1.7 Environmental History in the USA

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1.7 Environmental History in the USA
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Cultural Shifts

• Hunter-gatherers
• Agricultural revolution
• Industrial revolution
• Information Globalization

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Tribal Period

• 0-1600s
• native American culture
• respect for nature Mother Earth

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The Frontier Ethic

• 1600-1890
• Wildness must be conquered TAMED
• Good land is SAFE with villages fields
• EXPLOITATION of resources (that will never run
  out)

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Encouraging Settlement

• Homestead Act 1812
• 1850 Federal government owns 80
• 1900 Private ownership at 60
• 1890 the frontier is closed

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Early Environmentalism1870-1930

• James Audubon
• Thoreau On Walden Pond
• G.P. Marsh Man nature
• John Muir-Sierra Club
• General Revision Act 1891 (Forest reserves)

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Green Presidency1900

• Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1907)
• The Antiquities Act (parks/ Monuments)
• wildlife refuges, national parks, national
  forests....I proclaim it....

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National Parks

• Yellowstone
• Yosemite
• the Hetch-Hetchy Valley Controversy
• 1916 NPS
• use without impairment, for the greatest good,
  let nature rule

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National Forests

• 1905 USFS (Gifford Pinchot)
• Forest Management via
• sustained yield
• multiple use

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Land Use Perspective

• Preservationlt--gtConservation,lt--gtExpoitation

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1930-1960

• FDR
• Government REPURCHASES land from cash strapped
  owners
• CCC-put them to work for the envi
• TVA
• Hoover Dam
• SCA of 1935
• Public Health is a national priority education,
  vaccination, erradication

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1960-2000-curtailing pollutants

• Rachel Carson (1962) Silent Spring
• Harding Tragedy of the Commons (Population,
  resources, pollution)
• Ehrlich The Population Bomb
• 1964 Wilderness Act
• Bald eagles?
• Earth Image from space 1969

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1970!

• Earth Day!
• founded the E.P.A.
• E.S.A.
• B.L.M. to manage Wester public lands
• sagebrush Rebellion
• 1977 Dept. of Energy
• CERCLA (Superfund Act) from Love Canal

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Late 20th Century

• Environmentalism!
• Environmental legislation
• NEPA

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1980s

• the anti-environmental era
• Reagan was a Sagebrush rebellion member!

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1990s

• back to the environment
• Clinton

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2000s

• Bush
• cut funding to majority of projects

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2010

• Obama Dollars
• American recovery Act
• Green Jobs