I. Transition from Conservation to environmentalism in the Mid-1900s

A. Factors related to environmentalism

1. Population: Birth rate in 1900 is 32.3 live births per 1000; in 1930, 21.3 per 1000. Rate fluctuates between 18 and 19 throughout the depression years of the 1930s; rises to 22.7 in 1943 and to 26.6 in 1947, initiating the post-war baby boom. Remains between 23 and 24 per 1000 until 1959, when it begins to fall, reaching 18.4 again by 1970.

2. Market: Collapse of market in Great Depression of 1929 undercuts growth in the 1930s. Dust Bowl of the 1930s stiffles agricultural production. World War II pulls the country out of depression, stimulating industrial production for the allied war effort. Cold War era promotes the growth of industrial science, technology, and large-scale agriculture. Shift from a manufacturing economy to an advanced consumerism.

3. Technology: Large-scale hydraulic engineering systems; electrical generators and transmission lines; telephone, telegraph, radio, and television as means of mass communication; air transport. Trucking and automobile transit are coupled with interstate highway system. Chemically based large-scale agriculture develops during World War II and after. Features DDT; organophosphates (parathion, malathion), and chlorinated hydrocarbons (aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor). War-time military technology grows, with atomic and hydrogen bomb capability and nuclear power after World War II.

4. Social Relations: Government enacts jobs programs in the 1930s through projects such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and Boulder (now Hoover) Dam. Federal environmental legislation in the 1960s and 1970s responds to social movements and public concerns over human health and quality of life. Winters' court decision (1908) affirms water rights of Indian reservations.

5. Attitudes: Conservation's emphasis on the efficient development of natural resources (forests, range, soil, water, and so on), government management, and large-scale technology gives way to the environmental emphasis on quality of life, human health, wilderness recreation (dams versus wild rivers; wood production versus forests for recreation; flood control reservoirs versus habitats for fish and wildlife, game management versus nature observation and appreciation). Environmental movement is initiated with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962). American Indian Movement (AIM) strives to uphold land and water rights and to retain control over resource development on reservations. Alaskan native movement aims to retain subsistence way of life.

1. What is Bob Marshall's argument about the "people's forests"? Would his approach lead to sustainable use of the forests?

2. What rationale does Franklin D. Roosevelt give for the construction of Boulder (now called Hoover) Dam? What problems do environmentalists see today with the construction of big dams? Should Boulder Dam, TVA, and other dams have been built?

3. Compare the conservation concerns of Theodore Roosevelt in the 1900s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s, and John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. Which groups of people were involved in conservation in the three periods? What social groups were not affected or left out?

4. How do Rachel Carson's assumptions about pesticides differ from those of the chemical companies and scientists she criticizes? Did Carson's Silent Spring initiate a paradigm shift in assumptions about managing nature? Did it initiate the contemporary environmental movement? Support your claims.

5. What is the role of government regulation in resource conservation? How do you account for the change from laissez faire use to the environmental regulation of natural resources?

6. What are the new and significant aspects of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969? What was the effect of the passage of the act?

7. Trace the history of U. S. legislation with respect to Native American land rights. What issues arose in the twentieth century with respect to Indian water rights? In what ways have the courts, Congress, and the executive branch been at odds over Indian rights?

8. What issues arise for Hopi and Alaskan Natives with respect to subsistence and commercial development of their traditional lands?