The environment of the United States
comprises diverse biotas, climates, and geologies. This diversity leads
to a number of different distinct regions and geographies in which
human communities live. This includes a rich variety of species of
animals, fungi, plants and other organisms.
Because of the strong forces of economic exploitation and
industrialization, humans have had deep effects on the ecosystems of the
United States, resulting in a number of environmental issues.
Since awareness of these issues emerged in the 1970s, environmental regulations and a growing environmental movement, including both climate movement and the environmental justice
movement have emerged to respond to the various threats to the
environment. These movements are intertwined with a long history of
conservation, starting in the early 19th century, that has resulted in a
robust network of protected areas, including 28.8% of land managed by
the Federal government.
Biota
Bioregions of Northern America, according to one scheme.
There
are about 21,717 different species of native plants and animals in the
United States. More than 400 mammal, 700 bird, 500 reptile and
amphibian, and 90,000 insect species have been documented. Wetlands, such as the Florida Everglades,
are the base for much of this diversity. There are over 140,000
invertebrates in the United States which is constantly growing as
researchers identify more species. Fish are the largest group of animal
species, with over one thousand counted so far. About 13,000 species
are added to the list of known organisms each year.
Fungi
Around 14,000 species of fungi were listed by Farr, Bills, Chamuris and Rossman in 1989. Still, this list only included terrestrial species. It did not include lichen-forming
fungi, fungi on dung, freshwater fungi, marine fungi or many other
categories. Fungi are essential to the survival of many groups of
organisms.
Plants
With
habitats ranging from tropical to Arctic, U.S. plant life is very
diverse. The country has more than 17,000 identified native species of flora, including 5,000 in California (home to the tallest, the most massive, and the oldest trees in the world). Three quarters of the United States species consist of flowering plants.
Human impacts on biota
The country's ecosystems include thousands of non-native exotic species
that often harm indigenous communities of living things. Many
indigenous species became extinct soon after the first human settlement,
including the North American megafauna; others have become nearly extinct since European settlement, among them the American bison and California condor. Many plants and animals have declined dramatically as a result of massive conversion and other human activity.
The U.S. climate is temperate in most areas, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, Mediterranean in coastal California and arid in the Great Basin.
Its comparatively generous climate contributed (in part) to the
country's rise as a world power, with infrequent severe drought in the
major agricultural regions, a general lack of widespread flooding, and a
mainly temperate climate that receives adequate precipitation.
Following World War II, cities in the southern and western region experienced an economic and population boom. The population growth in the Southwest, has strained water and power resources, with water diverted from agricultural uses to major population centers, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. According to the California Department of Water Resources, if more supplies are not found by 2020, residents will face a water shortfall nearly as great as the amount consumed today.
The United States mainland contains a total of seven distinct
regional climates. Those include high elevation Northwestern region,
the Pacific Northwest, the High plains, Midwest/Ohio valley/New England,
Mid Atlantic/Southeast, Southern region, and Southwestern region. Each
region contains different states and has their own climate and
temperatures throughout the year.
Geology
Shaded relief map of the United States, showing 10 geological provinces
The richly textured landscape of the United States is a product of the dueling forces of plate tectonics, weathering and erosion.
Over the 4.5 billion-year history of the Earth, tectonic upheavals and
colliding plates have raised great mountain ranges while the forces of
erosion and weathering worked to tear them down. Even after many
millions of years, records of Earth's great upheavals remain imprinted
as textural variations and surface patterns that define distinctive
landscapes or provinces.
The United States maintains national parks
as well as other preservation areas, such as the Florida Everglades.
There are more than 400 protected sites spread across 84 million acres
but very few are large enough to contain ecosystems.
In 1872, the world's first national park was established at Yellowstone. Another fifty-seven national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks and forests have since been formed. Wilderness areas
have been established around the country to ensure long-term protection
of pristine habitats. Altogether, the U.S. government regulates
1,020,779 square miles (2,643,807 km2), 28.8% of the country's total land area. Protected parks and forestland constitute most of this. As of March 2004, approximately 16% of public land under Bureau of Land Management administration was being leased for commercial oil and natural gas drilling; public land is also leased for mining and cattle ranching.
Environmental issues
Of the major greenhouse gas emitting nations, the U.S. is among the highest per person emitters.Annual CO2 emissions, total by country (2017 data) shows the U.S. trails China in total annual emissions (not per capita).Environmental issues in the United States include climate change, energy, species conservation, invasive species, deforestation,
mining, nuclear accidents, pesticides, pollution, waste and
over-population. Despite taking hundreds of measures, the rate of
environmental issues is increasing rapidly instead of reducing. The
United States is among the most significant emitters of greenhouse
gasses in the world. In terms of both total and per capita emissions, it is among the largest contributors. The climate policy of the United States has a major influence on the world.
Climate change
Geographic extent of warming: Average temperatures in almost all regions in the U.S. have increased in the last 120 years.
Warming over time: Annual temperatures averaged across the U.S. have
exceeded the 1971–2000 average almost every year in the 21st century.
Cumulatively since 1850, the U.S. has emitted
a larger share than any country of the greenhouse gases causing current
climate change, with some 20% of the global total of carbon dioxide
alone. Current US emissions per person are among the largest in the world. Various state and federal climate change policies have been introduced, and the US has ratified the Paris Agreement despite temporarily withdrawing. In 2021, the country set a target of halving its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, however oil and gas companies still get tax breaks.
Climate change is having considerable impacts on the environment
and society of the United States. This includes implications for agriculture, the economy, human health and indigenous peoples, and it is seen as a national security threat. States that emit more carbon dioxide per person and introduce policies to oppose climate action are generally experiencing greater impacts. 2020 was a historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.
Conservation in the United States can be traced back to the 19th century with the formation of the first National Park. Conservation
generally refers to the act of consciously and efficiently using land
and/or its natural resources. This can be in the form of setting aside tracts of land for protection from hunting or urban development, or it can take the form of using less resources such as metal, water, or coal. Usually, this process of conservation occurs through or after legislation on local or national levels is passed.
Conservation in the United States,
as a movement, began with the American sportsmen who came to the
realization that wanton waste of wildlife and their habitat had led to
the extinction of some species, while other species were at risk. John Muir and the Sierra Club started the modern movement, history shows that the Boone and Crockett Club, formed by Theodore Roosevelt, spearheaded conservation in the United States.
While conservation and preservation
both have similar definitions and broad categories, preservation in the
natural and environmental scope refers to the action of keeping areas
the way they are and trying to dissuade the use of its resources;
conservation may employ similar methods but does not call for the
diminishing of resource use but rather calls for a responsible way of
going about it. A distinction between Sierra Club and Boone and Crockett Club is that Sierra Club was and is considered a preservationist organization whereas Boone and Crockett Club endorses conservation, simply defined as an "intelligent use of natural resources."
The Environmental history of the United States covers the history
of the environment over the centuries to the late 20th century, plus
the political and expert debates on conservation and environmental
issues.
The term "conservation" appeared in 1908 and was gradually replaced by
"environmentalism" in the 1970s as the focus shifted from managing and
protecting natural resources to a broader concern for the environment as
a whole and the negative impact of poor air or water on humans.
According to Erin Stewart Mauldin, the geological history of the United States predates human settlement by millions of years.
The landscape of the North American continent's landscape was shaped by
plate tectonics, volcanic activity, and glaciation. The Appalachian Mountains resulted from plate collisions, the Rocky Mountains
from the subduction of the Pacific Ocean floor, and the Pacific
Northwest and New England from the accretion of microcontinents.
Glaciation formed the Great Lakes and influenced soil composition across the country, with volcanic activity contributing to regions like the Columbia Plateau.
Paleoindians from Siberia were the continent's first human inhabitants
starting 30,000 BCE. They coexisted with megafauna like mammoths. The
reasons for these species' extinction, possibly due to climate change or
human hunting, remain debated. The absence of large domesticable
animals in North America affected the development of societies, limiting
hunting and herding and later giving European colonizers a biological
edge. Native Americans developed diverse subsistence strategies,
including agriculture, hunting, and fishing, with varying practices
across regions. They also impacted the landscape through land clearing
and hunting practices, leading to environmental changes. The
pre-Columbian landscape encountered by Europeans was significantly
shaped by human activity, challenging the idea of an untouched
wilderness.
Before 1815 the New England farmers were largely self-sufficient.
The forest provided wood to build homes and barns, and fueled the stove
all winter long. Timber was sold for ship construction and naval stores
were sold for export to England. The remaining forest was the habitat
for deer and other game that were easily hunted with muskets or traps.
Once cleared the land provided pasture for the sheep (raised for the
wool), the hogs, and the family cow, as well as space for the vegetable
garden. The significance of the forest ranged from a threat to settlers
to being a place of Puritan religious significance, as well as a source
of beauty and pride. As population grew the forest transitioned from a
perceived abundance to a dwindling asset. After 1815, when export
markets reopened after the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, farmers
in the region increasingly focused more on profitable commercial crops,
especially sheep, cattle, hay, lumber, wheat. As the nearby cities grew
they sold more milk and cheese, eggs, apples, cranberries and maple
syrup.
Destruction of a fourth of the forests, 1780s to 1860s
According to geographer Michael Williams,
by 1860, about 153 million acres of forest had been cleared for farms,
and another 11 million acres cut down by industrial logging, mining,
railroad construction, and urban expansion. A fourth of the original
forest cover in the eastern states was gone. At the same time there was a
major change in how Americans vie wed forests. They were recognized as
the foundation of industrialization, agricultural expansion, and
material progress. Lumber was the nation's largest industry in 1850, and
second in 1860 behind textiles. As Frederick Starr
emphasized in 1865, forests were integral to the four key necessities
for prosperity: "cheap bread, cheap houses, cheap fuel, and cheap
transportation for passengers and freights."
The main fuel for homes, business, steamboats and railroads was wood.
Experts began examining the complex relationships between forests and
soil, climate, farming, railroading and the economy. They pondered the
overall ecological balance. Was the nation's energy at risk as
settlement expanded westward into the trans-Mississippi prairies where
wood was scarce. Given the economic and cultural importance of the
forests, some worried commentators, especially George Perkins Marsh and Increase Lapham.
began questioning the widespread destruction. They saw the forests and
backwoods pioneers as symbols of America, and their disappearance was
concerning. Romantic writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson
helped Americans appreciate the aesthetic and recreational value of
forests, beyond just their economic importance. The early conservation
movement had its roots in these concerns.
The British government attempt to restrict westward expansion with the ineffective Proclamation Line of 1763 was cancelled by the new United States government. The first major movement west of the Appalachian Mountains
began in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina as soon as the
Revolutionary War was effectively won in 1781. Pioneers housed
themselves in a rough lean-to or at most a one-room log cabin. The main
food supply at first came from hunting deer, turkeys, and other abundant
small game.
Clad in typical frontier garb, leather breeches,
moccasins, fur cap, and hunting shirt, and girded by a belt from which
hung a hunting knife and a shot pouch – all homemade – the pioneer
presented a unique appearance. In a short time he opened in the woods a
patch, or clearing, on which he grew corn, wheat, flax, tobacco and
other products, even fruit. In a few years the pioneer added hogs, sheep
and cattle, and perhaps acquired a horse. Homespun clothing replaced
the animal skins. The more restless pioneers grew dissatisfied with over
civilized life, and uprooted themselves again to move 50 or hundred
miles (80 or 160 km) further west.
The Louisiana Purchase
of 1803 doubled the size of the nation. It contained a few small
European settlements and large numbers of Native Americans. The federal
government had charge of Indian affairs, and one by one purchased Indian
lands. Individuals who were willing to assimilate into American society
were allowed to remain. Tribes that wanted to keep their
self-government kept a small part of their of their land as an Indian reservation and sold the rest to the federal government for an annual subsidy from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Those tribes east of the Mississippi were usually relocated further west, primarily to Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). See Indian removal
By 1813 the western frontier had reached the Mississippi River. St. Louis, Missouri was the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and a principal trading center for Mississippi River
traffic and inland commerce. There was wide agreement on the need to
settle the new territories quickly, but the debate polarized over the
price the government should charge. The conservatives and Whigs, typified by president John Quincy Adams, wanted a moderated pace that charged the newcomers enough to pay the costs of the federal government. The Democrats,
however, tolerated a wild scramble for land at very low prices. The
final resolution came in the Homestead Law of 1862, with a moderated
pace that gave settlers 160 acres free after they worked on it for five
years.
From the 1770s to the 1830s, pioneers moved into the new lands
that stretched from Kentucky to Alabama to Texas. Most had operated
farmers back east and now relocated in family groups. Historian Louis M. Hacker
shows how wasteful the first generation of pioneers was; they were too
ignorant to cultivate the land properly and when the natural fertility
of virgin land was used up, they sold out and moved west to try again.
Hacker describes that in Kentucky about 1812:
Farms were for sale with from ten
to fifty acres cleared, possessing log houses, peach and sometimes apple
orchards, enclosed in fences, and having plenty of standing timber for
fuel. The land was sown in wheat and corn, which were the staples, while
hemp [for making rope] was being cultivated in increasing quantities in
the fertile river bottoms. ...
Yet, on the whole, it was an agricultural society without skill or
resources. It committed all those sins which characterize a wasteful and
ignorant husbandry. Grass seed was not sown for hay and as a result,
the farm animals had to forage for themselves in the forests; the fields
were not permitted to lie in pasturage; a single crop was planted in
the soil until the land was exhausted; the manure was not returned to
the fields; only a small part of the farm was brought under cultivation,
the rest being permitted to stand in timber. Instruments of cultivation
were rude and clumsy and only too few, many of them being made on the
farm. It is plain why the American frontier settler was on the move
continually. It was, not his fear of a too close contact with the
comforts and restraints of a civilized society that stirred him into a
ceaseless activity, nor merely the chance of selling out at a profit to
the coming wave of settlers; it was his wasting land that drove him on.
Hunger was the goad. The pioneer farmer's ignorance, his inadequate
facilities for cultivation, his limited means, of transport necessitated
his frequent changes of scene. He could succeed only with virgin soil.
Hacker adds that the second wave of settlers reclaimed the land,
repaired the damage, and practiced a more sustainable agriculture.
Great Plains 1870s
The population of the Great Plains
states, including Minnesota, Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, experienced
significant growth during the 1870s. The total population in these
states grew from 1.0 million in 1870 to 2.4 million in 1880, more than
doubling in just 10 years. The number of farms in the region tripled,
increasing from 99,000 in 1870 to 302,000 in 1880. The improved acreage
(land under cultivation) quintupled, rising from 5.0 million acres to
24.6 million acres during the same period. the new settlers mostly
purchased land on generous terms from transcontinental railroads that
were given land grants by Washington. They focused on wheat and cattle.
This rapid population influx and agricultural expansion was a hallmark
of the settlement and development of the Great Plains in the late 19th
century, as the region attracted waves of new settlers from Germany,
Scandinavia, and Russia, as well as farmers who sold land in older
states to move to larger farms.
To encourage settlement of western lands, Congress passed the first of several Homestead Acts in 1862, granting parcels in 40-acre (160,000 m2)
increments to homesteaders who would maintain a living on the land for
five years, and then they would own it. Congress also made huge land
grants to various railroads working to complete a transcontinental rail
system. The railroad grants included mineral and timber-rich lands so
that the railroads could get financing to build. Again, the plan was
that the railroads would sell off the land to get money, and the new
transportation network would not use taxpayer money.
It turned out that much western land was not suited for
homesteading because of mountainous terrain, poor soils, lack of
available water, and other problems. By the early 20th century, the
federal government held significant portions of most western states that
had simply not been claimed for any use. Conservationists prevailed
upon President Theodore Roosevelt
to set aside lands for forest conservation and for special scientific
or natural history interest. Much land still remained unclaimed even
after such reserves had been initially set up. The US Department of the Interior held millions of acres in the western states, with Arizona and New Mexico joining the union by 1913. US President Herbert Hoover proposed to deed the surface rights
to the unappropriated lands to the states in 1932, but the states
complained that the lands had been overgrazed and would also impose a
burden during the cash-strapped state budgets. The Bureau of Land Management was created to manage much of that land.
History of conservation and environmentalism
Michael
Kraft examines the rise and evolution of conservation and environmental
politics and policies. "Conservation" originated in the late 19th
century as a movement built around the conservation of natural resources
and an attempt to stave off air, water, and land pollution. By the
1970s environmentalism evolved into a much more sophisticated control
regime, one that employed the Environmental Protection Agency to slow
environmental degradation.
According to Chad Montrie, historians largely agree on the basic points of this account:
The conservation of natural resources was a significant topic of debate
in the early and mid-20th century, highlighted by a tension between the
business sector's push for efficient resource utilization and the
advocates for preserving wilderness and natural beauty. In the 1960s and
1970s the conservation movement morphed into modern environmentalism.
The seminal moment that ignited the transition occurred in 1962 with the
publication of Rachel Carson's ground breaking book, "Silent Spring."
Carson's urgent message warned about the perils of harmful chemical
pollutants, notably substances like DDT with immediate benefits but
long-term detrimental impacts, resonated with an educated audience
deeply concerned about quality of life issues. The environmental
awakening spurred by Carson's work was further fueled by events like the
1969 televised oil spill off the California coast. It prompted many to join mainstream environmental organizations led by visionaries such as David Brower of the Sierra Club. The momentum was bolstered by the inaugural Earth Day
in 1970. President Richard Nixon took proactive steps through executive
actions and collaboration with Congress to enact pivotal legislation
establishing regulatory frameworks that curbed air and water pollution
and mitigated adverse effects of corporate greed and rampant
consumerism. The emergence of a more radical activism came in the late
1970s and early 1980s, exemplified by chemical disaster at Love Canal in 1977, and a battle in 1982 against a PCB toxic waste dump in a Black community in North Carolina.
The result was confrontational grassroots environmentalism that marked
the genesis of the "environmental justice" movement. It focused on
issues of toxic substances and addressing concerns of "environmental
racism." The collective efforts during this period laid a foundation for
ongoing environmental advocacy and policy development aimed at
safeguarding our planet for future generations.
The term "conservation" was coined by American forester Gifford Pinchot in 1907. He told his close friend President Theodore Roosevelt who used it for a national Conference of Governors in 1908 who discussed priorities for conservation.
Origins
The American movement received its inspiration from 19th century Romantic writings that exalted the inherent value of nature, quite apart from human usage. Author Henry David Thoreau
(1817–1862) made key philosophical contributions that exalted nature.
Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied
this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his
experiences in the book Walden, which argued that people should become intimately close with nature. British and German standards were also influential in designing American policies and training. Bernhard Fernow
(1851–1923) emigrated from Germany in 1876 and became was the third
chief of the Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry, 1886 to
1898. He helped design what in 1905 became the Forest Service. Carl A. Schenck (1868–1955), another German expert, migrated to the United States in 1895 and helped shape the education of foresters.
Progressivism: Efficiency, Equity and Esthetics
According to historians Samuel P. Hays and Clayton Koppes, the conservation movement was launched into the national political arena in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt and his top advisor Gifford Pinchot. It represented the essence of the Progressive Era
and therefore was driven by the primary values of efficiency, equity,
and esthetics. Efficiency was to be achieved by full-time experts in the
federal bureaucracy (headed by Pinchot) who would use the latest
scientific results to manage the public domain to eliminate waste. These
disinterested experts would prevent the corruption sought by selfish
business interests. Equity meant that natural resources were the
province of all the people and should not be plundered by special
interests. Instead, resources should be apportioned broadly and
equitably. However "all the people" in practice meant white farm owners
and ranchers who obtained a free water supply or access to free grazing
land. The esthetic theme was an appeal to and upscale white tourists who
wanted a taste of wilderness. Wild and scenic lands should be set aside
in national parks, not for their intrinsic value, but to provide free
recreation, refresh the spirit weakened by urbanization, and even
upgrade "sissies" into virile outdoorsmen. In the Great Depression of
the 1930s the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the E-E-E tradition to include poor whites, with his key advisors being Harry Hopkins and Harold L. Ickes. The main programs reached two million poor unemployed young men through the Civilian Conservation Corps, while the Tennessee Valley Authority to modernize millions of traditional people trapped in an impoverished, isolated region.
Competing ideologies
Both conservationists and preservationists spoke out in political debates during the Progressive Era (the 1890s–early 1920s), withan opposition emerging in the 1920s. There were three main positions.
Laissez-faire: The laissez-faire position first developed in 1776 by Adam Smith
argued that owners of private property—including lumber, oil and mining
companies, should be allowed to do anything they wished on their
properties. Critics warned that this pro-business policy leads to lower
prices, mass consumption, waste, and the exhaustion of natural
resources.
Conservationists: The conservationists, led by Theodore Roosevelt and his close allies George Bird Grinnell and Gifford Pinchot, were motivated by the wanton waste that was taking place at the hand of market forces, including logging and hunting.
This practice resulted in placing a large number of North American game
species on the edge of extinction. Roosevelt recognized that the
laissez-faire approach was too wasteful and inefficient. In any case,
they noted, most of the natural resources in the western states were
already owned by the federal government. The best course of action, they
argued, was a long-term plan devised by national experts to maximize
the long-term economic benefits of natural resources. To accomplish the
mission, Roosevelt and Grinnell formed the Boone and Crockett Club,
whose members were some of the best minds and influential men of the
day. Its contingency of conservationists, scientists, politicians, and
intellectuals became Roosevelt's closest advisers during his march to
preserve wildlife and habitat across North America.
Preservationists: Preservationists, led by John Muir
(1838–1914), argued that the conservation policies were not strong
enough to protect the interest of the natural world because they
continued to focus on the natural world as a source of economic
production.
The debate between conservation and preservation reached its peak in the public debates over the construction of California's Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park which supplies the water supply of San Francisco. Muir, leading the Sierra Club,
declared that the valley must be preserved for the sake of its beauty:
"No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."
President Roosevelt put conservationist issues high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter, Gifford Pinchot and was deeply committed to efficiency in conserving natural resources. He encouraged the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi2 or 930,000 km2) under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more federal land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined.
Roosevelt was a leader in conservation, fighting to end the waste of natural resources.
Gifford Pinchot
had been appointed by McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the
Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the
national forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee)
under federal supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million
acres (65,000 km2) of new national forests just minutes before a deadline.
In May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors
held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their
most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address:
"Conservation as a National Duty".
In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir,
who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize
commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the
Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress
transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the federal government.
While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt
subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the
largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep
on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees."
Theodore Roosevelt's view on conservationism remained dominant for decades. For example, the New Deal under Franklin D. Roosevelt
authorised the building of many large-scale dams and water projects, as
well as the expansion of the National Forest System to buy out
sub-marginal farms. In 1937, the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was signed into law, providing funding for state agencies to carry out their conservation efforts.
Environmentalism
"Environmentalism" emerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican Richard Nixon playing a major role, especially with his creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
From 1962 to 1998, the grass roots movement founded 772 national
organizations focused primarily on environmental protection or pollution
abatement. Furthermore many other organizations adopted such goals in addition to their primary goal, such as the American Lung Association.
Using a broad definition, Jason T. Carmichael, J. Craig Jenkins, and
Robert J. Brulle identified over 6,000 national and regional
organizations, plus another 20,000 or more at the local and state levels
that were working on behalf of a multitude of environmental causes in
the year 2000.
Fears about Agricultural Land Adequacy
According
to historian Tim Lehman, concerns were first raised in the 20th century
regarding the long-term adequacy of the nation's agricultural lands. At
the federal level studies were made and programs were proposed and some
launched to preserve farmlands from conversion to other uses. An
awareness of the need for agricultural conservation followed a history
of agricultural abundance, as seen in the rapid settlement of western
lands in the 1850s to 1880s. The new theme emerged in the Progressive
conservation movement, in Hugh Hammond Bennett's soil conservation crusade, and the land utilization movement of the 1920s. The New Deal
made a major national program of land use planning. A land acquisition
program, soil conservation districts, and county land use planning
agreement all contained elements of federal agricultural land use
planning, but none of these policies were entirely successful. Scarcity
issues faded during the 1950s and 1960s as agricultural productivity
soared. The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962
energized the environmental movement and brought a new awareness in how
industrialized agriculture misused the available land with dangerous
chemicals. Decades of suburbanization, rapid national and global
population growth, renewed worries about soil erosion, fears of oil and
water shortages, and the sudden increase in farm exports beginning in
1972 all were worrisome threats to the long-term supply of good
farmland. The Carter administration in the late 1970s
supported initiatives like the National Agricultural Lands Survey and
liberals in Congress introduced legislation to control suburban sprawl.
However the Reagan administration and the Department of Agriculture were opposed to new regulations, and no major program was enacted.
Laissez-faire and the Sagebrush Rebellion
The
success of Reagan in 1980 was facilitated by the rise of popular
opposition to public lands reform and a return to laissez-faire
ideology. For example, out west in the 1970s the Sagebrush Rebellion arose, demanding less environmental regulation. Conservatives drew on new organizational networks of think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation,
as well as well-funded industry groups, the Republican Party state
organizations, and new right-wing citizen-oriented grass-roots
organizations. They deployed the traditional strategy based on the
rights of owners to control their property; on the protection of mineral
extraction rights; and on the right to hunt and recreate and to pursue
happiness unencumbered by the federal government at the expense of
resource conservation.
Reagan's top appointments in the environment field were James G. Watt as Secretary of the Interior and Anne Gorsuch as head of the EPA.
They tried to help the Reagan agenda by slashing spending and lowering
morale. Both proved incompetent at the jobs; they picked fights with
friends and foes and soon made fools of themselves. Environmentalists
seized on their opportunity and made Watt and Gorsuch the centerpiece of
their campaigns of ridicule. Reagan realized his mistake and fired the
two. He appointed a close friend and troubleshooter, William Clark at Interior. Clark successfully turned off the spotlight and kept the peace. At EPA, Reagan appointed William Ruckelshaus, the EPA's first director and a committed environmentalist. He reversed Gorsuch's policies. Vice President George H. W. Bush
typically kept close to Reagan on most issues but in this area he
announced that if elected he would be the nation's "environmental
president." The long run results of Reagan's two terms were to undermine
laissez-faire rhetoric and mobilize the membership, funding and
momentum of the environmental movement.
Historiographical debates
William Cronon has criticized advocates for assuming that "wilderness" and "nature" have a reality beyond their creation in the human imagination. This has upset many environmentalists.
Cronon writes, "wilderness serves as the unexamined foundation on which
so many of the quasi-religious values of modern environmentalism rest."
He argues that "to the extent that we live in an urban-industrial
civilization but at the same time pretend to ourselves that our real
home is in the wilderness, to just that extent we give ourselves
permission to evade responsibility for the lives we actually lead."
Role of federal government
Interior Department
Organization chart of the Department of Interior as of 2013
From the early 1900s to the present, there has been a fierce rivalry
over control of forests between the Department of Agriculture and the
Department of the Interior. From 1905 to the present the main forestry
unit has been in the Department of Agriculture.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility coverings all of Tennessee and portions of nearby states. The TVA was created in 1933 as part of a New Deal agency to build dams on the Tennessee River to provide flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, regional planning, economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The region was a very poor part of Appalachia
and out of contact with the modern industrial and agricultural economy.
Unlike private utility companies TVA was envisioned as regional
economic development agency that would work to help modernize the
region's economy and society. Its chairman Arthur Morgan
was a visionary, who wanted a model for modernizing traditional
society. Some New Dealers hoped it would be a model for other regions,
but others strongly disagreed and the president was undecided. Any hope
for opening "Seven Little TVAs" across the country died when
conservatives regained control of Congress in 1938 and ended liberal
experimentation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent federal agency created by an executive order of President President Nixon
in 1970 and is part of the executive branch of the government. It
reports to the president and was not created by act of Congress. The primary mission of the EPA is to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment (air, water and land) of the nation.
The EPA was established to combine into a single agency many of the
existing federal government activities of research and development,
monitoring, setting of standards, compliance and enforcement related to
protection of the environment. Its most important role is to evaluate every Environmental impact statement
that is required whenever a federal role is involved. Thereby EPA has
the power to demand changes from most federal agencies to protect the
environment according to EPA's standards. In addition, the Environmental
impact statement allows a public role—private citizen watchdogs can and
often do sue to tie up proposed non-government projects for years.
In 2000 to 2010 the budget held fairly steady at $7.6 to $8.4
billion (with no adjustment for inflation). In terms of objectives, 13%
is budgeted for clean air and global climate change, 36% for clean and
safe water, 24% for land preservation and restoration, 17% for healthy
communities and ecosystems, and 11% for compliance and environmental stewardship.
In 2008 it had a staff of about 18,000 people in headquarters and
departmental or divisional offices, 10 regional offices, and over 25
laboratories located across the nation. More than half of the staff are
engineers, scientists and environmental protection specialists. The
others include legal counsel, financial, public affairs and computer
specialists.
EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
President Nixon, on July 9, 1970, told Congress of his plan to create
the EPA by combining parts of three federal departments, three bureaus,
three administrations and many other offices into the new single,
independent agency to be known as the Environmental Protection Agency.
Congress had 60 days to reject the proposal, but opinion was favorable
and the reorganization took place without legislation. On December 2,
1970, the EPA was officially established and began operation under
director William Ruckelshaus.
The EPA began by consolidating 6550 employees from different agencies
in several cabinet-level departments into a new agency with a $1.4
billion budget.
Kraft
notes that despite its limited charter from 1970, over time EPA has
expanded its regulatory function and jousted with the forces of business
and economic development. Kraft considers the next major transition in
environmental policy to be the process of insuring the "sustainability"
of resources through a coalition of interests ranging from policymakers
to business leaders, scholars, and individual citizens. At the turn of
the 21st century, these often competing groups were wrestling with
disparate environmental, economic, and social values.
Russell
shows that from 1970 to 1993, the EPA devoted more of its resources to
human health issues, notably cancer prevention, than to the protection
of nonhuman species. The limited scope of environmental protection was
due to a variety of reasons. An institutional culture favored human
health issues because most employees were trained in this area. The
emphasis on cancer came from the legal division's discovery that judges
were more persuaded by arguments about the carcinogenicity of chemicals
than by threats to nonhumans. The views of the agency leaders, who
followed politically realistic courses, also played an important part in
shaping the EPA's direction. Those supporting ecological issues
acquired a new tool in the 1980s with the development of risk
assessments so that advocates of ecological protection could use
language framed by advocates of human health to protect the environment.
Complaints about federal management
Complaints
about federal management of public lands constantly roil relations
between public lands users (ranchers, miners, researchers, off-road
vehicle enthusiasts, hikers, campers and conservation advocates) and the
agencies and environmental regulation on the other. Ranchers complain
that grazing fees are too high and that grazing regulations are too onerous despite environmentalist complaints that the opposite is true
and that promised improvements to grazing on federal lands do not
occur. Miners complain of restricted access to claims, or to lands to
prospect. Researchers complain of the difficulty of getting research
permits, only to encounter other obstacles in research, including
uncooperative permit-holders and, especially in archaeology, vandalized
sites with key information destroyed. Off-road vehicle users want free
access, but hikers and campers and conservationists complain grazing is
not regulated enough and that some mineral lease holders abuse other
lands or that off-road vehicle destroy the resource. Each complaint has a
long history.
White House roles
Theodore Roosevelt presidency 1901-1909
A 1908 editorial cartoon describing Roosevelt's creed as "a practical forester"
Conservation was a minor issue for most presidents. Theodore Roosevelt carved a leadership role that several successors followed.
Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist, putting the issue high on his national agenda.
He changed the land by creating 50 wildlife refuges, 18 national
monuments, and five national parks, and above all by publicizing
conservation issues. Roosevelt's conservation efforts were aimed not
just at environment protection, but also at ensuring that society as a
whole, rather than just select individuals or companies, benefited from
the country's natural resources. His key adviser on conservation matters was Gifford Pinchot,
the head of the Bureau of Forestry. Roosevelt increased Pinchot's power
over environmental issues by transferring control over national forests
from the Department of the Interior to the Bureau of Forestry, which
was part of the Agriculture Department. Pinchot's agency was renamed to
the United States Forest Service, and Pinchot presided over the implementation of assertive conservationist policies in national forests. Under William Howard Taft, Pinchot had a heavily publicized dispute over environmental policy with Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger that led to Pinchot's dismissal and to Roosvelt's break with Taft in 1912.
Roosevelt relied on the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, which promoted federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi2 or 930,000 km2) under federal protection. In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, granting the president the power to create national monuments in federal lands. Roosevelt set aside more federal land, national parks, and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. Roosevelt established the Inland Waterways Commission to coordinate construction of water projects for both conservation and transportation purposes, and in 1908 he hosted the Conference of Governors.
This was the first time governors had ever met together and the goal
was to boost and coordinate support for conservation. Roosevelt then
established the National Conservation Commission to take an inventory of the nation's natural resources.
To reach a broad natrional audience of state leaders, and obtain
heavy media coverage, President Roosevelt sponsored the first ever Conference of Governors.
It was held in the White House May 13–15, 1908. Pinchot, at that time
Chief Forester of the U.S., was the primary mover of the conference, and
a progressive conservationist, who strongly believed in the scientific and efficient management of natural resources on the federal level. He was also a prime mover of the previous Inland Waterways Commission, which recommended such a meeting the previous October.
The focus of the conference was on natural resources and their
proper use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: "Conservation as a
National Duty." Among those speaking were leading industrialists, such as James J. Hill, politicians, and resource experts. Andrew Carnegie,
a leading philanthropist was in attendance. The speeches emphasized
both the nation's need to exploit renewable resources and the differing
situations of the various states, requiring different plans. This
Conference was a seminal event in the history of conservationism; it
brought the issue to public attention in a highly visible way. The next
year saw two outgrowths of the Conference: the National Conservation Commission, which Roosevelt and Pinchot set up with representatives from the states and Federal agencies, and the First National Conservation Commission, which Pinchot led as an assembly of private conservation interests.
Opposition
Roosevelt's policies faced opposition from both liberal environmental activists like John Muir and conservative proponents of laissez-faire like Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado. While Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club,
wanted nature preserved for the sake of pure beauty, Roosevelt
subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the
largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep
on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees."
Teller and other opponents of conservation, meanwhile, believed that
conservation would prevent the economic development of the West and
feared the centralization of power in Washington. The backlash to
Roosevelt's ambitious policies prevented further conservation efforts in
the final years of Roosevelt's presidency and would later contribute to
the Pinchot–Ballinger controversy during the Taft administration.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting
with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate. Although he
was never an outdoorsman or sportsman on the scale of his distant
cousin Theodore Roosevelt, their presidential roles in conservation were
comparable.
When Franklin was Governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief
Administration was a state-level system that became the model for his
federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building fire trails, combating soil erosion and planting tree seedlings in marginal farmland in upstate New York. The governor worked closely with Harry Hopkins and in 1933 brought Hopkins to Washington to use the New York experience to shape the national programs of work relief.
Roosevelt's New Deal was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the National Park and National Forest systems. Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade to 15.5 million in 1939.
Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA
and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national
systems.
From 1933 to 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) enrolled 3.4 million young men for six months service. It built
13,000 miles (21,000 kilometres) of trails, planted two billion trees,
and upgraded 125,000 miles (201,000 kilometres) of dirt roads. CCC made
permanent "improvements" on 118 million acres (triple the size of
Connecticut). A 1936 CCC press release claimed it "greatly increased the
value of the forest and added to its usefulness to the public," while
CCC Director Robert Fechner boasted in his 1939 annual report, the Corps had "constructively altered the landscape of the United States."
Even more important to the New Deal's ambitions, it clothed, fed,
housed and gave medical, dental, and eye care, as well as vigorous
outdoor exercise, to unemployed urban youth who needed help that their
poverty stricken families could not provide. Furthermore the parents
received $25 a month while their sones were away. Likewise Arno B.
Cammere, the energetic head of the National Park system, realized that
helping solve the unemployment crisis was Roosevelt's main goal. The
conservation projects of the Park and Forest services were dramatically
expanded.
According to Richard Lowitt, the New Deal Interior Department led by Secretary Harold L. Ickes,
emphasized economic benefits from hydroelectric power. The Department
sought to build "the foundations for a more stable economy in the West
that would expand enormously and bring in its wake a rising standard of
living, increased population, and a greater measure of equality with
other sections of the country".
The New Deal ignored the fears of the upper class purists who realized
their single goal of preserving wilderness instead of "improving" it was
being undermined.
Wartime and postwar: 1942-1953
When
unemployment practically ended in 1942, many of the New Deal agencies
closed down permanently, including the WPA and CCC. New conservation
programs were put on hold unless they contributed to the war effort. The
Army Corps of Engineers turned to military construction and took charge
of building the atomic bomb. The TVA played a major role in producing
the uranium and plutonium used in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Vice President took over when Roosevelt died in April 1945. Truman never enjoyed his youth on the farm and had no interest in the outdoors, nor did his Interior Secretary Oscar L. Chapman.
However both Truman and Chapman were keenly aware of the patronage
advantages to the Democratic Party in large dam projects. They sponsored
a major expansion with no concern for negative environmental impact.
After the war ended the Corps of Engineers built 400 dams and 3400 flood
control projects, while TVA added 4 dams, and the Bureau of Reclamation
added 41.
Water projects continued at a fast pace, with 11,000 new dams in the 1950s and 19,000 in the 1960s.
The "Big Dam Era" was made possible by very expensive combinations of
high dams, powerful turbines, and high-tension long distance
transmission lines whereby electrical utilities brought power to
customers hundreds of miles away. The era began in the 1930s and was
practically over by 1970.
Meanwhile the environmental movement was starting to form. Aldo Leopold published a highly influential book in 1949, A Sand County Almanac, which helped define environmental ethics. It eventually sold more than two million copies.
In terms of ideology, liberals (and the Democratic Party) wanted
national control of natural resources—the level at which organized
ideological pressures were effective. Conservatives (and the Republican
Party) wanted state or local control, whereby the financial benefit to
local businesses and jobs could be decisive. In a debate going back to
the early 20th century, preservationists wanted to protect the inherent
natural beauty of the national parks, whereas economic maximizers wanted
to build dams and divert water flows.
Eisenhower articulated the conservative position in December 1953,
declaring that conservation was not about "locking up and putting
resources beyond the possibility of wastage or usage," but instead
involved "the intelligent use of all the resources we have, for the
welfare and benefit of all the American people." Liberals and environmentalists forced the resignation of Secretary of the InteriorDouglas McKay
in 1956. He was a businessman with little interest in the environment
who allegedly promoted "giveaways" to mining companies regardless of
environmental damage.
Eisenhower's personal activity on environmental issues came in foreign policy. He supported the UN convention of 1958
that provided a strong foundation for international accords governing
the use of the world's high seas, especially regarding fishing
interests. Eisenhower also promoted the peaceful use of atomic energy
for the production of electricity, with strong controls against
diversion into nuclear weapons. However, there was little attention to
nuclear waste.
President Johnson signs the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act into law, October, 1968. His wife Lady Bird Johnson is in red.
John F Kennedy was a city boy like his constituents. He did not hunt
or fish, hike or explore, nor seek out the wilderness. He did greatly
enjoy the ocean and the seashore but otherwise the environment and
environmentalism bored him.
When Vice President Lyndon Johnson succeeded the assassinated
president in November 1973, he retained Kennedy's staunchly
pro-environment Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall. Johnson helped pass a series a series of bills designed to protect the environment. He signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1963, which had been proposed by Kennedy. The Clean Air Act set emission standards for stationary emitters of air pollutants and directed federal funding to air quality research. In 1965, the act was amended by the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, which directed the federal government to establish and enforce national standards for controlling the emission of pollutants from new motor vehicles and engines. In 1967, Johnson and Senator Edmund Muskie led passage of the Air Quality Act of 1967, which increased federal subsidies for state and local pollution control programs.
During his time as President, Johnson signed over 300 conservation measures into law, forming the legal basis of the modern environmental movement. In September 1964, he signed a law establishing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which aids the purchase of land used for federal and state parks. That same month, Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System; saving 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development.
In 1965, Muskie led passage of the Water Quality Act of 1965,
though conservatives stripped a provision of the act that would have
given the federal government the authority to set clean water standards.
The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, the first piece of comprehensive endangered species legislation, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to list native species of fish and wildlife as endangered and to acquire endangered species habitat for inclusion in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 established the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The system includes more than 220 rivers, and covers more than 13,400 miles of rivers and streams. The National Trails System Act of 1968 created a nationwide system of scenic and recreational trails.
As First Lady and trusted presidential confidant, Lady Bird Johnson
helped establish the public environmental movement in the 1960s. She
worked to beautify Washington D.C. by planting thousands of flowers, set
up the White House Natural Beauty Conference, and lobbied Congress for
the president's full range of environmental initiatives. In 1965, she
took the lead in calling for passage of the Highway Beautification Act. The act called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain types of signs, along the nation's growing Interstate Highway System and the existing federal-aid primary highway system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development.
According to Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall, she single-handedly,
"influenced the president to demand-and support-more far-sighted
conservation legislation."
Time magazine called Barry Commoner, the "Paul Revere
of ecology" for his work on the threats to life from the environmental
consequences of fallout from nuclear tests and other pollutants of the
water, soil, and air. Time's
cover on February 2, 1970, represented a "call to arms", to mobilize
public opinion by appeals to fears of chemical pollution of food and
water. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day
took place, which saw 20 million Americans demonstrating peacefully in
favor of environmental reform, accompanied by special events held at
university campuses across the nation. The huge response to Earth Day
convinced Richard Nixon
that he could expand his political base by championing the new
environmental movement. His instincts were right: there was especially
strong popular support for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Clean Air Act of 1970. Polls showed support was high among men and women of all ages, and among conservatives as well as liberals.
The media led the stampede. A survey of 21,000 editorials in 5 major
newspapers from October 1970 to September 1971 showed that environmental
topics were the number one social issue. The top concerns were water
quality, land use, air quality and waste disposal.
Richard Nixon (President 1969–1975)
came late to the conservation movement. Environmental policy had not
been a significant issue in the 1968 election, and the media rarely
asked about the subject. Nixon broke the silence by highlighting the
environment in his State of the Union speech in January 1970:
The great question of the seventies is: shall we surrender to our
surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make
reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to
our water? Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party
and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of
this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans,
because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure
to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster
later. Clean air, clean water, open spaces—these should once again be
the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.
The president then introduced 36 environmental initiatives, and
pushed most of them through. He strongly supported advisors who deeply
believed in environmentalism, especially Russell E. Train, John Ehrlichman, William Ruckelshaus, and John C. Whitaker.
In June 1970 Nixon announced the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), using an Executive order that did not require Congressional approval. Other breakthrough initiatives supported by Nixon included the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). His National Environmental Policy Act required environmental impact statements for many Federal projects.
Furthermore, he put protection of the global environment on the
international diplomatic agenda for the first time in world history. Then Nixon reversed himself and in 1972 he vetoed the Clean Water Act
—objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount
of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress
overrode his veto, Nixon impounded the funds he deemed unjustifiable.
Nixon's achievements
Political scientists Byron Daines and Glenn Sussman identify six major achievements for which they give credit to Nixon.
He broadened the attention span of the Republican Party to
include environmental issues, for the first time since the days of
Theodore Roosevelt. He thereby "dislodged the Democratic Party from its
position of dominance over the environment."
He helped ensure that Congress build a permanent structure
supportive of environmentalism, especially the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1970, which enjoined all federal agencies to help protect
the environment.
Nixon appointed a series of strong environmentalists in highly visible positions, most notably William Ruckelshaus, Russell Train, Russell W. Peterson, and John C. Whitaker (who was a senior White House aide for four years, becoming Undersecretary of the Interior in 1973).
Nixon initiated worldwide diplomatic attention to environmental issues, working especially with NATO.
Finally, state: "Nixon did not have to be personally committed to
the environment to become one of the most successful presidents in
promoting environmental priorities."
Historians pose a strange paradox regarding Nixon. In 1970-1971 he
unexpectedly emerged as a great environmentalist who deserves credit for
several of the most important environmental laws in American history.
By 1972, however, he suddenly moved far to the right, despising
environmentalists as left-wing fanatics who would bankrupt the economy.
Whirlpool Canyon, which would have been flooded by one of the proposed Echo Park dams
A critical transition took place after World War II that turned these
groups into activist organizations working to save the Wilderness. The
clientele for the clubs had been an upper-class conservative Republican
audience with close ties to big business. They enjoyed expensive and
exotic vacations at uncrowded wilderness sites. Mountain climbing was
popular. The older leaders retired and were replaced by men with a
mission, especially Howard Zahniser at the Wilderness Society in 1945 and David Brower
at the Sierra Club in 1952. They were dismayed at the aggressive plans
put forward by the "Iron Triangle" that controlled conservation policy.
The Iron Triangle was the informal backstage coalition of key members of
Congress, plus leaders of the major federal agencies, plus local
businessmen keen on speeding up economic development by using natural
resources. After a decade of depression and war, the nation was ready to
move ahead. The Bureau of Reclamation took the lead with an elaborate
plan to develop dams on the Colorado River for the benefit of the
economies of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah,
and Wyoming. The centerpiece would be a huge new Echo Park Dam inside Dinosaur National Monument.
Zahniser and Brower, working with 30 other groups, launched recruiting
drives to bring in middle class members with idealistic goals to fight
the destruction of the wilderness at Echo Park. They raised money for
staff; mobilized local branches; and flooded the market with glossy
magazines featuring nature photography by the likes of Ansel Adams; and petitioned local, state and national politicians. They convinced Congress to delete Echo Park Dam from the Colorado River Storage Project in 1955, but had to agree on an alternative dam site at Glen Canyon Dam.
They went on to oppose other grandiose projects. To make their goals
permanent Zahniser drafted an ambition "Wilderness Act" designed to
permanently protect 50 million acres of wilderness with no commercial
activities such as mining or hydroelectric power dams. In the end he
achieved a Wilderness Act
in 1964 that protected 9 million acres and set a national standard,
while mobilizing grass roots voters and setting a model of activism for
other national and local organizations to emulate in challenging the
Iron Triangle.
The Sierra Club is a major environmental organization. It was founded in May, 1892, by preservationist John Muir
(1838–1914). He became the first president, serving for 20 years. The
Club did not engage in lobbying. Instead it provided its upscale
clientele with outdoor adventures, such as guided tours, wilderness
camping and mountain climbing. Reform-minded activists known as the
"John Muir Sierrans" wanted a more aggressive role in protecting the
environment. They brought in the hyperenergetic and controversial David Brower (1912–2000) as Executive Director 1952 to 1969.
The Club now became the first large-scale environmental preservation
organization in the world, best known for systematic lobbying of
politicians to promote environmentalist policies. Major activities
include promoting sustainable energy and mitigating global warming, as well as opposition to the use of coal, hydropower, and nuclear power.
The organization takes strong positions on issues that sometimes create
controversy, criticism, or opposition either internally or externally
or both. The club is known for its political endorsements generally
supporting liberal and progressive candidates in elections.
Under Brower's leadership, Sierra's membership grew rapidly, from
7,000 in 1952 to 70,000 members in 1969. It was the largest and most
prominent conservation organization. Building on the biennial Wilderness
Conferences which the Club launched in 1949 together with The
Wilderness Society, Brower helped win passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Brower and the Sierra Club also led a major battle to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from building two dams that would flood portions of the Grand Canyon.
Brower was keen on publicity and sponsored numerous heavily illustrated
books to promote knowledge and admiration for the nation's wilderness.
On the other hand powerful members of Congress fought for new high dams
to use water power to promote the local economy, regardless of the
flooding they caused to wilderness areas. Their leader in Congress was Wayne N. Aspinall, the Democrat from western Colorado who dominated the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs
as chairman from 1959 to 1973. Brower complained that the environmental
movement had seen "dream after dream dashed on the stony continents of
Wayne Aspinall." The congressman shot back that the environmentalists
were "over-indulged zealots" and "aristocrats" to whom "balance means
nothing."
The Wilderness Society is a non-profit conservation organization founded in 1937 by Bob Marshall (1901–1939), who largely funded its startup. It is dedicated to protecting natural areas and federal public lands in the United States and advocates for the designation of federal wilderness areas and other protective designations, such as for national monuments.
It calls for balanced uses of public lands, and advocate for federal
politicians to enact various land conservation and balanced land use
proposals. The Society specializes in issues involving lands under the management of federal agencies; such lands include national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.
In the early 21st century, the society has been active in fighting
recent political efforts to reduce protection for America's roadless and
undeveloped lands and wildlife. It was instrumental in the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The primary drafter of the Wilderness Act was Howard Zahniser (1906–1964), who served as executive secretary of the Wilderness Society from 1945 until his death. The Wilderness Act led to the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects 109 million acres of U.S. public wildlands.
Activism
Ecocentrics
According
to Keith Makoto Woodhouse, the ecocentric movement is controversial and
internally divided. It rejects the anthropocentric belief that humans
are intrinsically superior to other forms of life, and have the right to
rule over and manipulate nature.
The ecocentrics focus largely on wilderness preservation. They are
highly controversial in their use of direct action-and in their
reluctance to engage in standard political activity. For example the Earth First! activists used Tree spiking—driving long spikes into trees that would destroy sawmills and injure workers. "Ecotage" is the crime of sabotage on behalf of the environment.
Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement began in the United States in the 1980s. It was heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement and focused on environmental racism
within rich countries. The movement was later expanded to consider
gender, international environmental injustice, and inequalities within
marginised groups. As the movement achieved some success in rich
countries, environmental burdens were shifted to the Global South (as for example through extractivism or the global waste trade).
The movement for environmental justice has thus become more global,
with some of its aims now being articulated by the United Nations. The
movement overlaps with movements for Indigenous land rights and for the human right to a healthy environment.
The goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for marginalised communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders
frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction
or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly
influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks.
Environmental justice scholars have produced a large interdisciplinary
body of social science literature that includes contributions to political ecology, environmental law, and theories of sustainability.
Environmentalist lawsuits blocking clean air projects
An editorial in The Washington Post
on April 6, 2024 discusses the challenges faced by clean energy
projects as caused by environmental activists in lawsuits around the
United States. One example is the Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage
transmission line between Iowa and Wisconsin. It would connect over 160
renewable energy facilities producing 25 gigawatts of green power. It is
facing a temporary halt due to a lawsuit by environmental groups
condemning its impact on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
The editorial argues this is just one example of the conflicts between
environmental protection and the need for new infrastructure to support
the clean energy transition. Solar, wind, and carbon capture projects
often face opposition from conservation groups. The permitting process,
established by laws like the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), generally leans against developers and allows virtually anyone
to challenge projects in court on environmental grounds. This leads to
lengthy delays and increased costs for clean energy projects.
Researchers found that nearly two-thirds of solar energy projects, 31%
of transmission lines, and 38% of wind energy projects that completed
federal environmental impact studies between 2010-2018 were litigated.
The editorial says that many environmental concerns are valid, but the
permitting process does not reasonably weigh the costs and benefits of
building essential clean energy infrastructure. It needs to be
streamlined to accelerate the clean power expansion required to meet
emissions reduction goals. The editorial concludes that Congress should
reform the permitting process and preempt state and local rules that
make it harder to build high-priority clean energy projects.
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