did President Kennedy’s order to the science advisory committee to investigate pesticides change the public view on pesticides?*
President Kennedy ordered the science advisory committee to study the issues raised in Carson’s book
The debate shifted from “if” chemicals and pesticides were dangerous to “which” ones were dangerous
Rise of Environmentalism*
In the 1970s, the environmentalism movement became mainstream
Why did Environmentalism become mainstream in the 1970s?
A number of prominent environmental disasters/issues in the 1960s and 70s (Cuyahoga River Fire, Santa Barbara oil spill, LA Smog, etc)
First Earth Day Initiated
OPEC Oil Embargo
Images From Space
1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment
Protest Music/Art arising from counter culture ‘hippy’ movement
1984 WCED/Brundtland Commission*
Little progress 10 years after the UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972)
UN General Assembly selected Gro Brundtland to lead a commission on the issue
Faced with key challenge of growing the world out of poverty without causing environmental ruin
Final report: “Our Common Future” released in 1987
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
