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ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Timeline and historical insights
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 * Home
   * About
   * 怨 Remembering murdered environmentalists
     * 怨 Refuse to forget
   * Classics of Environmental Literature
   * Ben Franklin & Dock Creek
   * Radium girls
   * Ellen Swallow Richards & ‘Home Ecology’
   * Gifford Pinchot’s and the Anti-Pollution League
   * Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the fuel of the future
   * The leaded gasoline tragedy
     * Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 discovery of tetraethyl lead
     * Ten myths about leaded gasoline
   * Historiography of extinction
     * Endangered species timeline
   * Mother of the Forest
   * History of Greenpeace
   * EH lectures
   * EPA history
   * References
     * TDIH.test1
 * Paleotechnic
   * Prehistoric
   * Classical 1000 BCE-500 CE
   * Middle Ages 5th – 15th centuries
   * Renaissance 16th – 17th centuries
 * Enlightenment
   * Early Enlightenment 1650-1750
   * Late Enlightenment 1750-1810
 * Industrial
   * Early Industrial 1810-1850
   * Late industrial 1850-90
 * Progressive
   * Early Progressive 1890-1899
   * A new century 1900 – 1909
   * Late Progressive 1910-1920
 * 20thC
   * Roaring 1920s
   * Depression – 1930s
   * WWII & postwar 1940-1949
   * Cold war 1950-59
   * The Sixties
   * Seventies 1970-79
   * Eighties 1980-89
   * Nineties 1990-99
 * 21stC
   * 2000 – 2009
   * 2010 – 2012
   * 2013 – 2016
   * 2017 – 2019
   * 2020 – Present


← Older posts



ANOTHER GRIM WARNING

Posted on October 27, 2023 | Comments Off on Another grim warning

“Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory. For
several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by
extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures caused by
ongoing human activities that release harmful greenhouse gasses into the
atmosphere. Unfortunately, time is up.” — BioScience, Oct 24, 2023, State of the
Climate Report. 

Comments Off on Another grim warning

Posted in Uncategorized


ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE PART OF HISTORY

Posted on June 19, 2023 | Comments Off on Environmental issues are part of
history

Environmental concerns and conflicts have surfaced throughout human history,
from the earliest settlements to the latest headlines.  This comes as a surprise
to many people because our emphasis in history has all too often been on war and
politics, rather than environment, culture and development.  Yet the evidence
of  longstanding concern for the environment has been readily available in
manuscripts, publications and historical archives. It can be found under
Continue reading →

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Posted in about history


REMEMBERING ROGER PAYNE

Posted on June 19, 2023 | Comments Off on Remembering Roger Payne

Humpback whale off the US Atlantic coast.  (By Pierre Gleizes, © Greenpeace).
Audio: Songs of the Humpback Whale, 1972, recorded by Roger Payne.

By Chris Greenberg,  Source: Greenpeace 

WHALES COULD ALWAYS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. HUMANS JUST DIDN’T HEAR THEM.

Roger Payne changed that with a simple, empathetic act: He listened. And then we
all did.

In 1970, Payne (1935-2023) made sure the world finally paid attention to the
“Songs of the Humpback Whale.” Payne’s landmark 35-minute album of recorded
whale song in the wild deepened humanity’s connection with the natural world,
catalyzed the global movement to stop commercial whaling, and had a lasting
impact on the growing ecology movement, including Greenpeace.

Payne, who passed away in June 2023 at age 88 at his home in Vermont, founded
Ocean Alliance in 1971 and was an inspiration and friend to Greenpeace activists
during and far beyond the iconic “Save The Whales” campaign that garnered
international in the 1970s and played a key role in the adoption of
an commercial whaling moratorium in 1986.

Born in New York City, educated at Harvard and Cornell, Payne’s pioneering whale
song recordings and decades of study of their communications have arguably done
more to dispel the Moby Dick myth of the violent and solitary whale than
anything else. His first record of what he described as an “exuberant,
uninterrupted rivers of sound,” made with the help of researcher Scott McVay,
would go on to sell more than 100,000 copies, making it the bestselling
environmental album of all time.

“My idea was, if you can move people emotionally, you can also get them to
act,” Payne told Nautilus in 2021. “To see if I was right, I started playing
humpback whale sounds to friends and other small audiences, and soon it became
very clear that these sounds moved people deeply. In fact, some friends wept
when they heard them—they’re that powerful.”

Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized


AS THE WORLD BURNS

Posted on July 9, 2022 | Comments Off on As the world burns

Excerpts from a Paul Krugman opinion piece in the New York Times about the June
30, 2022 Supreme Court climate decision:

“Clearly, the way this court interprets the law is almost entirely determined by
what serves Republican interests… Ultimately our paralysis in the face of what
looks more and more like a looming apocalypse comes down to the G.O.P.’s adamant
opposition to any kind of action… The question is, how did letting the planet
burn become a key G.O.P. tenet?

“It wasn’t always thus. The Environmental Protection Agency, whose scope for
action the court just moved to limit, was created by none other than Richard
Nixon. As late as 2008, John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, ran
on a promise to impose a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

“Republican positioning on the environment is also completely unlike that of
mainstream conservative parties in other Western nations… The United States is
the only major nation in which an authoritarian right-wing party — which lost
the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections yet controls
the Supreme Court — has the ability to block actions that might prevent climate
catastrophe.”

 

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Posted in Uncategorized


SUPREME COURT CURTAILS CLEAN POWER PLAN

Posted on July 1, 2022 | Comments Off on Supreme Court curtails clean power plan

Patrick Parenteau

Professor of Law, Vermont Law School

In a highly anticipated but not unexpected 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled
on June 30, 2022, that the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan exceeded the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act.

The ruling doesn’t take away the EPA’s power to regulate carbon emissions from
power plants, but it makes federal action harder by requiring the agency to show
that Congress has charged it to act – in an area where Congress has consistently
failed to act.

The Clean Power Plan, the policy at the heart of the ruling, never took effect
because the court blocked it in 2016, and the EPA now plans to develop a new
policy instead. Nonetheless, the court went out of its way to strike it down in
this case and reject the agency’s interpretation of what the Clean Air Act
permitted.

Having said what the EPA cannot do, the court gave no guidance on what the
agency can do about this urgent problem. Beyond climate policy, the ruling poses
serious questions about how the court will view other regulatory programs.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized


FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE FIRST EARTH SUMMIT

Posted on June 14, 2022 | Comments Off on Fifty years after the first earth
summit

Keith Johnson (Jamaica), Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the
Conference (left), United Nations Secretary-General U Thant (center) and Maurice
F. Strong, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment (right). (UN photo).



By Peter Dykstra
Environmental Health News

In 1972, world leaders had gathered in Stockholm in an unprecedented
acknowledgement that we were running into trouble. The gathering hammered out a
weighty Statement of Principles. It was the first draft of an owner’s manual for
planet Earth, but it left much to do.

Two decades later, the site was Rio de Janeiro. World leaders addressed the
hopes for Rio:

“There are those who say economic growth and environmental protection are not
compatible. Well, let them come to the United States.″ – U.S. President George
H.W. Bush

″The ecological debt should be paid, not the foreign debt. Hunger must
disappear, not man.” – Cuban President Fidel Castro

“We are ready to assume our share and hope other industrial countries will do
the same. … We are determined to live up to our responsibilities to developing
countries.” – German Chancellor Helmut Kohl

″Developed countries have a greater obligation to find solutions and to transfer
technology. … Protection of the environment must respect the sovereignty and
independence of each country.” – Chinese President Li Peng

Journalist George Monbiot was a tad more cynical about Rio’s rhetoric and
intentions:

“It sounds lovely, doesn’t it? It could be illustrated with rainbows and
psychedelic unicorns and stuck on the door of your toilet. But without any

Continue reading →

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Posted in Uncategorized


THE WHALE OIL MYTH SURFACES AGAIN

Posted on February 23, 2022 | Comments Off on The whale oil myth surfaces again

One of the oil industry’s greatest historical myths is that petroleum arrived in
1861, just in time to light up the night and, as a bonus, save the whales from
the whalers.  

Even at the time it was something of a joke, as we see in this cartoon of whales
celebrating the discovery of petroleum.

Oil industry historians took the joke seriously[1], and a century later, cracker
barrel humor  settled in as established history.  

According to the myth:   whale oil was running out, prices were going up, and
the  people wanted government intervention in the market. And yet, wisely, the
government did not intervene and the free market soon found petroleum.

There’s just one problem: The myth is pure fiction. In fact, the US oil industry
was created by subsidy, and not the free market.

Continue reading →

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Posted in about history


2021: ANOTHER DEADLY YEAR

Posted on October 1, 2022 | Comments Off on 2021: Another deadly year

It was another deadly year for environmentalists according to Global Witness, an
NGO keeping track of the horrific slaughter.

 

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Posted in Environmental justice


WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY IS JUNE 5

Posted on June 5, 2022 | Comments Off on World Environment Day is June 5



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Posted in Uncategorized


NEW VIDEO ON ETHYL LEADED GASOLINE

Posted on April 27, 2022 | Comments Off on New video on Ethyl leaded gasoline

Science communicator Derek Muller of Veritasium posted this video on the history
of Ethyl leaded gasoline on Earth Day, April 22, 2022.

Comments Off on New video on Ethyl leaded gasoline

Posted in Climate, Fossil fuels, Technology & environment, Uncategorized

← Older posts



 * TODAY IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
   
   Dying for work Ludlow massacre Nineteen people die after militia hired by
   Standard Oil Co. fire into campsites of evicted striking coal miners in
   Ludlow Colorado on this day in 1914. Explorers and naturalists William
   Bartram, a naturalist who explored Southeastern United States, was born on
   this day in 1739. Between 1773 and 1777, Bartram explored relatively unknown
   portions of eight southern colonies. His extensive journals record notes and
   sketches of the native flora and fauna as well as encounters with American
   Indians. Fossil fuels Gulf of Mexico BP oil disaster An oil drilling rig
   explodes in the Gulf of Mexico on this day in 2010, killing 11 workers and
   pouring five million barrels of oil into the Gulf until the well was capped
   87 days later. Massive environmental impacts and multi-billion dollar
   lawsuits result.


 * TOMORROW IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
   
   Explorers and naturalists John Muir founder of the Sierra Club and the
   best-known American environmental activist in history, born this day in 1838.
   Muir traveled throughout the US but loved California's Yosemite region most
   of all, as he says in his 1901 book Our National Parks. In May 1903, he
   hosted US president Teddy Roosevelt on a visit to Yosemite -- and the photo
   from that moment in history is reproduced in the main Environmental History
   Timeline title bar (above). Many of Roosevelt's plans for a national park
   system were influenced by Muir's spiritual connections to wilderness,
   exemplified in his call to "Climb the mountains and get their good
   tidings."   (Also see this Library of Congress resource page.) Scientists and
   inventors Garrett Hardin born this day in 1915. Hardin was an American
   ecologist whose warning in 1968 that even well-intentioned people can cause
   environmental damage was summarized in a famous essay called The Tragedy of
   the Commons.


 * EH IN THE NEWS
   
   Environmental Action Archive
   starting with Earth Day 1970 is now open at the University of Pittsburgh.
   
   Ellen Swallow Richards is profiled in March, 2017 Nautilus Magazine as "the
   woman who gave us the science of normal life." Richards first became active
   in environmental issues in the 1870s and was an important early voice in the
   Progressive reform movement at the turn of the 20th century.
   
   The hats that created bird sanctuaries like the Mahleur Wildlife Preserve in
   Oregon in 1908 are featured in this OPB web site. The Mahleur has been the
   scene of a confrontation between right wingers and the federal government in
   January 2016.
   
   Pollution regs saved lives says Michael Greenstone in this Sept. 24, 2015
   article in the New York Times. Although some people want to repeal the Clean
   Air Act, air quality regulations have averted tens of thousands of premature
   deaths, Greenstone says.
   
   LA's first big smog on July 26, 1943 is the subject of this Wired article. Of
   course, there had been many previous smog incidents, but mostly involving
   coal in Europe and the industrialized eastern US. As Peter Dykstra notes on
   the radio program Living on Earth, it was the first smog caused by
   automobiles.
   
   
   
   ¶ A giant tree's death sparked the conservation movement in 1853. Terrific
   article by Leo Hickman of the Guardian on June 27, 2013. The "Mother of the
   Forest" was also covered in Neuzil and Kovarik's Mass Media and Environmental
   Conflict published in 1996.
   
   ¶ Dymaxion car Blueprints for the 1933 Dymaxion car designed by Buckminster
   Fuller showed up in a Massachusetts recently. The car was far ahead of its
   time but a fatal accident on a test site stalled development.
   
   ¶ 1970 Clean Car Race is reported in MIT Technology Review in August, 2013.
   The cleanest car, among the electrics and hybrids, was a modified internal
   combustion engine.
   
   ¶ Buffalo soldiers In the late 19th century and early 20th century, black
   cavalry troopers patrolled Yosemite and Sequoia national parks in California.
   A new book describes their role. (Chicago Tribune, June 18, 2013).
   
   ¶ What ever happened to the environmental movement? asks the New Yorker in
   this flawed but interesting April 12, 2013 article by Nicholas Lemann. Also
   noteworthy is this response by Jason Mark of Earth Island Journal.
   
   ¶ DDT history exhibit scheduled for Midlands, Mich. college, April 2013.
   
   
   ¶ London smog has been infamous for centuries, but when 4,000 people died in
   1952, the British government finally started to act. Telegraph, Dec. 6, 2012.
   China's news agency, Xinhau, noted in an article Feb. 25, 2013, that London's
   historical experience could provide a lesson for Beijing about how to deal
   with an air pollution crisis.
   
   ¶ History of the Commons and today's environmental crisis is an excellent
   read in the May/June 2013 Utne Magazine.
   
   ¶ Saving the NJ Pine Barrens Writer John McPhee recalls the struggle to save
   a remnant of wilderness on the east coast. Philadelphia Inquirer, March 4,
   2013.
   
   
   ¶ Aldo Leopold is remembered by the editor of the Milwaukee Journal, March 2,
   2013. The forester and conservationist articulated a "land ethic" in his 1949
   book A Sand County Almanac.
   
   ¶ Remembering Darwin Scientific American remembers Charles Darwin and his
   impact on science on the 204th anniversary of his birthday, Feb. 12, 2012.
   
   ¶ Shackleton crew's 1916 ordeal -- a perilous journey taken after their ship
   got stuck and sank in Antarctica -- is being reinacted by a group of British
   and Australian adventurers. (Associated Press, Feb. 10, 2013)
   
   ¶ US air pollution was a lot like the pollution now in Beijing says Jim
   Bruggers of the Louisville Courier Journal and Alexis Madrigal in the
   Atlantic magazine in January 2013 articles. KCET public television also had a
   well illustrated article on L.A.'s smoggy past.
   
   ¶ First subway The London tube is 150 years old on Jan. 9, 2013. Mind the
   gap!
   
   ¶ Birth of the Clean Water Act Living on Earth interviews William
   Ruckelshaus, the first EPA administrator, about the Clean Water Act of 1972.
   "it was a terrible time," Ruckelshaus said. "I remember the first time I
   moved to Washington and the air was brown as I’d go to work in the morning.
   There was no industry in Washington at the time, that was all automobile
   pollution." Dec. 28, 2012.
   
   ¶ Remembering Barry Commoner A biologist and activist best known for studying
   baby’s teeth to demonstrate that radioactive fallout from atomic weapons
   testing was getting into our food supply and endangering our health. Living
   on Earth, Oct. 5, 2012.
   
   ¶ Bodega nuclear fight Gary Pace of Sebastopol, California reflects on the
   1960s fight over building a nuclear power plant on top of the San Andreas
   earthquake fault at the Bodega Headlands. "I often wonder how
   (environmentalists) found the outrageous hope that they could halt the
   building of a nuclear plant once the work had started and I ask for similar
   inspiration." Living on Earth, Sept. 28, 2012.
   
   ¶ Climate change drove early human migration, anthropologists believe. NPR,
   Sept. 20, 2012.
   
   ¶ Ancient deforestation created the Danube River delta 8,000 years ago,
   scientists have found. Sept. 14, 2012New York Times.
   
   ¶ Environmental injustice The Hawks Nest Disaster of 1930 - 33 is getting a
   new memorial. In the infamous incident, between 700 to 3,000 US workers were
   killed or severely injured for life after boring a tunnel through a section
   of pure silica without then-standard respiratory protection. Sept. 7, 2012,
   W.V. Gazette. Also see this People's Press 1935 article about the disaster.
   
   ¶ National mammal? Teddy Roosevelt V argues that the US should remember its
   conservation history by making the bison the country's national mammal. Sept.
   4, 2012
   
   ¶ Environmental Future Postcards from the past show the world of the future
   in 2012 in all its dazzling glory, from air police stopping traffic to whales
   pulling carriages full of divers. Fast Company, Aug. 20, 2012
   
   
   ¶ Smog of History LA Times recaps an article about testing pollution control
   devices in the 1950s. Aug. 17, 2012
   
   ¶ Remembering the Radium Craze France's 19th century radium craze still
   haunts Paris, Reuters reports. "When the Franco-Polish Nobel Prize winner
   Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium in 1898, she set off a
   craze for the luminescent metal among Parisians, who started using it for
   everything from alarm clock dials to lipsticks and even water fountains."
   July 20, 2012
   
   ¶ Drought in ancient times The ancient Mayan water system was designed with
   drought in mind, as this New York Times article notes. Are there lessons for
   the modern era? July 17, 2012.


 * SEARCH ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
   
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 * RECOMMENDED LINKS
   
    * US EPA history
    * US EPA alumni association
    * American Society for Environmental History
    * European Society for Environmental History
    * Greenpeace
    * Forest History Society
    * Society of Environmental Journalists
    * Environmental Health News
    * The Pump Handle @ scienceblogs.com
    * This Day in Water History
    * Environmental History Resources
    * Spencer Weart's Discovery of Global Warming
    * Climate Communication
    * Animal rights history
    * Today in science
    * Exploring Environmental History (podcast)
    * Environmental History (Oxford Journals)
    * Environment and Society portal
    * Origins of Environmental Law, class, Earth Institute, Columbia University
    * Minamata Disease Museum
    * Collaborative on Health and the Environment
    * Environmental News, Wikimedia


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