Environmental Issues By John Slinkman

The Western Landscape As people moved westward, the environment took a big blow (“ecological imperialism”) Land was exhausted quickly where tobacco was grown, forcing farmers to move westward and destroy more land for growing tobacco. Fur trappers in the Rocky Mountain region decimated the beaver and buffalo population as well as the sea otters on the California coast.

No other place had the pristine, natural beauty of America But people came to recognize the beauty and uniqueness of America during this time No other place had the pristine, natural beauty of America George Catlin was a painter and was one of the first to advocate the preservation of nature as a deliberate national policy. Catlin proposed national parks and Yellowstone was the first one in 1872. Painting by George Catlin

Teddy Roosevelt’s Conservation Before TR, the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 saved 46 million acres of trees. Conservation may have been TR’s most enduring tangible achievement. Newlands Act said money that was collected from the sale of public lands in the desert would fund the development of irrigation projects. The Roosevelt Dam on Arizona’s Salt River set off a chain reaction of other dams built on nearly every major western river. Roosevelt Dam

The Environmentalists Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot both agreed that nature should be neither “uncritically reverenced nor wastefully exploited”. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring uncovered the damaging effects of pesticides on birds, plants, animals, and even humans. 1970 brought the first Earth Day, on April 22, and it marked the political maturation of modern-day environmentalism.

The Dust Bowl In 1933, a long drought and strong winds from Colorado to Missouri marked the beginning of the Dust Bowl. But humans played a huge role as a culprit too High grain prices led farmers to bring more and more new land under cultivation. Tractors and disk plows tore up sod like never before, leaving the topsoil to blow away.

Nixon’s Legacy on the Environment The Environmental Protection Agency’s birth in 1970 climaxed 20 yrs of mounting concern for the environment. Standing with the EPA was the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and similar laws. They all made notable progress on reducing automobile emissions and cleaning up polluted waterways and toxic waste sites.

As soon as people started learning about how the environment was being treated so badly, many advocated for change. They wanted to preserve America’s uniqueness and wanted to live in a healthier/better place. We can better understand American History by knowing the impacts American citizens had on the environment. Everything people have done has impacted the environment, whether it be during the 1600s or the 21st century. As people depended on farming, forests were knocked down changing the entire landscape of the region. The environment was impacted in a poor manner during the Industrial Revolution as the air became polluted and bodies of water were filled with toxic waste.