Phase-I: Roots of Modern Environmentalism
• Drawing from your reading of Steinberg, what were some of the significant social-cultural developments in the Post-WWII era--surrounding(not-including) the publication of Silent Spring--that set the stage for the birth of modern environmentalism. Explain how and why they set the stage?
o In other words, how and why did these developments--such as, the recreation boom following WWII; the proliferation of highways, automobiles, and suburbanization; Disney movies; Apollo-8 photograph; etc--prepare mainstream America along the six bullet-points (some or many) delineated above.
• How did Aldo Leopold, through the publication of his book, A Sand County Almanac (1949) contribute to this development?
o Specifically, explain how and why the arguments laid out in this book profoundly altered they way in which professional's viewed conservation, and in ways that would anticipate the lessons of ecology and the ethical concerns that would undergird modern environmentalism?
Phase-II: The Spark of Modern Environmentalism
In her book Silent Spring (pup. 1962), biologist Rachel Carson set out to inform the public about the dangers DDT, which she had discovered from her research. In the book she wrote:
A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.
Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called ‘insecticides,' but ‘biocides....
Along with the possibility of extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man's total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm-substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends."
-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
• Explain how and why Silent Spring sparked modern environmentalism.
o What was the meaning of the book's title?
o With the six defining bullet-points (presented above) in mind, explain how and why Carson's message was so effective in carrying her mainstream readers to modern environmentalism?
Phase-III: National Politics of Modern Environmentalism (1970s)
"The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?
Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later.
Clean air, clean water, open spaces-these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.
We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.
-Richard Nixon, Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union.
According to Steinberg, "one of the greenest presidents ever to occupy the White House" was none other than Richard Nixon.
• Explain what made Richard Nixon--as evidenced by his policies and rhetoric--such a key figure in modern environmentalism.
o Again, be sure to draw explicit connections to the defining elements of modern environmentalism.