Activity 4.1 – US Environmental History and Major Regulations.
Activity 4.1 – US Environmental History and Major Regulations.
Environmental thought has existed in many people's minds for a long time, although it did not look the same way it does today. Considering that the United States (the original colonies) did not come to fruition until a couple of hundred years ago, the Americans' view of the environment has changed dramatically since the 1700s. In general, the number of people who genuinely care about keeping the environment safe from harm has gone up, even if they don't all have the same reasoning. This is due to the ease of transporting intelligence in the modern world, the amount of new knowledge we have about the environment and our impact, and the advances and visions of people from the past.
Environmental ideas mostly began with problems erupting from the farming industry. Farming was (and still is) a necessary part of life for early settlers and the old expansionists. The most prominent problem with farming back in the day was over-farming. Overfarming is problematic because it drains the soil of its natural resources so plants won't be able to grow in the future. This problem escalated quickly in early settled America because people would move to another location when crops did not yield. Overfarming was especially prominent in the 1800s, " By the early 1800s, cumulative impacts of soil erosion and infertility, decreasing crop yields, and natural barriers to expansion such as terrain and poor transportation to markets led to an organized effort to understand the causes of these problems" (Theis and Thomas, Sustainability a Comprehensive Foundation Chapter 2). Thankfully the situation was rectified by early farmers and markets. Although this problem was solved because it was tied to farming, environmental protection would soon take off.
Many environmental movements were also closely tied to art. This is due to nature's connectivity with art, especially in semi-recent years due to the lack of computer software or other distracting objects. Ralph Waldo Emmerson, the leader of the transcendentalist movement explains this connection in detail. He states, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." (Nature, 1836). This is visible in the art of the past. Many art pieces were based on nature or the feeling of freedom accompanied by trees or the forests/plains. This change in the artistic sense of environmental thought surely changed the way artists thought about nature.
Finally, the most important change in the history of environmental thought was during the Roosevelt Administration. Theodor Roosevelt had multiple connections with many environmentalist minds but the most important meeting he had was with John Muir. John Muir shaped the way Theodor Roosevelt would view the environment in one of their exchanges in the mountains of Yosemite national park. John Muir told Roosevelt "God has cared for these trees. . .but he cannot save them from fools only Uncle Sam can do that" (Theis and Thomas, Sustainability a Comprehensive Foundation Chapter 2). This was so impactful that Theodor Roosevelt changed the way he viewed nature. During his time as president, he became known as the conservation president because of the amount of land he saved or otherwise protected totaling up to eleven percent of the U.S. total land.
It is often thought that people of the past paid no real attention to the environment and used it without a care for any problematic side effects. This is mostly true but farmers and intelligent people stood up when crops were failing to grow. Although the reason may not be satisfactory, these were the first steps in the United States becoming an environmentally friendly nation. After the farming (environmental) revolution, an artistic one popped up around the value of nature in an artist's eyes. Finally, the history of environmental thought ends with the presidency of Theodor Roosevelt and his protection of much of the United States' land. Environmental thought surly has changed over the years and will continue to grow in the future.
References:
Theis, T., & Tomkin, J. (Eds). (2018). Sustainability: A comprehensive foundation.
Emmerson Waldo, Ralph. Nature, (1836) Summary and Analysis.
Time Line:
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