Activity 4.1 – US Environmental History and Major Regulations

 

One instance of our history of environmental thought in the United States is with the Brundtland report of 1987 (Tomkin, Pg.15). It would summarize things such as our dependency on our ecological systems, quality of life, social networks, and our economy and how these are all intertwined (Tomkin, Pg.15). It would also be one of the first instances in which we see the word sustainable used (Tomkin, Pg.15).  But our history of environmental thought would start much earlier than that.

 

Environmental historians have deduced that there were at a minimum of three distinct periods in time where the birth of new ideas, scientific understanding, advances in various areas, and more were brought into being and we were able to begin to manage our impacts on the environment (Tomkin, Pg.15). The three periods would be “the American conservation movement, the rise of environmental risk management as a basis for policy and the integration of social and economic factors to create what we now refer to as the sustainability paradigm” (Tomkin, Pg.15).

 

The early eighteenth century, the beginning of the American conservation movement, we already began to acknowledge the impacts that we were having on our environment with things such as “soil erosion and infertility, decreasing crop yields…” (Tomkin, Pg.17). This would have led to an organized effort into fixing these problems through new methods of things such as soil conservation and more. Agricultural scientists, those who worked in forestry and education and many more subjects would be those who would contribute their findings back to the public (Tomkin, Pg.17). Their conclusion, the problem was with how we were treating our environment and that if changes were not made that there would be consequences to the “well-being of people” (Tomkin, Pg.17). These efforts would later lead to the establishment of the idea of public health and to many federal institutions such as the U.S. Forrest service, the National Park service and more (Tomkin, Pg.17). Institutions that still exist and thrive today. Around eighteen thirty-six the leader of the Transcendental movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, would write a semi-annual essay called “Nature” discussing our relationship to our environment (Tomkin, Pg.18). We also saw artist emerge capturing the ideals of the transcendental ideals. Artist such as Durand who painted serene paintings of nature, what we wanted so strongly to preserve (Tomkin, Pg.20). We would also see authors such as Henry David Thoreau write journals such as “The Dial”, a transcendental journal (Tomkin, Pg.21). We had people from every art form producing works to give the movement an audience.

 

 In the mid eighteenth century we would see Jared Eliot, a minister, doctor, and farmer, “wrote a series of treatises on the need for better farming methods” (Tomkin, Pg.16). Though his writings covered things such as field husbandry along with other subjects (Tomkin, Pg.16). He sought to understand where these problems came from and to come up with new and innovative methods to solve them (Tomkin, Pg.16). Very much like those before him.

 

Come the nineteenth century various groups had sprung up with concerns about the United States growth and the impacts that it would have (Tomkin, Pg.16). One of these groups being the “resource efficiency” group (Tomkin, Pg.16). Their concern how “widespread agricultural practices that were wasteful” (Tomkin, Pg.17).

 

Works Cited:

Theis, T., & Tomkin, J. (Eds). (2018). Sustainability: A comprehensive foundation.