History :The west and the World
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GlobalEnvironment_Primary.docxHI 103 West and the World
The Global Environment – Primary Sources
Along with the various movements advocating for greater rights for marginalized social groups, the other notable social movement which developed in the latter half of the 20th century was the environmental movement. These three documents help to show why this movement developed at this time. What specific concerns about the environment do they raise? What similarities and differences do you see in these three documents?
#1 Rachel Carson – Silent Spring (1962)
Rachel Carson was a biologist whose early career was focused on writing about ocean life. In the late 1950s Carson began to study the impact of pesticides, particularly an agricultural pesticide called DDT. The publication of Silent Spring is often seen as the beginning of the modern environmental movement, and would eventually lead to the banning of DDT in 1972.
[p.1] There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.
Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the
[p.2] year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from great distances to observe them. Others came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. So it had been from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns.
Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.
There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.
On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs—the litters were small and the young survived only a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees
[p.3] droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died.
In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams. No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.
. . .This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know. What has already silenced the voices of spring in countless towns in America? This book is an attempt to explain.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Fortieth Anniversary Edition. Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
#2 Richard Nixon – Message to Congress (1970)
The Presidency of Richard Nixon saw an unprecedented expansion in the role of the U.S. government in environmental issues, most notably through the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Why does Nixon say that the creation of this agency was necessary? What does he say should be the functions of the EPA?
As concern with the condition of our physical environment has intensified, it has become increasingly clear that we need to know more about the total environment-land, water and air. It also has become increasingly clear that only by reorganizing our Federal efforts can we develop that knowledge, and effectively ensure the protection, development and enhancement of the total environment itself.
The Government's environmentally related activities have grown up piecemeal over the years. The time has come to organize them rationally and systematically. As a major step in this direction, I am transmitting today two reorganization plans: one to establish an Environmental Protection Agency, and one to establish, within the Department of Commerce, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Our national government today is not structured to make a coordinated attack on the pollutants which debase the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land that grows our food. Indeed, the present governmental structure for dealing with environmental pollution often defies effective and concerted action.
Despite its complexity, for pollution control purposes the environment must be perceived as a single, interrelated system. Present assignments of departmental responsibilities do not reflect this interrelatedness.
Many agency missions, for example, are designed primarily along media lines--air, water, and land. Yet the sources of air, water, and land pollution are interrelated and often interchangeable. A single source may pollute the air with smoke and chemicals, the land with solid wastes, and a river or lake with chemical and other wastes. Control of the air pollution may produce more solid wastes, which then pollute the land or water. Control of the water-polluting effluent may convert it into solid wastes, which must be disposed of on land.
Similarly, some pollutants---chemicals, radiation, pesticides--appear in all media. Successful control of them at present requires the coordinated efforts of a variety of separate agencies and departments. The results are not always successful.
A far more effective approach to pollution control would:
--Identify pollutants.
--Trace them through the entire ecological chain, observing and recording changes in form as they occur.
--Determine the total exposure of man and his environment.
--Examine interactions among forms of pollution.
--Identify where in the ecological chain interdiction would be most appropriate.
In organizational terms, this requires pulling together into one agency a variety of research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities now scattered through several departments and agencies….
This reorganization would permit response to environmental problems in a manner beyond the previous capability of our pollution control programs. The EPA would have the capacity to do research on important pollutants irrespective of the media in which they appear, and on the impact of these pollutants on the total environment. Both by itself and together with other agencies, the EPA would monitor the condition of the environment-biological as well as physical. With these data, the EPA would be able to establish quantitative "environmental baselines" critical if we are to measure adequately the success or failure of our pollution abatement efforts.
As no disjointed array of separate programs can, the EPA would be able--in concert with the States--to set and enforce standards for air and water quality and for individual pollutants….
Because environmental protection cuts across so many jurisdictions, and because arresting environmental deterioration is of great importance to the quality of life in our country and the world, I believe that in this case a strong, independent agency is needed….
The principal roles and functions of the EPA would include:
--The establishment and enforcement of environmental protection standards consistent with national environmental goals.
--The conduct of research on the adverse effects of pollution and on methods and equipment for controlling it, the gathering of information on pollution, and the use of this information in strengthening environmental protection programs and recommending policy changes.
--Assisting others, through grants, technical assistance and other means in arresting pollution of the environment.
--Assisting the Council on Environmental Quality in developing and recommending to the President new policies for the protection of the environment.
Nixon, Richard. “Special Message to the Congress About Reorganization Plans To Establish the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-about-reorganization-plans-establish-the-environmental. Accessed 24 August 2018.
#3 Greenpeace Declaration of Independence (1976)
We have arrived at a place in history where decisive action must be taken to avoid a general environmental disaster. With nuclear reactors proliferating and over 900 species on the endangered list, there can be no further delay or our children will be denied their future.
The Greenpeace Foundation hopes to stimulate practical, intelligent actions to stem the tide of planetary destruction. We are 'rainbow people' representing every race, every nation, every living creature. We are patriots, not of any one nation, state or military alliance, but of the entire Earth.
It must be understood that the innocent word 'ecology' contains a concept that is as revolutionary as anything since the Copernican breakthrough, when it was discovered that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. Through ecology, science has embarked on a quest for the great systems of order that underlie the complex flow of life on our planet. This quest has taken us beyond the realm of traditional scientific thought. Like religion, ecology seeks to answer the infinite mysteries of life itself. Harnessing the tools of logic, deduction, analysis, and empiricism, ecology may prove to be the first true science-religion.
As suddenly as Copernicus taught us that the earth was not the centre of the universe, ecology teaches us that mankind is not the centre of life on this planet. Each species has its function in the scheme of life.
Ecology has taught us that the entire Earth is part of our 'body' and that we must learn to respect it as much as we respect ourselves. As we love ourselves, we must also love all forms of life in the planetary system- the whales, the seals, the forests, and the seas. Ecological thought shows us a pathway back to an understanding of the natural world - an understanding that is imperative if we are to avoid a total collapse of the global ecosystem.
Ecology has provided us with many insights. These may be grouped into three 'Laws of Ecology,'which hold true for all forms of life - fish, plants, insects, plankton, whales, and humans. These laws may be stated as follows:
First Law of Ecology: All forms of life are interdependent. The prey is as dependent on the predator for the control of its population as the predator is on the prey for a supply of food.
Second Law of Ecology: the stability (unity, security, harmony, togetherness) of ecosystems is dependent on diversity (complexity). An ecosystem that contains 100 different species is more stable than an ecosystem that has only three species. Thus the complex tropical rain forest is more stable than the fragile arctic tundra.
Third Law of Ecology: all resources (food, water, air, minerals, energy) are finite and there are limits to the growth of all living systems. These limits are finally dictated by the finite size of the Earth and the finite input of energy from the sun.
If we ignore the logical implications of these Laws of Ecology, we will continue to be guilty of crimes against the earth. We will not be judged by men for these crimes, but with a justice meted out by the Earth itself. The destruction of the Earth will lead, inevitably, to the destruction of ourselves.
So let us work together to put an end to the destruction of the Earth by the forces of human greed and ignorance. Through an understanding of the principles of ecology, we must find new directions for the evolution of human values and human institutions. Short-term economics must be replaced with actions based on the need for conservation and preservation of the entire global ecosystem. We must learn to live in harmony, not only with our fellow humans, but with all the beautiful creatures on this planet."
“Greenpeace Declaration of Independence.” Greenpeace International, September 10, 2009, www.greenpeace.org/archive-international/en/about/deep-green/deep-green-special-1/. Accessed 24 August 2018.
