Environmental Protest

Question 1

When was the first environmental protest?

Answer 1

First environmental protest in America in 1906- Hetch Hetchy Valley
San Francisco burns to ground following earthquake no access to water so widespread desire for damming, opposition makes national news and John Muir and hiking group The Sierra Club delay construction for 7 years
In 1913 allows passage of the dam

Question 2

Who were the forefathers of conservation?

Answer 2

John Muir- writer and naturalist, nature can provide spiritual rejuvenation for the individual, nature should be left alone has intrinsic value
Gifford Pinchot- head of US Forestry Service, the state should manage the environment responsible “farming” of renewable resource, human intervention can improve nature

Question 3

What led to more environmental problems?

Answer 3

In 1950 intense economic boom and technological progress leads to rise in plastics, growth of suburbs and urban sprawl, rise in electrical appliances, automobiles, national parks overrun by tourists

Question 4

How much did the Sierra club increase?

Answer 4

5 times over the course of the 1960s

Question 5

Preservationist members were typically…

Answer 5

Wealthy, aging, predominately white males
Connections to industry
Desire to preserve leisure/ recreational spaces
Overriding concern with landscape aesthetics

Question 6

What were protests about in the 1950s and 60s?

Answer 6

Preservation protest over Hetch Hetchy and across the 1950s and 60s was about natural aesthetics

Question 7

Erosion of faith in science and its technological applications in late 1950s

Answer 7

1959 first national food panic- carcinogenic herbicide contaminates cranberries just before thanksgiving
1959-62 anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide connected to birth defects in children
1962 release of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring- form of environmental protest

Question 8

1970 first Earth day

Answer 8

Millions participate in marches and parades
Last whole week- peaceful
Alarmed by Silent Spring’s message
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill first major offshore oil disaster

Question 9

Declining faith in technology led to…

Answer 9

Rise of anti-nuclear movement
Apocalyptic language
Unification of public and political concern over environmental decline of open space, air and water pollution

Question 10

Post 1980 emergence of ‘radical’ environmental groups

Answer 10

ELF
ALF
Earth First- destroying machinery, chaining themselves to tree, eco-fucker hit list

Question 11

What act occurred in 1970s?

Answer 11

• Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1970 created the Council on Environmental Quality which oversaw the environmental impact of federal actions.
• Later in the year, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which consolidated environmental programs from other agencies into a single entity.

Question 12

What were the clean air and water acts?

Answer 12

• The Clean Air Act 1970

* Federal Water Pollution Central Act 1972