Research Paper

The American Environmental MovementAuthor(s): D. T. KuzmiakSource: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 157, No. 3 (Nov., 1991), pp. 265-278Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with theInstitute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/635501Accessed: 18/06/2010 18:31

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The Geographical Journal, Vol. 157, No. 3, November 1991, pp. 265-278

THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL and conservation movement has reached a point where it is achieving popular ac-

ceptance and permeating many facets of life in the United States. This is well illustrated by the Executive Director of the Environmental Defence Fund, Frederic Krupp's view:

There can be no doubt that there is a growing consensus among the public that the environment must be considered in every decision. A recent Media General-Associated Press survey found that four out of five Americans believe pollution threatens the quality of their lives, that 75 per cent believe current anti-pollution laws are too weak, and that Americans favour the prohibition of excessive packaging.

(Krupp, 1990: 30) Recent indicators suggest that a broad base of the Americans care about the environment and are trying to change personal and professional habits to ensure a cleaner, more habitable environment (Fig. 1). The American public has been on a course of a new environmental and conservation ethos, which 'neither arose from a broad popular out- cry nor centred itself primarily upon the private corporation' (Hays, 1959: 1). Instead, it arose from the 'grass roots'. According to Douglas P. Wheeler, Vice-President of the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Foundation, and Douglas Lea, who teaches American Government and Politics at Washington DC's American University: The changes in public consciousness were too pervasive and gradual to be captured by a single event in the same way that Pearl Harbour, for example, stands for the advent of World War II (in the United States). 'Grass roots' politicians began to take on a green colouration. The major environmental organizations expanded rapidly in wealth, power, and numbers. Millions of individuals changed their everyday

0016-7398/91 /0003-0265/$00.20/0

patterns of external behaviour to reflect changes in internal values and consciousness. (Wheeler and Lea, 1990: 34) The 'grass roots' aspect to which Wheeler and Lea alluded, is an important one because it is very much a part of the American political scene, and the politicization of environmental activism is a natural offshoot of the American political culture (O'Riordan, 1976). Another aspect of'grass roots' can be seen in that the individual in the United States has the right to bring suit against alleged environmental offence. Writes Michael S. Greve, Executive Director of the Centre for Individual Rights: One manifestation of this trend is the increasing number and scope of environmental 'citizen suit' provisions, which permit private parties who have suffered no particular injury to enforce laws as 'private attorneys general'. With only one exception all federal environmental statutes contain provisions that allow 'any citizen' or 'any person' to sue others for non- compliance. Congressmen and others defend citizen-suit provisions, with considerable moral fervour, as an efficient and democratic mechanism that allows concerned citizens to redress social problems - such as environmental pollution.

(Greve, 1989: 15) This upwelling of environmental concern has necessarily raised questions as to just how dedicated American people are towards the environmental movement, whether it is a fad, soon to be forgotten and replaced by something else. This possibility was examined by Anthony Downs (1972) in his dis- cussion of the 'issue-attention cycle'. Downs postulated that American public attention rarely remains sharply focused upon any domestic issue for very long, even if it involves a continuing problem of crucial importance to society. He felt that in the United States, a systematic 'issue-attention cycle'

? 1991 The Royal Geographical Society

The American environmental movement

D. T. KUZMIAK

712 West Timonium Road, Timonium, MD 21093, USA

This paper was acceptedfor publication in May 1991

The American environmental movement is achieving popular support from many sectors of the society. This paper examines the evolution of the American environmental movement from its beginnings in some of the earliest periods in American history when voices in the wilderness warned against indiscriminate distruction of resources, to a point today where environmental concern is changing individual habits and influencing the decision-making process.

KEY WORDS: USA, environmental consciousness, environment, ecology.

266 THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT

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influences public attitudes and behaviour in as much as a problem suddenly leaps into prominence, remains for a short time and then fades from public attention largely unresolved. While not, what he called, underestimating the American public's capacity to become bored, Downs (1972) clearly believes that environmental issues may remain at centre stage longer than most other domestic issues because improving the environment is such a broad objective. Nevertheless, Downs op cit. somewhat fatalistically predicted that the 'bundle of issues called improving the environment' would also suffer the gradual loss of public attention characteristic of the later stages of the 'issue-attention cycle'.

Downs also lists other reasons for environmental issues enjoying 'centre stage' such as it being an issue that threatens almost everyone, not just a small segment of the population, that politicians can safely pursue it without fearing adverse reper- cussions since attacking pollution is much safer than attacking other issues, and that it could generate a large private industry with strong vested interests in continued spending against pollution.

In another study from the same period, O'Riordan (1971) contended that the American nation was then caught in the throes of its third conservation movement with the first taking place from 1890-1920 and the second from 1933-43. O'Riordan found that underlying the first move-

ment was an emphasis on development rather than preservation while the second was dominated by public works, large-scale labour projects and the rational planning of resources. The third movement, an outgrowth of the heady combination of events which characterized America of the 1960s, was diagrammed as having for its goals security and survival, national economic growth, income re- distribution, equal social opportunity, environmental quality and ecological harmony. O'Riordan (1971) saw its attempt to re-order the nation's goals as both its greatest achievement and its greatest challenge, but he could not predict whether the third conservation movement was likely to continue and to become more pervasive.

Environmental concern certainly does wax and wane during this time. For example, there were the declines in environmental awareness during the 1970s. In considering these, Dunlap (1985) con- cluded that whilst the salience of environmental problems declined considerably by the mid- seventies, the public commitment to protecting environmental quality remained surprisingly strong throughout the decade. Addressing the 'issue- attention cycle' Dunlap believes that a major reason problems disappear from the public eye comes from the creation of regulatory agencies and laws designed to solve problems which therefore lead the public to assume that the issue is being rectified by

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THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT 267

government regulations and action. This aspect, he says, contributed to the diminished salience of environmental problems in the 1970s. After describing the endurance of the American public's commitment to environmental protection since 1970 as being 'somewhat miraculous', Dunlap (1985) continues:

That this commitment has survived for 15 years, after the expenditure of sizable amounts of money and effort and in the face of energy crises, economic hard times and anti-regulatory climate, is a strong indication that the American people have come to place a high value on environmental quality.

(Dunlap, 1985: 17)

The Reagan Administration's anti-regulatory stance and subsequent controversies caused during the early 1980s by such administration figures as Secretary of the Interior James Watt and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (under Anne Gorsuch) caused many people to believe that they could not depend on the government to manage environmental problems.

One alternative that is advanced lies in private ownership as the most effective long-term protector of the environment because it encourages good stewardship (Stroup and Shaw, 1989). This free market solution to environmental pollution would need to be backed up by the courts. This point of view stems partly from the belief that populist sentiment, political patronage and special interest groups are now beginning to dominate and de- termine directions of the environmental movement and that more individual action should be implemented.

Another response to the poor government per- formance is a return to the 'grass roots' concept of handling environmental affairs. Hays almost fore- told this in 1981 when he asserted that environmental politics appears in a number of forms to reassert the role of the 'grass roots' community in public affairs. He writes:

Its tone is one of enhancing the quality of life of the community and individuals within it. Environmentalists from this vantage point viewed large-scale institutions of modern life as intrusions as much as aids and often as threats to local affairs... Many environmental activists reached out to acquire scientific and technical knowledge to forge alliances with trained professionals in order to fight their battles effectively. This new source of political strength marked a change in the capacity of small-scale institutions to ward off intrusions from institutions far above and beyond them. (Hays, 1981: 724)

Who have been the people involved in these 'grassroots' struggles for the environment? O'Riordan (1971) describes America's earliest environmentalists as being voices in the wilderness, but ones of great scientific and intellectual ability who were warning against indiscriminate destruction of resources and calling for a reverence of nature. Later they became the dedicated activists as described

by Hays. Dunlap and Gale (1974) analysed the perceived conflicts arising in the way Americans viewed the environment. One of these lay in the idea that issues relating to the environment were politically non-partisan in nature but that there simultaneously existed a belief that Democrats were more environmentally concerned than Republicans. The latter view was supported by an analysis of roll- call voting on environmental issues in the 1971 Oregon State legislature which revealed that Democrats ranked significantly higher than Repub- licans in terms of 'pro-environmental' voting. However, given that there were also many exceptions to this general tendency, in view of this they argued that it might be better for the environmentalists to continue to single out those politicians with very good or poor records, regardless of party.

In a later study of environmental attitudes and politics conducted among university students at the University of Oregon, Dunlap (1975) found that pro-environmental attitudes and actions were con- sistently higher among Democratic and Liberal Left students than among their Republican and Con- servative counterparts. The exceptions were those Conservatives who believed in the possibility of eco-catastrophe.

In a contrasting view, Buttel and Flinn (1978a), examining the alignment of political party identification and environmental concern among mass publics found that it was sociopolitical liberalism, and not political party identification, that strongly related to environmental concern. They felt that this underpinned the argument that the contemporary US political party structure is an inap- propriate vehicle for mobilizing environmental reforms.

They stated that stratification ranking, especially in education, was correlated with environmental concern. In particular, high personal levels of material and symbolic resources were associated with support for environmental reform. The lower strata were found more to resist environmental reform, and it was suggested that perhaps the fear of declining life chances resulting from strong environmental control policies, may be the cause.

In later studies, a sequel published that same year, Buttel and Flinn (1978b) re-examined the relationship between social class and mass environmental beliefs and found them less pervasive than the bulk of the relevant literature would suggest.

The combined net effects of the three major indicators of social class-education, income and occupation - are quite meagre. Also, the age and place of residence ' control' variables were found to be better predictors of both awareness of environmental problems and support for environmental reform. In sum, working-class hostility towards environmental issues has probably been over-


emphasized in the literature - with important theoretical implications being grounded on this pre- sumed ambivalence (p. 445).

Interpreting this and other related writings Taylor (1989) argues that it has been demonstrated that environmental activists show a different socio- economic profile from the environmentally concerned. He argues that the activist is drawn disproportionately from the upper middle class, whereas environmental concern is displayed by people from all social classes. He suggests that this shows the upper middle class involvement in environmental issues and organizations owes much to factors other than a unique environmental concern.

In another study Samdahl and Robertson (1989) again tested causal modelling of demographic and liberal ideology as codeterminants of environmental concern and found that there appeared to be no significant interaction between education, residence or age with environmental concern in their data. Speculating that future studies may benefit more by focusing on broader belief systems such as liberal ideology rather than socio-demographics, Samdahl and Robertson (op cit.) state that these ideological belief systems may present the more pervasive source from which most environmental concern is generated.

Keeping in mind these theoretical arguments which are by no means exhaustive, and are meant as a basis for interpretive background, it is now possible to look at the highlights in the evolution of the American environmental movement and some of the luminaries influential in its development.

Early interest in American ecology Americans are geographically located in an area where there is an abundance of renewable and non- renewable resources which even with the tech- nologies of two and three hundred years ago, were easily exploitable. The earliest interest in the land was purely in the amount and speed with which it could be harvested. Within the original coastal colonies agricultural produce, tobacco, fur, fish, timber, pitch, iron-by 1770 plantations were producing more iron products than England and Wales (Petulla, 1977) - were the most immediate of the obtainable goods. Later, the westward ex- pansion illustrated the vastness of the American landmass and its climatic and geographic diversity. A belief in the inexhaustibility of these resources emerged and took root because of the superabun- dance that the trapper, pioneer, homesteader or industrialist encountered everywhere. Relentless exploitation of this abundance was feasible. This could be seen as resulting perhaps from the legacy of colonialism - of port cities operating within a mercantilist-dominated trading system controlled by the metropolis (Gaile and Willmott, 1989).

Perhaps the first Americans concerned with the environment around them were the native Indians. Unlike the European settlers, the Native American viewed his existence from the perspective of an integrated harmony where goodness and God exist within natural cycles (Mitchell, 1981). The world of the Native American was imbued with religious as well as sustentative significance and, unlike that of the White man, lacked any profit motive for resource exploitation (Gill, 1987).

As the pioneers crossed the Cumberland Gap in the east coast's Appalachian Mountains and moved westward, John James Audubon, a French immigrant, travelled through the American wilderness for almost 20 years drawing and painting indigenous birds. Audubon feared the impact the settlers were having on the newly opened land (Ford, 1988), but it was in Britain where, in 1826 at the Royal Institution at Liverpool, his work was instantly recognized for its scientific and artistic genius.

At the time such American centres of influence as New York and Philadelphia tended to view a concern for the wilderness, its fauna and flora, as they viewed John Chapman, better known in American folklore as 'Johnny Appleseed,' a bare- footed, coffee sack-clad proselytizer of nature who wandered around the Ohio River Valley region from about 1801 to 1845, planting seedlings and reading from the Bible (Brean, 1961).

Gradually a more deliberate and academic attempt to identify, quantify and interpret the American environmental condition emerged through the endeavours of Henry David Thoreau and George Perkins Marsh, both New Englanders.

Thoreau, an essayist, naturalist and poet, re- corded observations in a variety of natural settings on the American east coast. Posthumously published extracts from his Journal, which he kept from 1837 until his death in 1862, were described a decade later as having prime value as field notes of a naturalist in the area around Concord, Massa- chusetts, where Thoreau spent most of his life (Christie, 1965).

Meanwhile, after persuading Congress to use the legacy of Britain's John Smithson for the founding of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, George Perkins Marsh went on to become the fountain-head of the conservation movement and created a revolution in geographical thought (Lowenthal, 1958). In his seminal work Man and Nature (1864) Marsh showed the need to control the use of natural resources and show responsibility towards them. Marsh's work was well received by scientists and the general public and, in the 1870s, while Thoreau's work was catching on, Man and Nature was becoming an American classic.

In the post-Civil War era came demands for visual depictions of the American frontier and its grandeur, in addition to the more scientific observ-


ations about nature. Such artists as George Catlin showed the cultures of the Great Plains Indians along with the flora and fauna. His was a career epitomizing intelligent concern for the vanishing wilderness and particularly for the Indian (Mitchell, 1981). William Henry Jackson was able to convey such a feeling photographically, and his 1872 pictures helped in the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Jackson was making a truthful, honest record of the world around him, using artistic judgement to obtain pictorial balance (Howe, 1940).

Taming the land and creating National Parks The American author Mark Twain while not strictly a naturalist or environmentalist, popularized a form of travel writing both in and out of the United States. He put into satire the tall tales and open grandeur of the West and made some shrewd observations as to what was happening to the land as more and more people settled the wild West (Bridgman, 1987).

The historian Frederick Jackson Turner saw in America a land where the individual had proven his worth by conquering nature, and inspired a mode of thinking which became known as the Frontier Interpretation. It propounded the theory that Americans were what and who they were because of the Frontier and what it took to conquer it from coast to coast (Billington, 1976). Turner's collected essays became the anthology The Frontier in American History and set a tone in America during the waning days of the nineteenth century.

Paralleling this were the efforts of John Muir and George Bird Grinnell to keep and preserve that essence which made America what it was. If it was the Frontier that made America unique then the Frontier should be preserved, and Scottish-born Muir helped to preserve it. Arriving in 1849 with his immigrant parents, Muir became the author of innumerable articles and lectures about the American wilderness and, in the early twentieth century, was instrumental in the establishment of some of America's greatest National Parks: General Grant, Sequoia and Yosemite. Deemed America's apostle of the Wilderness (Brasher, 1988), Muir was the father of the modern environmental movement and founder of the Sierra Club. His legacy helped create, in 1983, Britain's John Muir Trust based in Edinburgh with the Prince of Wales as its patron.

While Muir was chronicalling the West, in the east, George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream magazine, started a society in 1886 which became the precursor to today's Audubon Society. Stemming from a desire by sportsmen to protect wild birds and their eggs, the society had a membership of 16000 by the end of its first year which more than doubled by the end of the next. But, because the magazine was found not to be a

suitable vehicle for a national organization, it was all but disbanded by the end of the decade. A comeback was made, however, in 1896 and through the creation of regional societies, reaching by 1900 more than 40000 members in 20 states, and a national federation of Audubon Societies became permanent (Welker, 1955).

Leading Federal involvement in the environment was Theodore Roosevelt who had been fascinated by nature and the outdoors from boyhood. This American President who was a keen 'roughriding' outdoorsman and naturalist, despite his genteel East Coast upbringing and privileged Harvard education, did more than any man occupying the White House before him to elevate environmental issues to the national level. He understood the problem of conservation and its basic relationship to national affairs (Morison and Commager, 1952).

Roosevelt's programme was three-fold:

1. Reclaiming arid land through irrigation; 2. Setting aside additional timberland as forest

preserves and; 3. Creating wildlife refuges.

Although there had been men who advocated government involvement, such as Major John Wesley Powell, founder of the US Geological Survey, Frederick H. Newell, founder of the Rec- lamation Service and Gifford Pinchot, the country's Chief Forester, it was under Roosevelt that these men and departments were given the needed mandates. During Roosevelt's administration the word ' conservation' came into official use at a time when there was not enough reforestation, when vast quantities of topsoil were being washed into the sea, lakes and rivers being polluted by mining operations and the passenger pigeon, Carolina paroquet and heath hen were almost extinct. From 14 March, 1903 to 4 March, 1909 Roosevelt created a total of 51 wildlife refuges. When he became President there were five National Parks and he created five more. During his term in office Congress passed the National Monuments Act allowing a US President to declare, at his discretion, sites on government land as being of historic or scientific interest and in need of preservation. Roosevelt established 18 of these (Cutright, 1985).

Increasing public awareness Roosevelt's initiatives encouraged others who wanted to pursue environmental concerns. He took conservationists out of the realm of the 'lunatic fringe' in the American way of life, (' Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe,' Roosevelt wrote in his 1913 autobiography). Aldo Leopold, who joined the Forestry Service after graduating from Yale in 1909, later became one of the great figures in American conservation.

Leopold (1886-1948), was an advocate of wil-


derness preservation and was instrumental in establishing the Gila Wilderness Area in New Mexico during the 1920s. This was the first national forest-wilderness system. By combining Federal government work with writing articles and books and teaching at the University of Wisconsin where the Chair of Game Management was created especially for him, Leopold became a cornerstone in the conservation movement. He taught resource conservation and its global significance (Meine, 1988). His posthumously published Sand County- Almanac has become a conservation bible. Among his other enduring legacies was the creation of the Wilderness Society which continues to focus on protecting public lands in the US.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was interested in the conservation of all the natural resources of the nation. He was concerned about the devastation of forests, the destruction of soils and the needless

spoliation of great scenic and wilderness areas across the United States (Nixon, 1957). The President wanted to coordinate all aspects of conservation while also taking into consideration America's Great

Depression, massive unemployment, farming and soil erosion problems.

Harold L. Ickes was chosen to head the De-

partment of the Interior and throughout his term as

Secretary, he aggressively extended the areas of National Parks in order that timberlands and areas of natural beauty would not be ruined. He worked to raise the consciousness of Americans on the

subject of conservation and to convince them of the need to halt the destruction of irreplaceable national wealth (White and Maze, 1985). The creation of the Civilian Conservation Corp, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority to

stem floods in a seven state region of America's South and even the Farm Securities Administration were attempts at correcting continued deficiencies in America's environmental programme.

At the same time, others were approaching these issues on a more regional basis. Hindsight shows that two, one a writer and the other a photographer, had a particularly lasting impact on popular environmental thinking.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a young reporter during the 1920s, became alarmed over the de-

velopment in Florida's marshy Everglades and

began to make that area her 'beat' and closely monitored the degradation occurring in that unique ecosystem. In her 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass, Douglas wrote against the drainage of the

Everglades, which lowered the water-table, leading to invasion by salt-water and devastation by vast

grass fires. Hers was one of the first independent studies of an ecosystem and an attempt to explain its significance in holistic terms. She examined not

only the ecology of the region, but also the historical

human impact that it sustained. It was Douglas who brought into a modern context Marsh's belief, propounded in Man and Nature, of the interrelation-

ship of all aspects of nature, and illustrated his point that Man is everywhere a disturbing agent, turning the harmonies of nature into discords.

Photographer Ansel Adams (1902--1984), whose

popularity began at just about the same time, has be-

come known as viewing nature with reverence and

approaching it with an intense discipline (Alinder and Stillman, 1988). For him, photography, environmentalism, conservation, nature and the

dissemination of what was there, were all integrated. He let nature speak for itself through his images. People around the world have been influenced by his prints, portfolios, books, posters and the calen-

dars which carry his photographs. It was his love for

nature, particularly for Yosemite, that in part prompted others to appreciate nature both in America and elsewhere.

The modern environmental consciousness The social activism of the 1950s was largely limited to the work of David Brower and the Sierra Club who spoke out against the Eisenhower Adminis-

tration's Mission 66, a redirection of the National Park Service into developing road and service infrastructures in the wilderness. Other areas of

combat were over the Upper Colorado Basin

Project, the protection of Dinosaur National Monu-

ment, and the damming of Glen Canyon for the creation of Lake Powell (Strong, 1988).

Meanwhile, in the East, marine expert Rachel Carson was turning her attention to the effects of

DDT and writing a book, which set the tone for

environmental action in the 1960s. Silent Spring (1962) explored the effects of exposure to DDT on

humans, animals and the environment (Briggs, 1987). Calling contemporary times an age of

poisons, she is also credited with making 'ecology' a household word.

On the national level, President Kennedy's New

Frontier policy was extending itself to the realm of

ecology. Some believe that one of Kennedy's greatest contributions to the conservation movement was the appointment of Stewart L. Udall as Secretary of the Interior (Smith, 1966). Udall was personally dedicated to the conservation ideal and fought with

Congress for bigger budgets and appropriations for

new investments in National Parks, monuments and recreational areas. He understood the growing need for outdoor facilities which had to be balanced

against the environment's fragilities. His work The Quiet Crisis (1963) remains a landmark in modern environmental thinking. It stressed that the concept of conservation had to be expanded to meet the

problems of the new age (Kennedy, 1963). New investments of foresight and protection had to be


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made in order to recover the relationship between Man and nature, and ensure that the national estate was passed on intact to successive generations.

Udall was retained as Secretary by the Johnson Administration which was also committed to environmental issues. The President's wife, Ladybird Johnson, made Beautify America her special cause. She appealed to the country to pull down the billboards which lined the roads and pick up the rubbish. During the same time period the Wilderness Act of 1964 represented a significant milestone in the preservation of an enduring resource of wilderness.

Environmentally-concerned groups such as the Environmental Defence Fund, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Action began calling on the government to stop industry from polluting the nation's rivers, streams and coastlines at a time when oil spills were first beginning to cause concern. In October, 1968, came the prohibition against construction of any dam within the entire Grand Canyon system, and a few days afterwards President

Johnson signed a Bill establishing the National Wild and Scenic River System. The Cuyahoga river, stretching between the Ohio cities of Akron and Cleveland caught fire inJune, 1969. It was symbolic of the national pollution problem (Ellis, 1967).

At the end of that year, Congress under Nixon passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which mandated the Congress to radically change the process of developing natural resources. Although the Act itself could not stop developments, it forced public decision-making onto a reluctant federal land bureaucracy that had wanted to maintain as much autonomy as possible (Shanks, 1984).

The 1970s and governmental response The 1970s saw people becoming concerned that the planet could, indeed, be rendered uninhabitable. The United States Government responded with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency to address issues of water and air pollution, insecticides, waste management and radiation. Figure 2, pro-

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duced by the Executive Office of the President, shows the flow of materials, products and solid waste in 1977. The government passed laws governing the usage of air and water, which stressed that these were not free dumping grounds for the country's pollutants. The Clean Air Act of 1970, The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (later called the Clean Water Act) and its amendments identified causes of and sought remedies for all categories of water pollution.

In other campaigns, coastal wetland development was slowed through the 1972 Coastal Zone Man- agement Act (and strengthened in California through the aggressive Proposition 20), endangered species were identified and protected through the Endangered Species Act of 1973, strip mining was condemned as environmentally unsound (however, two strip mine reclamation bills were vetoed in 1974-75 during the Ford Administration), sewage treatment took on added importance and the 1972 ban on DDT, came into being. Later in the decade lead was removed from petrol after being cited as a major cause of air pollution and the scientific and industrial community began pondering the effects of acid rain.

Geographer Gilbert F. White, postulated that:

Some part of the heightened concern for the environment may be ascribed to the experience of highly frustrated Americans who had been presented with a multitude of problems of unprecedented severity and magnitude for which no easy solutions were forthcoming. The Viet Nam war had dragged on for six years with little immediate prospect of resolution, the distress of racial discrimination had apparently intensified ... the gap between rich and poor grew larger while the federal mechanism showed itself conspicuously clumsy in responding to demonstrated incidents of hunger, disease, and insecurity among the lowest stratum of the wage earners. Faced with these failures in stopping war, building viable cities and preventing poverty, affluent and conscientious people turned to a problem of similar import-the environment - which they felt better able to cope with.

(Kates and Burton, 1986: 282)

Meanwhile, the meaning of the word 'ecology' broadened. Quoting the man who perhaps became synonymous with the environmental movement of the 1970s, Barry Commoner, 'the first law of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else' (Commoner, 1971).

Commoner called Americans the unwitting vic- tims of ignorance and through his books explored the reasons for the American environmental crisis. He came into conflict with another advocate of environmental consciousness, Paul Ehrlich, who alerted the public to the dangers of rapid population growth and the need for controls (Strong, 1988).

Earth Day, 22 April, 1970 showed that many members of the community recognized the need for action. However, within a few years various cultural and interest groups in the US became polarized over environmental issues (Petulla, 1980).

The 1972 British 'Blueprint for Survival' dis- cussed problems of planetary survival and ecological requirements for a stable ecosystem and such

.publications as Ecotactics (1970) and the Environ- mental Handbook (1970) defined ecotactics as 'the science of arranging and manoeuvering all available forces in action against enemies of the earth' (Mitchell and Stallings, 1970). Such suggestions contained in the Environmental Handbook as 'stabilizing the US population, stabilizing economic growth, new frameworks of land use policies and outlawing the sale of reciprocating internal com- bustion engines by 1975,' (DeBell, 1970) may have sounded radical at the time. But gradually, as Commoner and Ehrlich became best-selling authors and the Arab oil embargo highlighted a need for energy conservation, environmental matters became more mainstream.

By the middle of the decade anti-environmental reactionaries in the business sector, among de- velopers and politicians, had established themselves as interest groups and action committees to prevent the marginalization of profits. However, environmental organizations were also increasing their memberships and influence, and some labour organizations were beginning to view industrial health and safety as environmental problems.

In 1970 President Nixon signed into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), and in the middle of the decade the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which it created set about enforcing mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to interstate commerce. It established standard setting proceedings in such areas as asbestos (1972), carcinogens (1974), vinyl chloride (1974), coke oven emissions (1976), ben- zene (1978), arsenic (1978) and lead (1978) (Greenwood, 1984).

By the end of the 1970s President Carter had put solar panels on the White House, the Supreme Court was testing the power of a tiny fish called the snail darter against hydro-electric dams in the Tennessee Valley Authority, people were moving out of Love Canal, New York because of seepage from decades of old chemical waste disposal and new production vehicles were being powered by lead- free petrol. The environmental laws of the 1970s addressed the most visible forms of environmental degradation and utilized scientific data in establishing standards for the obvious pollutants. How- ever, there were certain setbacks. During the Presidential Campaign of 1976 environmentalists found Jimmy Carter sympathetic to their cause. By the fall of 1978 environmental leaders looked with great approval on the Carter Administration. It appeared as if government was overseeing environmental issues and a certain slackening of popular involvement took place. However,

Relationships between Carter and environmentalists were


away for a few years, and was again revived during the 1980s (Hays, op cit.). Other issues included William D. Ruckelshaus, the first Director of the EPA, being asked to return to his former position, and the summer drought of 1988 again raising fears of global warming and atmospheric ozone depletion.

Interior Secretary James G. Watt came to symbolize the Reagan Administration's response to natural resources and environmental policy- making. Most of the controversy surrounding him took place because of public land policies - or lack of them. Issues of privatization of public lands became national issues and there was controversy over the proposed leasing of almost all the US Outer Continental Shelf land for oil and gas exploration. It has been argued that the Reagan administration reversed the conservation policies of the 1970s because of the resentment of some of his supporters over the cancellation of various water projects by President Carter (Culhane, 1984).

However, it has been suggested that the environmental legacy of the Reagan years was not entirely negative. In particular there was further and some would argue, necessary, stimulation of public environmental concern. According to Short (1989: 79) Watt may have inadvertently saved the environmental movement from a dangerous hi- bernation. Enormously successful for two decades, environmentalism had become increasingly com- placent in the late 1970s. The rise of the New Right, the election of Ronald Reagan and the zeal of James Watt, generated the issues, headlines and membership drives that the movement needed. In this manner Watt's administration may have been a mixed blessing for the environmental community.

Anne and Paul Ehrlich said about the Reagan years:

In spite of the all out assault on the environment launched by the Reagan Administration, public concern for environmental quality in the United States, has, if anything, continued to rise since President Reagan took office, as has been confirmed by numerous public polls. Indeed, public interest environmental organizations prospered when the administration's scandalous policies were wrecking the government agencies responsible for environmental protection. Under pressure from Congress and environmental groups representing the public, the administration was forced to remove its most outrageous administrators and tone down its rhetoric. Its policies were not significantly changed, but backed by ample public support Congress has been able to prevent much further damage. (Ehrlich, 1987: 214-15)

And, regarding the 'grass roots' aspect of the environmental movement,

Reagan's anti-environmentalism roused environmentalists from the lethargy they had lapsed into during many of the Carter years and stimulated renewed citizen environmental activity. The vigour and determination with which the administration sought to reverse a host of policies, and its

almost completely ruptured when the White House in late 1979 proposed an Energy Mobilization Board that would have authority to override environmental laws, a proposal environmentalists united to defeat. The 1979 annual environmental message paled in force and meaning next to that of 1977. Only Carter's firm support for Alaskan lands protection maintained environmental loyalties to the administration. (Hays, 1987: 59)

The Reagan years Five new areas of environmental concern became apparent in the 1980s. These were:

1. Hazardous air pollutants - more substances to target and new regulations to make;

2. The Greenhouse Effect with carbon dioxide emissions possibly creating a warming of the earth's atmosphere;

3. Acid Rain with about 30 million tons of sulphur dioxide and 20 million tons of nitrogen oxide each year going into the air;

4. Nonpoint pollution from agricultural and urban run-off, silviculture, and septic tank leakages;

5. Toxic and hazardous substances -especially those seeping into groundwater-identified as priority pollutants by the Environmental Protec- tion Agency with PCBs becoming the household word of the 1980s (Rosenbaum, 1985).

Meanwhile, the 1980 Presidential Election put Ronald Reagan in the White House and began a period of great concern by environmentalists for US environmental and natural resource policy. With Reagan came James Watt, Head of the Department of the Interior and Anne Gorsuch (later Burford) who headed the EPA. Virtually all environmental protection policies enacted during the 1970s were to be re-evaluated as part of the President's larger agenda of reducing the scope of government participation and expanding that of the private sector (Kraft, 1984).

In the Press, news accounts were indicating two trends in America at that time- the spreading of public concerns about environmental hazards, especially toxic dump sites and spills, and the progressive erosion of the EPA's credibility through scandal, internal mismanagement, budget cuts and proposals to weaken or eliminate regulations (Andrews, 1984).

The entire town of Times Beach, Missouri, had to be bought out by the EPA and closed down in 1983 because of seepage from a toxic dump. This illustrated the problems confronting the EPA and how it would deal with the estimated 22000 other toxic dump sites around the nation, how much it would cost, and how long would it take for the clean-up.

Also during the 1980s issues of nuclear power concerned areas of the United States, and debate over the relationship between population and resources which had grown during the 1970s, went


open anti-environmental pronouncements, galvanized the environmental movement into renewed action.

(Hays, 1987: 61) Trends In the United States, Earth Day 1990 was a coast to coast event in which hundreds of thousands of people took part in rallies and functions. Denis Hayes, chairman of Earth Day 1990 and an organizer of the first Earth Day, said to an estimated 125000 who rallied in Washington, DC that we hear the cry of the Earth and we have come to heal her (Cohn, 1990: A1). Mainstream movements as well as movie stars, popular local personalities, politicians and their constituents all took part in the moment.

Nevertheless, there was a widespread sense that this Earth Day had been sold to the American people with the same techniques employed by peddlers of soap and patriotism, but many also said that this was not a bad thing given the urgency of the environmental cause (McFadden, 1990: B12).

That the environment is becoming a current issue in American politics is without doubt. Richard L. Berke, writing for The New York Times, noted a few days before Earth Day 1990 that politicians no longer dismiss the environment as a fringe cause. Politicians once loyal to major corporate polluters are now making public stands on issues of hazardous waste, acid rain and the stratospheric ozone layer. Even more remarkable, Republicans who stayed away from the environmental movement in the past are now battling Democrats for the 'green vote', threatening to seize the issue as their own (Berke, 1990: A1).

Environmental politics can be seen at all levels. At the national scale the EPA has been elevated to the Cabinet; whereas at the regional and local levels, communities such as Minneapolis have passed laws banning all food packaging that is not recyclable in an attempt to do something about America's huge annual production of garbage (over 160 million tons). At a smaller scale still, a survey conducted by The Washington Post showed that many Americans feel guilty about their individual lifestyles. Twenty seven per cent of respondents thought apathetic citizens were most at fault for endangering the environment. However, new conflicts have also resulted from the strengthened environmental cause. Thousands of workers in environmentally hazardous industries, as in the coal producing state of West Virginia, are worried that the new wave of Earth protectionism will cost them their livelihood.

The role of America's minority groups in the environmental issue, and whether or not the inner cities constitute a separate environmental problem, have received a great deal of attention lately. It has

been argued that the environmental movement is as white as it is green. Local and national environmental groups have come under attack from civil rights activists for their lack of minority hiring and outreach, and for their ignorance of the scale of the environmental crisis confronting ethnic minorities and the poor (Foer, 1990).

On the other hand, Taylor (1989) writes that there is some evidence that:

Blacks are starting to organize around the environmental issues that are most threatening and relevant to their lives, that is, urban environmental health problems, toxins, and solid waste disposal--problems that often plague inner-city residents... Since 1978 a new grassroots, antiwaste social movement has been growing in America. It is characterized by citizen's groups that organize rapidly in affected communities often with leaders and memberships who have little or no prior experience with political activities or the broader environmental movement. (Taylor, 1989: 198)

Other outlets for Black concern with the environment have been through such organizations as the National Forum on Blacks and the Park, Recreation and Conservation Movement and organizations such as the Ethnic Minority Society.

It appears that the colour green has also extended to the marketplace. From the mooting of double hulled oil tankers by one US petroleum giant to banning tuna taken in environmentally unsound nets to the ending of styrofoam containers, businesses are telling their customers that they are doing their bit-or appear to be. The nature of American business has not changed according to Alan Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resource Defence Council in a Wall Street Journal report on April 19. He considered ' the environment a marketing trend to which they have to respond' (Holusha, 1990: B1).

Manufacturers are already marketing products such as biodegradable plastic garbage bags, 'ozone friendly' hair styling mousse and ' safe for the ozone layer' deodorant. Pollution control and environmental management will be the growth industry of the 90s, said one Wall Street analyst and there already exist good opportunities for small investors interested in the environmental management industry (Watterson, 1990: HI 5).

A new set of criteria by which firms are judged, the Valdez Principles, has been offered as a plan by the environmentally concerned. Named after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Principles are ten rules or codes of behaviour with which companies must comply if they want people to invest with them. Drawn up in time for Earth Day 1990 by a consortium of 14 environmental groups along with the Social Investment Forum of 325 socially- concerned stockbrokers, analysts, bankers and others, the Valdez Principles are trying to legitimize

THE GROUP OF 10 THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS MAINSTREAM

Fig. 3. The main environmental movements in the USA in 1990 Source: The Washington Post, 19 April, 1990

*s


ms Hl NATURAL RESOURCES

xs&W ~DEFENSE COUNCIL ~d~lw~ :~ Annual budget: $16 million Membership: 130,000

HjPB ~ Exlecutive director: John H. Adams

The movement's largest and most aggressive legal advocate, the NRDC seeks enforcement and interpretation of a wide range of environmental statutes in the courts and executive branch. Its large staff of scientists and lawyers is often called for advice in shaping legislation in Congress. Last year the NRDC entered the era of mass media campaigning for the first time to publicize its findings on Alar.

NATIONAL AUDURtN SOCIETY Annual budget: $35 million Membership: 580,000 President: Pter AA Berk

Founded in 1905, Audubon grew out of a proest movement by women seeking to stop the slaughter of Florida wading birds, whose plumes were used to do-ate hats. It traditionally focuses on preservation of wildlife and natural resources and has a reputation for being politically moderate. More recently, it has taken up clean air as a major objective along with its efforts to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, wetlands and old-growth forests.

IZAAK WALTON LEAGUE /^^<\ Annual budget: $1.64 million

................... .. Membership: 50,000 ^^^^^ Executive director: Jack Lenz

Founded in 1922, the conservative organization named after the 18th century English writer and conservationist is composed primarily of hunters and anglers. It focuses on public education programs promoting responsible use of forests and other natural resources.

SIERRA CLUB LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Annual budget: $83 million Contributors: 120,000 Director: Frederic RP Sutherland

Independent of the Sierra Club, the so-called law firm of the environmental movement was formed in 1971 as environmentalists became more confrontational and concemed with stopping pollution. It provides legal services to the environmental community but, unlike NRDC, usually represents other organizations.

SSS i a^ NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION Annual budget: 85.6 million

^E - IP Membership: 3 million ^y yy^ President: Jay D. Hair

The federation's advocacy of hunting and fishing issues has resulted in the largest membership of any conwservaftion group and a generally conservative agenda. But under Hair's leadership, the group has widened its focus beyond prottilng wildlife habitats and become more aggressive in lobbying on a wide range of environmental issues, including global warming.

'ffS^c. WILDERN&SS SOCIETY ,-^ 2'.,^ Annual budget: $20 mllion

BrsSwj Membership: 360,000 T-,.,^ President Georp T. Frampon Jr.

The only mainstream group to focus exclusively on protecting the nation's public lands, the society lobbies aggressively to expand wilderness areas and safeguard biological diversity in the United States. Its membership has more than doubled since Frampton became president in 1986.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND Annual budget: $15 million Membership: 150,000 Director: Fred Krupp

Founded in 1967 by scientists and lawyers, EDF is best known in recent years for its analysis and sponsorship of novel solutions to environmental problems. Its advocacy of market-based principles to combat acid rain became the centberpiece of the Bush administraiton's clean air package last year.

f ,f FRIENDS OF THE EARTH r 0^ ~ ~Annual budget: $2.5 millon F~mmwiMUM fRfI) Membership: 50,000 (anmm~urmrB Executive director: Mile Cbar

Traditionally concerned with international environnmental issues, FOE dramatically expanded its scope in its January 1989 merger with the Environmental Policy Institute, a think tank devoted to domestic issues, and the Oceanic Society, which had focused on ocean pollution. Known as the furthest to the political left of mainstream groups, it works closely with grass-roots organizations and aggressively represents their interests in Washington.

>^:r!r^>^ NATIONAL PARKS AND '/y^^? CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION

^ 4J t,) Budget: $3.82 million 8^& ̂ ^ ~Membership: 125,000 .o...os ~ President: Paul C. Prildchrd

Founded in 1919 by Stephen Mather, the fint director of the National Park Service, NPCA focuses exclusively on preserving and enhancing the national park system. The group has traditionally favored a low-key approach, but lately has become more outspoken as parks have become vulnerable to new threats such as acid rain. Membership in the group has doubled in the last two years.

STT^R?R> ̂ ' SIIERRA CLUB CSIERRA Annual budget: $32 millon

CLUB ^W* Membership: 553,000 Chairman: J. Michal McCaoskey

As the only member of the 'Group of Ten" without tax- deductible status, the Sierra Club has the most freewheeling lobbying and political apparatus of any of the groups. Founded 98 years ago by naturalist John Muir, it has members scattered in local chapters across the nation and focuses on legislation on the state as well as national level. The club addresses the full range of environmental issues, from wilderness protection to public health to the environmental practices of international lending agencies.

National ' * Auduhomn ,wS l.~- SKicty,

r--

LLIIOI? En)?lIIISX D

EF


the idea that corporations are responsible for their impact on the environment (Ohnuma, 1990: 24).

Conclusion This review has shown that environmental issues remain today in the centre stage of political activity, and have done so in one way or another since the 1890s. Since the time of O'Riordan's third conservation movement there has been an upsurge of interest and the goal of maintaining environmental quality appears to have been the most persistent of the environmental issues over the period. Thus, Down's (1972) forecast that environmental concern may prove not to be a short-lived phenomenon is substantiated. The impressive turnouts for Earth Days in 1989 and 1990 and the subsequent sustained interest in the environment indicates that there is still momentum left in the movement.

The 1980s and 1990s have seen a reassertion of 'grass root' involvement and a revitalization of environmental groups (see Figure 3). Stimulated by the anti-environmental approach of the Reagan administration, the 'grass root' movement differs from earlier such movements in several important ways. First, it encompasses environmental issues that extend beyond local and national boundaries. Global environmental conservation and management has been incorporated in so far as global problems will affect individuals and local communities. Global warming and the ozone depletion problem are the two prime examples.

Secondly, the environmental movement, largely through 'grass roots' groups, seems to have managed to unite large numbers of people behind the cause. The American peoples search for a way to perpetuate the sentiments of Earth Day 1990. Many people have taken to heart the slogan ' Think Globally, Act Locally' and have started yet more 'grass root' organizations. Community newsletters, pamphlets and magazines highlight and advise what can be done by communities and their leaders. Some mainstream environmental organizations are offering classes, lectures and video cassettes about the environment. People from all professions and walks of life are increasingly becoming involved in committees which not only initiate improvements but also put pressure on government representatives to increase and sustain environmental awareness and action.

Lastly, the 'grass root' upsurge, through the

voting and buying powers of the increasing numbers of concerned individuals, has achieved far more than ever before in altering political and commercial behaviour and decision-making. 'Green' politicians and 'green' marketing are a commonplace characteristic of the late 1980s and the 1990s. President Bush campaigned on a platform of being an 'Environmental President', (and was confronted shortly afterwards by the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska). However, as always, it remains to be seen whether the 'greening' is little more than lip service. Indeed, it has been argued that two years into his Presidency, The Bush Administration's environmental record is clouded and its message is mixed. To be sure, there is finally a new Clean Air Act thanks to presidential leadership that broke a decade-long congressional stalemate. And with few reserv- ations, conservationists give high marks to [Environmental Protection Agency head] Reilly and other members of the Bush Environmental Team. But in recent months, they have watched some of Bush's closest advisers shoulder Reilly aside to water down critical environmental decisions.

(Hager, 1991: 14)

Thus, it remains to be seen whether America is really entering a fourth conservation phase, centred firmly around environmental issues, sustainable use of resources and quality of life. Alternatively, will this latest peak in institutional and 'grass roots' environmental awareness and activity subside in the face of pressure from the industrial lobby and diminishing interest when individuals are required to meet the costs of a high-quality environment?

Today's up-and-coming defenders of the Earth are eager to put a new face on environmentalism. Reared during the Reagan era, they pride themselves on their fusion of 1960s- style idealism with '80s-style practicality. With high spirits and boundless energy they have formed an efficient nation- wide student-organizing machine composed of a bewildering array of political and social change groups.

(Ohnuma, 1991: 34). Others from all professions and walks of life are increasingly getting involved in committees to isolate dump sites, clean up waterways, start recycling projects and put pressure on governmental representatives to increase and sustain environmental awareness and action. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen if, or when, this latest peak in institutional and ' grass roots' environmental awareness and activity will subside. The crunch is yet to come: are people really willing to pay?

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Research Paper

Documents

environmental consciousness

environmental statutes

environmental concern

american government

american history

american public

environmental defence

alleged environmental