Lesson Two

Topic: Environmental History

Text: Chapter 2

For understanding humanity’s influence on the environment, it is convenient to break the history of mankind into four distinct periods:

Early Man; from about 60,000 years ago until 12,000 years ago

Agriculture Revolution; from about 12,000 years ago until about 300 years ago

Industrial Revolution; from the 1700s up to the present

Information and Globalization Revolution; About where we are today

Each period represents a major cultural shift or change, albeit, remember that each period gradually transitioned into the next period, and not all regions of the earth inhabited by people made the cultural shifts at the same time.  Each major cultural shift typically resulted in the following:

Access to more energy and new technologies were made available with which humans could alter and control more of their environment to meet their basic needs and even improve their standard of living.

Increase in the human population due mostly to increased food supplies, cleaner water supplies, better health and nutrition, and better understanding of diseases. This tended to result in longer life spans and reduced infant mortality.

Increased environmental degradation due to increased natural resource use and pollution.

Bear in mind that these effects increased gradually over the years but began to accelerate within the last 300 years.

Early Man; From 60,000 years ago until 12,000 years ago:

Were typically hunters and gathers that subsisted by collecting edible plants or parts of plants, hunting wild game animals, fishing, and scavenged meat from animals killed by other predators.

They were nomadic, comprising small bands of usually less than 50 people per group or family unit. They had few possessions; usually only what they could carry when moving between camping sites.

Other than perhaps the dog, they did not domesticate any animals.

Their life span was short, usually between 30 and 40 years, and infant mortality was high.

Their impacts on their environment were limited and localized due to their small population numbers and low resource-use per person. Their nomadic lifestyle allowed the environment to recover, and, with their lack of technology (used stone tools), there was little disturbance to the environment. However, they did use fire to alter the vegetation (changing woodlands to grasslands to support larger big game herds), and may have inadvertently transported seeds to new environments, thus, altering plant distribution on the landscape.

Agricultural Revolution; from 12,000 years ago until about 300 years from the present

Transitioned from a nomadic/hunter-gathering culture to settled communities.

Domesticated wild animals for food, work, transportation.

Cultivated wild plants for food and fiber.

Lived in larger communities, perhaps several or more family units.

Used or lived in permanent shelters.

Cleared the land for cultivation by burning, tilling, or grubbing.

Possessed more possessions.

Their life span (30-40 years) and infant mortality remained similar to Early Man.

Impacts to their environments were still limited but were now persistent. With permanent shelters/settlements, there was no time "between use as a camp" for the environment to recover.

They possessed crude stone and stick tools, thus, their impacts through cultivation were limited by use of only human muscle/domestic animals, and they only cultivated small family plots.

Their population numbers were still relatively low.

But, this period transitioned from a very primitive period 12,000 years ago, to more diversified or organized communities within the last several thousand years and more intensively within the last 500 years. This latter part of the Agricultural Revolution can be characterized by:

Better and more efficient tools for agriculture, hunting, and fishing.

Families were able to cultivate larger plots and could begin to grow more food than they needed themselves, which allowed them to trade or barter for other commodities.

These latter attributes would set the stage for the next period – the Industrial Revolution.

Industrial Revolution; began in the mid-1700s in Europe, mid-1800s in North America

This next cultural shift, the Industrial Revolution, began in England in the mid-1700s and spread to the United States in the 1800s. During this period, an expansion in the production, trade, and distribution of material goods was accelerated. Most importantly, it represented a shift from dependence on renewable wood and flowing water to a dependence on machines running on non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas). This resulted in a shift from small-scale, localized production of handmade goods to large-scale production of machine-made goods in centralized factories in rapidly growing industrial cities. People migrated from rural America to large cities and towns for work. Many small towns began growing earnestly into large cities.

In 1800, America was predominantly rural, with 97% of Americans living on family farms and growing their own food. The Industrial Revolution brought fossil fuel powered machinery to the family farms. A combination of mechanized equipment, commercial fertilizers, irrigation, and new plant and animal breeding techniques resulted in higher yields of crops per acre. Fewer farmers could now feed America. By the year 1990, percentages of rural and urban Americans had reversed, with 97% of Americans living and working in cities, while only 3% of Americans were on a farm and producing ample amounts of food that not only fed America but many other regions in the world.

Consequences of advanced industrial societies:

Mass production of many useful and economically affordable products.

A sharp increase in agricultural productivity.

Lower infant mortality and longer life expectancy because of:

Better sanitation

Better hygiene

Better nutrition

Better medical care and technology

A decrease in the rate of population growth.

Better health, birth control methods, and education.

Better science for understanding and controlling pollution.

Greater average income and old-age security.

Although the picture painted above appears to be reassuring, we will see that many of the resource and environmental problems we face today are mostly because of the rise of advanced industrial societies.

Also, you may be wondering why in lesson 1, the text discusses the exponential growth of the world’s human population; yet, above, it is stated that a decrease in the rate of population growth is a result of the Industrial Revolution. The above statement and the text are correct; review Figure 1-1 again. Note that the human population remained somewhat constant until about 3,000 years ago, when a slight up-turn in numbers were recorded. About the year 1900, an exponential growth of the human population began and really accelerated about 50 years ago. As Figure 1-1 displays, the human population is exponentially increasing on a global scale with no relief in sight. However, the statement above that states the rate of population growth is decreasing pertains to "advanced" industrial societies, which are experiencing decreases in the rate of population growth. The human population is still growing in these countries, but not at the same rate it was earlier; especially when we factor in the fact that people are living longer and there is a substantial decrease in the rate of infant mortality. This concept is further explained in Chapter 12 of the text, which we will study in more detail later.

Information and Globalization Revolution

We are in the midst of a new cultural shift, the information and globalization revolution. This period can best be described as:

New technologies such as telephones, computers, radio and television, the internet, automated databases, and remote sensing satellites.

The text states that scientific knowledge is estimated to double every 12 years, while general information doubles every 2.5 years.

The world wide web is believed to contain hundreds of millions of electronic pages and grows by roughly a million electronic pages per day.

How this period may affect the global environment is unclear at this time. On page 24 of the text, several positive and negative concepts are displayed. Be sure and read these, but in summary, they are:

Positive

Better understanding of the earth, its complex biological and physical systems, and how these systems may be affected in the future.

Better understanding of how to remedy environmental problems.

Allow for better monitoring to detect even subtle changes to the earth's major vegetation systems, hydrologic systems, oceans, polar ice cap and glacial melting, ozone loss, and air quality.

Allows for the rapid exchange of data and other information; especially, as it may relate to environmental problems.

Negative

Can provide an overload of information, often obscuring what is really important.

Can generate a sense of hopelessness and confusion as volumes of data and other information are produced at a rate that exceeds our ability to stay abreast of new developments.

Can increase environmental degradation as better technology is developed for finding obscure natural resources necessary for a global economy.

Will tend to homogenize the diverse human cultures around the world.

Christian de Duve, a Nobel Prize winner, has said: "I think the greatest threat to humanity is the rapid growth of knowledge. We are creating and introducing new technologies much faster than we can evaluate their impacts." Do you agree or disagree with de Duve? Why?

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

The environmental history of the United States can be broken down into several eras:

The Tribal Era

The Frontier Era

The Conservation Era

The Environmental Era

The Tribal Era; 10,000 years before present until about year 1600

North America was occupied by between 5 and 10 million people.

They were mostly hunters/gathers, but some agriculture societies did exist where they did burn and clear fields, and planted crops.

Small populations; mostly family to tribal units. Some were larger though.

Typically, they had a low impact on the environment.

The Frontier Era; About 1600 until 1890

The Frontier Era began with European colonists settling North America. These colonists and subsequent immigrants to North America found a vast continent filled with abundant wildlife and forests. To these early settlers, the natural resources of North America seemed inexhaustible and felt that it was their duty/responsibility to conquer the wilderness that laid before them. To accomplish such a mission, they began to:

Clear the forests to plant crops, and provide a measure of security from hostile Native Americans.

Decimated populations of large herbivores that posed a risk to their crops.

Began extracting North America’s mineral wealth.

Associated with these activities were their environmental effects such as accelerated soil erosion, loss of wildlife habitats, pollution of waterways, extinction of species, and loss of biological diversity (we will define biological diversity in a subsequent lesson).

Another factor that accelerated settlement of the continent was the transfer of vast acreages of publicly owned land to private interests between 1850 and 1900. By 1850, 80% of the American continent was owned by the U.S. government, while Native Americans owned or lived on about 4% of the land area (mostly reservations); the balance was in private ownership. But the U.S. government instituted the Manifest Destiny policy beginning in 1832, wherein it was believed that America had a destiny of occupying and settling the continent. By 1900, more than half of the America’s publicly owned lands had been transferred to railroad, timber, and mining companies; land developers; individual states upon entering statehood; schools and universities; and homesteaders in order to encourage settlement across the continent.

Although limited homesteading continued into the early 1900s, the U.S. government declared the frontier officially closed in 1890.

Conservation Era; 1830 – 1960

The conservation era was most notably marked by certain individuals that became alarmed at the scope of resource depletion and environmental degradation. The text book lists several of the more prominent conservatives, such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Theodore Roosevelt. You should read about these individuals and their accomplishments. Also, the text begins a chronology of important landmarks and environmental legislation beginning on page 27. Read through these to get an understanding of the environmental history of the United States. Important landmarks that you may want to remember are:

1872; establishment of Yellowstone National Park. Not only the first national park established in the United States, but also in the world. It was a new concept in legislation.

1891; Forest Reserve Act. This was the precursor to the national forest system and allowed the president of the United States to set aside reserves from the public domain lands for the protection of watersheds. The intent was to protect the headwaters of most of the continent's river systems. Although use of this legislation got off to a slow start by the present administration in office, when Theodore Roosevelt entered office, he tripled the amount of acreage set aside as reserves.

Antiquities Act of 1906; President of the United States was authorized to protect areas for scientific or historical interest on federal lands as national monuments. The Grand Canyon was the first area protected and would later be given national park status.

The latter part of the Conservation Era was highlighted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs for bringing the country out of the Great Depression. These programs were designed to provide employment, but also resulted in restoration of environmental degradation. Some examples included:

The buy-back of private landholdings previously homesteaded by families that were now experiencing financial difficulties due to drought, and poor market conditions. Most buy-backs occurred in the 1930s and resulted in the establishment of our National Grasslands in the mid-west and Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains.

The Civilian conservation corps (CCCs), established in 1932, put 2 million people to work planting trees, developing and maintaining parks and recreation areas, restoring silted waterways, building levees and dams for flood control, controlling soil erosion, and protecting wildlife.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provided jobs replanting forests and building dams for flood control and hydroelectric power in the Tennessee Valley.

The Soil Conservation Service was enacted in 1935 to correct erosion problems that had ruined many farms in the Great Plains states. This agency is now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Also notable in this era, which will later contribute towards the exponential growth in the world’s human population was:

The establishment of public health boards and agencies at the municipal, state, and federal levels.

Increased public education about health issues.

Introduction of vaccination programs

A sharp reduction in waterborne infectious disease, mostly because of improved sanitation and garbage collection, and water treatment programs.

Although these concepts and practices initiated in the United States, they eventually would spread throughout undeveloped nations in the world through such organizations as the United Nations and the United States Peace Corps.

The Environmental Era; 1960 – 2000

One woman and her book: "Silent Spring" started the environmental era within the United States. Rachel Carson published her book in 1962, which documented the pollution of air, water, and wildlife from pesticides, such as DDT. Through her book, she brought an awareness to the American people that would eventually establish a resource conservation ethic that included preservation of the quality of air, water, soil, and wildlife. Please review the textbook’s write-up on Rachael Carson found on page 33. It would be well to remember her name, the name of her book, and how the book influenced the American conservation ethic.

Early in this era, a new term was coined: "Ecology," that would define a new science:

The study of the relationships and interactions between plants and animals, and their physical environment.

Another term that came into vogue was Ecosystem: 

a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.

Please commit these two terms and their definitions to memory, as they will be used throughout the context of this course.

Notable legislation of the Environmental Era includes:

Wilderness Act of 1964 that authorized the U.S. government to protect undeveloped tracts of public land as part of the National Wilderness System.

Passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963 as a result of air pollution in New York City killing 300 people and sickening several thousands others.

Passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969 that required all federal agencies to disclose the effects of their proposed actions to the public and allow the public to raise issues prior to decision being made. Decisions that would involve national security issues were exempted from disclosure.

Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.

Passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Passage of the Clean Water Act of 1977 was partially in response to a river having caught fire in Ohio in 1969, which brought to many people’s attention the industrial pollution of our river systems in America.

Passage of the Federal land Policy and Management Act of 1978 gave the Bureau of Land Management its first real authority to manage the public land under its control. Angered by this Act, many western interests, whose use of these lands was being restricted for the first time, formed a political coalition, known as the sagebrush rebellion, to rebel against government regulation of the use of public lands.

What is next for the 21^st Century? Issues that we will have to deal with in this next century include:

The threat of global climate change.

Growing water shortages.

The growth of the human population.

Continued loss of biological diversity.

Assignment