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TSW: What are the origins of the environmental movement and what are the significant measures taken to combat environmental problems

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1960’s Environmental Movement Begins

• In 1962 Rachel Carson wrote the book Silent Spring

• Pesticides like DDT poisoned eagles' foods and weakened eggshells

• Americans took warnings to heart and 1/2 million copies of the book were in sold 6 months

• The Chemical Industry was outraged by the book

• A 1972 ban on DDT led to gradual improvements in population.

"Over increasingly large areas of the United States spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song."(Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)

What does it say about a nation when its national bird is endangered?

• Wildlife experts believe there may have been 25,000 to as many as 75,000 nesting bald eagles in the lower 48 states when the bird was adopted as our national symbol in 1782

• By the early 1960’s eagles faced extinction with only 450 nesting pairs existing in the U.S.

• Laws were enacted to protect the eagles and eliminate the use of DDT. There are now nearly 4,500 adult bald eagle nesting pairs in the U.S.

The Movement Blossoms• Smog

– fog with smoke and chemicals• Oil Spills

– Exxon Valdez• Nuclear Disasters

– Three Mile Island– Chernobyl

• Pollution– Love Canal and other areas faced serious

pollution problems as a result of illegal dumping

Smog in Los Angeles

Smog in Atlanta

Smog in Denver

Smog in DFW

Exxon Valdez Spill of 1989

• The oil tanker ran aground on a reef in Puget Sound.

• 10.9 million gallons of oil were spilled

• The accident resulted in the largest oil spill clean-up response ever mobilized.

Exxon Valdez

Three Mile Island

• March 28, 1979 in Harrisburg, Penn.

• Reactor at nuclear facility overheated and radiation escaped

• Citizens evacuated• Left the public in

great doubt about the safety of nuclear power

• Since 1973, 60 US facilities shut down and no new facilities have opened.

Chernobyl• April 1986 in the Ukraine• Soviet workers were poorly

trained• A reactor overheated

resulting in a massive explosion that released radiation into the atmosphere

• Soviets attempted to cover up the disaster

• The area and the people suffer the effects of the disaster still today.

Chernobyl

How would you like to live next to a nuclear power plant?What about the water?Would you swim? Fish? Drink?Where do you get your water?

Love Canal

• In the late 1970’s a community in Niagara Falls, NY began noticing increased health problems such as:– cancer

– miscarriages

– birth defects

• Residents discovered they were living on top of a toxic waste dump.

• Resident Lois Gibbs organized the neighborhood and demanded the federal government address the problems

• local and state officials were not cooperating

• 1978 entire nation• That same year 200 families

were relocated

Love Canal (continued)

• In 1980 Pres. Carter declared the area a federal disaster area

• 600 remaining families new locations

• 1984 sued company that dumped

• $20 million awarded• Site was cleaned up

• Earth Day -1970

• Environmental awareness

• Campaigns against littering

• Demonstrations against air pollution

• Sierra Club

• the Audubon Society

• the Wilderness Society

Grassroots Effort Begins

Government Steps In

• Environmental Protection Act was signed in 1970 by President Nixon

• set and enforce pollution standards

• promotes research• Coordinates anti-

pollution activities

• Clean Air Act

• 1970

– Nixon tried to Veto

• est. emission standards

– factories

– automobiles

Government Steps In

• Clean Water Act

– 1972

– Nixon attempted to veto this bill also

• Endangered Species Act

– 1973

• These laws produced a dramatic improvement in some areas

Government Steps In

Ralph Nader1965 Unsafe at Any Speed

• Charged that automobile manufactures put style, cost, and speed ahead of safety

• The auto industry hired P.I.’s to uncover information that would discredit him…and found none

• But the incident came to public light and they became much more aware of safety issues

Nader’s efforts spurred Congress

• National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act

• 1966• recalls for defects• industry subject to feds• safety standards incorporated

into car designs

TAKS

1. Air pollution in growing urban areas is most often caused by –   

      

• A inefficient home-heating systems

• B fossil-fuel-powered motor vehicles

• C electric-powered light-rail systems

• D nuclear-powered electric generators

TAKS• We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as

inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of this country . . . does not reproduce itself, and therefore is

certain to be exhausted ultimately.• —President Theodore Roosevelt in his Seventh Annual

Message to Congress, 1907

1. The quote was used to gain support for the creation of the —   

– A Environmental Protection Agency

– B National Conservation Commission

– C Greenpeace organization

– D Sierra Club

TAKS REVIEW• The problems we face are not limited to one coast or one region. From the

contaminated waters of Boston Harbor to the pollution of San Francisco Bay; from the closed shellfish beds of the Chesapeake to the growing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico; from the Puget Sound Superfund sites to the PCB-ridden striped bass of New York; coastal pollution is pervasive and growing more deadly with each passing year.

— Congressional Record, June 1989 

1. Population growth in coastal regions has contributed to the problems described above by --  

– A creating a need for more highways– B causing an increase in flooding and soil erosion– C creating a demand for more clean water– D producing increasing amounts of sewage and other

waste products

Student Assessment

• http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2001/eoc/ushistory.html

• http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2002/eoc/ushistory.html

The Politics of Protest (Ch. 26)

• The Student Movement (Section 1)– Port Huron Statement, Tom Hayden, counterculture

• The Feminist Movement (Section 2)– Equal Pay Act, EEOC, Betty Frieden

• The Civil Rights Movement (Section 3)– affirmative action, Allan Bakke, busing

• Saving the Earth (Section 4)