Environmentalism in the Modern West

Question for Discussion: According to Limerick,
what can environmentalists learn from American
history?

Reading: Limerick, "Mission to the Environmentalists";
Abbey, "Monkeywrenching"; Nash, "Wilderness
Advocates" ; Nash, "The Value of Wilderness"

Video: Earth and the American Dream,
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Rachel Carson, OF MAN AND THE STREAM OF TIME (1962 )

"Man has long talked somewhat arrogantly about the conquest of nature; now he has the power to achieve his boast. It is our mis fortune-it may well be our final tragedy-that this power has not been tempered with wisdom, but has been marked by irresponsibility; that there is all too little awareness that man is part of nature, and that the price of conquest may well be the
destruction of man himself. " (5)

"We still talk in terms of "conquest"-whether it be of the insect world or of the mysterious world of space. We still have not become mature enough to see ourselves as a very tiny part of a vast and incredible univers e, a universe that is distinguished above all else by a mysterious and wonderful unity that we flout at our peril." (8)

" So nature does indeed need protection from man; but man, too, needs protection from his own acts, for he is part of the living world. His war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. His heedless and destructive acts enter into the vast cycles of the earth, and in time return to him. " (9)

"Your generation must face realities instead of taking refuge in ignorance and evasion of truth. Yours is a grave and a sobering responsibility, but it is also a shining opportunity. You go out into a world where mankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery-not of nature, but of itself. Therein lies our hope and our destiny.
"In today already walks tomorrow!'" (11)
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Conservationism, Preservationism, and Environmentalism

In order to understand environmentalism in the American West, we must first make distinctions between conservationists, preservationists, and
environmentalists. Patty Limerick in her essay,
"Mission to the Environmentalists," doesn't make this distinction. Limerick tends to equate preservationists with environmentalists. Environmentalists share common roots with preservationists and even conservationists, but the environmental movement is based on a fundamentally different impulse.

The Environmental Movement arose in the late 19th century and grew into a global movement in the 20th century. Environmentalists fear that economic development, technological progress, and overconsumption of the Earth's scarce resources threatens the human future. Environmentalists in the last thirty years have focused on "sustainable development," which is development that doesn't undermine the resource base of future generations. Environmentalists worry that development isn't sustainable. They worry that if we continue to overdevelop the Earth that it will threaten the ability of the Earth to support our modern, industrial civilization. So environmentalists want to preserve land and resources in order to protect the Earth's ability to support human life in the present and in the future. Preservationists want to preserve land and wilderness for more cultural, religious, and metaphysical reasons.

Today's environmentalists largely fight the same battles they took on at the first Earth Day gathering more than three decades ago. The issues still revolve around cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner energy and an awareness of how these issues are tied to our quality of life. There is no question the United States and elsewhere is a much cleaner place today because of the advocacy of environmentalists and the organizations to which they belong.....Issues like environmental racism, "smart growth," alternative fuels, greenhouse gases, ozone depletion and deforestation are but some of the environmental concerns of the 21stCentury.
....History of the Environmental Movement

Earth Day 1970 made it clear that we could summon the public support, the energy, and commitment to save our environment. And while the struggle is far from over, we have made substantial progress. In the ten years since 1970 much of the basic legislation needed to protect the environment has been enacted into law: the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Water Pollution and Control Act Amendments, the Resource Recovery Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. And, the most important piece of environmental legislation in our history, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970. NEPA came about in response to the same public pressure which later produced Earth Day.
...Gaylord Nelson on the First Earth Day

Suddenly we have discovered what we should have known long before: that the ecosphere sustains people and everything that they do; that anything that fails to fit into the ecosphere is a threat to its finely balanced cycles; that wastes are not only unpleasant, not only toxic, but, more meaningfully, evidence that the ecosphere is being driven towards collapse.

If we are to survive, we must understand why this collapse now threatens. Here the issues become far more complex than even the ecosphere. Our assaults on the ecosystem are so powerful, so numerous, so finely interconnected, that although the damage they do is clear, it is very difficult to discover how it was done. By which weapon? In whose hand? Are we driving the ecosphere to destruction simply by our growing numbers? By our greedy accumulation of wealth? Or are the machines which we have built to gain this wealth---the magnificent technology that now feeds us out of neat packages, that clothes us in man-made fibers, that surround us with new chemical creations---at fault?
..Barry Commoner on the Environmental Crisis

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.
....World Scientist Warning to Humanity

Definition of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development means different things to different people, but the most frequently quoted definition is from the report Our Common Future (also known as the Brundtland Report):

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."Sustainable development focuses on improving the quality of life for all of the Earth's citizens without increasing the use of natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them indefinitely. It requires an understanding that inaction has consequences and that we must find innovative ways to change institutional structures and influence individual behaviour. It is about taking action, changing policy and practice at all levels, from the individual to the international.
...Definitions of Sustainable Development