Chapter 2
Henry David Thoreau wrote Life in the Woods(1854) “We need the tonic of wildness...”
Congress of 1891 Forest Reserve Act established that federal government was responsible for protecting public lands from exploitation
John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892 responsible for establishing Yosemite National Park in 1890.
President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) Antiquities Act of 1906 Allows the president to protect areas of scientific or historical interest on federal lands as national monuments. He persuaded Congress to grant the president power to designate public land as federal wildlife reserves Castillo de San Marcos, Florida (Coolidge) Fort Jefferson, Florida (FDR Santa Rosa Island Fort Matanzas, Florida
Congress 1916 National Park Service Act Parks are to be maintained in a manner that leaves them unimpaired for future generations
Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover promoted resource removal from public lands at low prices to stimulate economic growth.
The Great Depression devastating period for the nation, but forestalled the purchase of public lands by private interests.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) 1933.Two million people obtained work with CCC restoring degraded environments and building dams, etc.
Rachel Carson
Congress 1964 Wilderness Act Authorized government to protect undeveloped tracts of land, unless Congress later decides to use it for national good.
Paul Erlich, Barry Commoner, and Garrett Hardin described the relationships among population growth, resource use, and pollution. Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all. Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown. Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system" There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.
Astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, Photographs of Earth from space in 1969 resulted in a “spaceship earth” environmental worldview.
20 million hippies Celebrate the first Earth Day, held April 20, 1970
President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.
Supported passage of Endangered Species Act to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.
Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1978. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received its first real authority to manage public lands under its control with the passage of this act.
“sagebrush rebellion” resulted as miners, ranchers, loggers, developers, farmers, and others joined together to try to greatly reduce government regulation and to persuade legislators to sell or lease these lands to private interests at low prices.
President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) persuaded congress to create the Department of Energy with the task of reducing the heavy dependence of the country on imported oil.
President Ronald Ragan greatly increased private energy and mineral development and timber cutting on public lands during his eight years in office.
The “wise-use” movement formed in 1988, backed by coal, oil, mining, automobile, timber, and ranching interests. The goals were to weaken/repeal environmental laws and incapacitate the movement.
Bill Clinton protected more public land as national monuments in the lower 48 states than any other president.
Bush His policies rested on increasing use of fossil fuels and a relaxation of air and water quality standards. He also tried to repeal or weaken most of the pro-environmental measures established by Clinton.