Sustainability Principles and Practice Chapter 2 A Brief History of Sustainability

Chapter Topics Recent history: the last 200 years Early conservation Transformation from conservation to ecology The beginnings of the environmental movement U.S. legislation in the 1970s Environmental justice and the triple bottom line Expanding to a global scale Modern trends

Recent history: the last 200 years Malthus Population growth and carrying capacity Thoreau Nature as interconnected community Marsh Stewardship vs. resource consumption Muir National parks Sierra Club National Park Service John Muir in the Sierra Nevada

Early conservation – early 20th century Lacey Act of 1900 Response to birds killed for fashion Early wildlife protection Library of Congress Millinery Trade Review, 1897

Early conservation National Wildlife Refuges Theodore Roosevelt U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge

Early conservation Nature as resource depot Gifford Pinchot Library of Congress Washington Dept. of Ecology Gifford Pinchot

From conservation to ecology Science of ecology Relationships and connections Food webs and trophic levels  Humans not indispensable National Park Service

From conservation to ecology Succession Changing plant communities U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Succession following a fire Chaos and complexity theories Unpredictability and uncertainty Nature is not a machine

Environmental movement – 1960s and 1970s Silent Spring, 1962 Rachel Carson U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service “Better living through chemistry”

Environmental movement The Population Bomb, 1968 Paul Ehrlich Small Is Beautiful, 1973 E.F. Schumacher UNEP/GRID-Arendal Exponential growth made real

Environmental movement The first Earth Day: 1970 20 million participants nationwide National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cuyahoga River on fire, 1952

Environmental movement Arab oil embargo, 1970 “Energy crisis”

Environmental movement Love Canal, 1978  Superfund, 1980 Centers for Disease Control Environmental Protection Agency Love Canal cleanup Love Canal, a Superfund site

U.S. legislation in the 1970s 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 1970 Clean Air Act 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) Multiple water, energy, and pesticide regulations 1977 Clean Water Act

Environmental justice United Farm Workers organized, 1962 Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta Drawings of a person by children in Yaqui Valley, Mexico Drawings by 4-year-olds Drawings by 5-year-olds National Institutes of Health Credit: Elizabeth A. Guillette 1990 Child from pesticide-free zone Child from farm area with heavy pesticide use Child from pesticide-free zone Child from farm area with heavy pesticide use

Environmental justice movement begins 1982, PCB landfill proposed African American neighborhood Warren County, North Carolina Protests and marches 1987, report by Ben Chavis “environmental racism” Environmental Justice Resource Center Photo courtesy of Robert Bullard, Library of Congress Birmingham, AL Warren County, NC

Expanding to a global scale

“Earthrise” 1968 Apollo 8 moon orbit National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Manned Spacecraft Center, © 2014 Margaret Robertson

“Blue Marble” 1972 Apollo 17 lunar landing National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Expanding to a global scale 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment Stockholm, Sweden “Think globally, act locally” René Dubos, from report Only One Earth UN Environment Programme (UNEP) established Importance of triple bottom line NASA

Expanding to a global scale 1983, UN – World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) Chair, Gro Harlem Brundtland 1987 report, Our Common Future a.k.a. the Brundtland report Sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” WCED. Our Common Future, 1987.

Expanding to a global scale 1987, Montreal Protocol Global response to thinning of ozone layer Phased out production of CFCs NASA “Ozone hole” over Antarctica

Expanding to a global scale 1992 Earth Summit UN Conference on Environment and Development Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Agenda 21 adopted UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted  Kyoto Protocol

Expanding to a global scale 2001, UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2002, UN World Summit on Sustainable Development a.k.a. Earth Summit 2002 Johannesburg, South Africa Millennium Development Goals adopted

Modern trends Bioregionalism Closed-loop processes Green building Cradle to cradle Green building Sustainability in education Measurement Ecological Footprint Life cycle assessment Raw materials Production Distribution Use Disposal

Chapter Summary Recent history: the last 200 years Early conservation Transformation from conservation to ecology The beginnings of the environmental movement U.S. legislation in the 1970s Environmental justice and the triple bottom line Expanding to a global scale Modern trends