HH380; 3001

The Environmental Movement in the United States during the 1960’s and 1970’s

Meadows, Teresa C Midn USN USNA Annapolis3/25/2015

The Environmental Movement in the United States became of great importance due to the large number of organizations and laws that were established in the 1960’s and 1970’s to increase the environmental awareness throughout the country. Activists, scientists, and law makers all worked together to create a more stable, healthy place to live amongst the States. Had it not been for this moment in history, the environment may have been more severely damaged and the health of the human population declining at an even more rapid rate

The Environmental Movement in the United States became of

great importance due to the large number of organizations and

laws that were established in the 1960’s and 1970’s to increase

environmental awareness throughout the country. The

environmental movement was driven by all members of society who

felt the need to finally make a stance on harm the human

population was causing on the environment. Not only were the

actions damaging the environment, but at the same time, it was

discovered that the environmental infringement was inflicting

harm on the human population as well. Activists, scientists, and

law makers all worked together to create a more stable, healthy

place to live amongst the States. Had it not been for this

moment in history, the environment may have been more severely

damaged and the health of the human population could have very

well declined at an increasingly rapid rate. The Environmental

Movement was an important time for the development of the United

States because it helped preserve the environment, increase

public awareness, advocate the establishment of laws and

policies, as well as diminish detrimental effects on human

health, which were all caused by apathetic attitudes of citizens

who justified that environmentalism was not a critical aspect of

American life.

1

It is very important to recognize that the Environmental

Movement in the late twentieth-century was not the sole movement

of environmentalism in the United States, but rather the era that

marked the continuous development and understanding of effects on

the country. It was the first time that all citizens in the

country (no matter what their occupation) took an active role in

the environment. Leading up to this era, there were many other

laws, policies, and famous figures who advocated environmentalism

in its early stages, which would in time lead to a larger-scale

Environmental Movement after the half-way point of the century.1

Through research, it became clear the United States made a shift

from conservation at the beginning of the 1900’s to

environmentalism throughout the rest of the century.

An environmental historian, Samuel P. Hays described how the

period between the conservation movement of the mid-twentieth

century and the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s

and 1970s “displayed a shift in emphasis from resources

efficiency to that of quality of life based on beauty, health,

and permanence.”2 In The Colombia Guide to American

Environmental History, Hays made an observation that described

the transition from post-WWII conservation ideas of “efficient

management of physical resources, to the post-World War II

1 Carolyn Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 174.2 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 174.

2

environmental themes of environmental amenities, environmental

protection, and human scale technology.” 3 He sensed the change

in American ideals, and the transformation of society as a whole.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the conservation

and preservation policies played a prominent role in the

development of the United States. Many artists and writers of

both the Romantic and Transcendentalism movements in the first

half of the nineteenth century bolstered an appreciation for

America’s natural beauty, while activists and naturalists such as

John Muir and Gifford Pinchot acted to retain that beauty in the

latter half of the century.4 Conservation was introduced in

1908 by Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt at the

White House, and the two explained the desire of resource

efficiency when it came to the collective usage of forests,

rangelands, and water at the Conference on Conservation.5 The

term meant provision for the future, but at the same time meant

that the present generation should be allotted all necessary

resources they would need to survive. It was based around

concern for the present generation, and then generations to

3 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 174.4 Kirkpatrick Sale, and Eric Foner. The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962-1992. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, 5.

5 Henry Edward Clepper, Origins of American Conservation. New York: Ronald Press, 1966, 44.

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follow.6 In time, Pinchot created a sustainable yield process

dedicated to the efficient use of natural resources that

initiated the conservation movement.7 Happening at the same time

as the preservation movement, the conservation movement took hold

in America commanding national attention. Unfortunately, during

the latter half of the nineteenth century, many citizens feared

that the countryside’s wilderness was in grave danger and vastly

threatened. John Muir, a naturalist who was an early advocate of

preservation, stated, “Wild nature was a treasure to be cherished

and preserved, rather than an evil to be eliminated.”8 With the

enhanced numbers of travelers headed west who witnessed the

magnificent natural wonders it had to offer, many Americans

pushed for the natural sights to be preserved. They were proud

of what their country had to offer and they did not want to see

the beauty depleted before their very eyes due to the development

that was inevitable out West. All in all, forests, water, and

rangelands were closely managed for productivity, Pinchot’s

sustainable yield, and year-round conservation while the

preservation movement enriched the nation’s aesthetic

appreciation and recreation. Both movements in the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to the development

of the National Park Service Act in 1916 which became an

6 Donald Worster, American Environmentalism; the Formative Period, 1860-1915. New York: Wiley, 1973, 85.7 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 128-129.8 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 132

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overwhelmingly important act passed, and to this day still

greatly appreciated and widely used allowing Americans to witness

their countryside’s untouched beauty.9

Seen in the timeline outlined, the first two decades of the

nineteenth century focused on the conservation of forests,

rangelands, and water as well as the preservation of American

soil. As these ideals approached the 1930s and 1940s, resources

such as animals, grasses, and soil became considered for

conservation as well which led to The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife

Restoration Act of 1937, the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, and the

Soil Conservation Act of 1935.10 During the 1930s and 40s, the

government became high advocators of conservation by promoting

the movement through jobs offered by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt and his New Deal Program. 11 There were many large

cooperation’s funded by the government, such as the Tennessee

Valley Authority, which allowed hydroelectricity to be readily

available to the general populace. In the end, the TVA’s goal

was to “provide cheap power for the country, along with flood

control, recreation, and soil conservation.”12 Another welfare

program that was created post-Depression was the Civilian

9 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 138.10 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 175.11Donald W Whisenhunt, The Environment and the American Experience; a Historian Looks at the Ecological Crisis. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1974, 79.

12 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 175.

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Conservation Corps, most commonly known as the CCC. The main aim

of this corps was the promotion and conservation of natural

resources and then administered training for three million men

who needed work. The program mostly served to rebuild the damage

that three centuries of neglect produced on the American

environment during wartime.13 This welfare state program became

important to the development of the Environmental Movement

because those men created versatile parks, planted forests, and

assembled fire towers. Robert Fletcher wrote a letter to

Theodore Roosevelt in 1936 stating,

The departments advised me that notwithstanding the

tremendous amount of restoration, erosion control, and other

conservation work accomplished by the CCC during the last

three and a half years, much work remains to be completed

before our forests, parks, agricultural lands, and grazing

areas will have been afforded adequate protection and

development.14

The work that they did improved recreational and leisurely

parks throughout the entire country.15 Many records show that the

13 Roderick Nash, American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990, 140.

14 Nash, American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, 14115 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 177.

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CCC remains the greatest contributor to the nation-wide defense

of the nation’s forests.16

Thus far, an explanation of the timeline leading up to the

Environmental Movement in the 1960s and 1970s has been given in

order to allow a better understanding of the precursors involved

overtime that eventually led to the larger Movement. Now, an in-

depth study of the 1960s and 1970’s will be given in order to

describe why these particular decades helped preserve the

environment, increase public awareness, advocate the

establishment of laws and policies, as well as diminish the

detrimental effects on human health.

Most notably known for her involvement with the

Environmental Movement, Rachael Carson, a biologist, is said to

have kicked off the Movement in 1962 with the release of her work

Silent Spring. 17 An already best-selling author, Carson

displayed her opinions of the environment and the population’s

apathetic attitudes in her work, creating a very emotional book

that remained at the New York Times best-seller list for thirty-

one weeks and sold more than half a million hard copies.18 Her

16 Nash, American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, 142.17 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 418 Mark H Lytle, The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, 6.

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words were angry and she was not afraid to voice her knowledge

discovered. 19

As a man proceeds toward his announced goal of the conquest

of nature, he has written a depressing record of

destruction, directed not only against earth he inhabits but

against the life that shares it with him. The history of

the recent centuries has its black passages—the slaughter of

the buffalo on the western plains, the massacre of the

shorebirds by the maker gunners, the near-extinction of the

egrets for their plumage. Now, to these and others like

them, we are adding a new chapter and a new kind of havoc—

the direct killing of birds, mammals, fishes, and indeed

practically every form of wildlife by chemical insecticides

indiscriminately sprayed on the land… the question is

whether any civilization can wage [such] relentless war on

life without destroying itself, and without losing the right

to be called civilized.20

Carson’s book Silent Spring effectively became a crucial

criticism on the American pesticide industry, particularly the

DDT pesticide. The insecticidal pesticide was the basis of her

book and the literature recorded the environmental impacts of DDT

sprayings around the country. She named her work Silent Spring

19 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 420 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 3.

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since all the birds and wildlife were dead from the spraying of

DDT.21 For the first time, someone publically questioned the

logic of the American industry and how potentially harmful the

continuous releasing of hazardous toxins would be not only on

ecology, but human health.22 She was also one of the first to

link urban and industrialization issues.23 Carson touched on a

very sensitive topic with such a powerful industry, resulting in

the American pesticide industry attacking her book that had

gained such massive popularity. In fear, the industry launched a

$250,000 campaign to tell the country that Carson was falsifying

information and nothing was wrong with their insecticidal

products, but the well-versed biologist won the battle and the

industry was shamed. Gaining national attention, Silent Spring

went on to win multiple awards from the Audubon Society and the

National Wildlife Federation which would also help support the

Pesticide Control Act of 1972 and the Toxic Substance Control Act

of 1976.24 Environmentalist Kirkpatrick Sale stated,

but more than that: it galvanized a constituency no one had

realized was there, energizing the somewhat sluggish

21 Donald Leal, Government vs. Environment. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, 22.22 Linda J Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. New York: H. Holt, 1997.

23 Louis S Warren, American Environmental History. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2003, 251.24 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 4.

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traditional conservation groups as well as many who had

never given a thought to the natural world before.25

Another scientist, Max Nicholson, who led the British Nature

Conservatory, called Silent Spring, “probably the greatest and

most effective single contribution to informing public opinion on

the true nature and significance of ecology.”26 Then a third, an

American historian, Stephen Fox, claimed Rachael Carson’s book

was “The Uncle Tom’s Cabin of modern environmentalism.”27 On

many different accounts, it became evident how extremely powerful

Rachael Carson’s literary work Silent Spring proved to be at the

beginning of this soon-to-be environmental movement.

The reasoning’s and rationales behind the movement were in

large number and very complex and did not solely have to do with

her book. The American population was still in the outer edges

of the post-war boom and curious of how successful the “affluent

society” truly was. The Synthetic Revolution had taken hold

(including plastics, detergents, nuclear power, fibers,

chemicals, and pesticides) and the populace did not see the

“comfort and harmony and tranquility”28 that the Revolution had

promised. Sale states that Kennedy’s victory in 1960 was due in

large part to

25 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 4.26 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 4.27 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 4.28 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 6.

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a quarter of the nation’s children were going to bed hungry—

but those who had those benefits still felt a sense of

crisis, as the social fabric frayed and modern diseases of

‘affluenza’—alcoholism, drugs, suicide, insanity, violence,

alienation—increased. What’s worse, all the material

benefits apparently came at a price—urban crowding, suburban

sprawl, pollution and smog, clear cuts and dammed rivers,

cancer and nuclear fallout—and came at a dizzying pace that

seemed beyond the effective control either of the businesses

benefitting from it or of the governments supposedly

regulating it. 29

But at the same time as all this discontent and discord, there

became a growing number of educated men and women that wanted to

delve into the quality of life. Sale ends his chapter by saying,

“Hence, when Silent Spring appeared, it found a ready audience,

and that audience a cause.”30

As the 1960s progressed and Rachael Carson’s book lay on

most coffee tables, the government also made its stamp and moved

forward while taking action in the Movement.31 Many new

environmental policies came forth from the interactions between

the three branches of government. Congress would do their part

29 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 7.30 Sale, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 7.31 Chad Montrie, A People's History of Environmentalism in the United States. London: Continuum, 2011, 42.

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and pass legislation, while the executive branch had to implement

what Congress passed. Then any problems or concerns were dealt

with by the judiciary branch. Examining the executive branch,

shown is a number of agencies within it to administer public

land, enforce environmental laws, and set policies. For example,

the National Park Service is contained within The Department of

the Interior.32 Also directly under the executive branch, the

following also remain: the Environmental Protection Agency, the

Water Resources Council, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In 1970 the EPA was established through executive restructuring

and then given the power to regulate radiation, pesticides, air

and water quality, and solid-waste disposal. After the

establishment of the EPA, whenever Congress decided to pass an

environmental law or policy, the EPA was in charge of

administering regulations to enforce it. Sale mentions that

Congress was the second player in the process of environmental

process for policies. There were four major acts passed, Clean

Air Act of 1963, the Water Quality Control Act of 1965, and the

1964 Wilderness Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968,

due to the attempt to legislate answers to problems of pollution

and environmental harm during the 1960’s.33

32 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 179.33 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 180.

12

Finally the judiciary is the third actor in the policy

process for environmentalism. Environmental litigation became

important for limiting pollution and promoting conservation

throughout the 1960s and 1970s. John F Kennedy, President at the

time, along with Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall and

Senator Edmund Muskie, held a conference inviting large

corporations who had been polluting the environment and causing

detrimental effects to surrounding ecosystems, the quality of

life, and public health.34 In the 1960’s the litigation process

became more renowned because it was further developed by the

Environmental Defense Fund created in 1967 and the National

Resource Defense Council which was founded in 1970. The process

highly advocated taking those corporations who polluted to court.

Numerous legal cases took place in the 1960s and 70s and there

became a huge influx for the occupation of environmental

lawyers.35

Public health became a major concern for most of the nation,

and engineers and medical technicians were not the only ones

hired but the profession of ecologists was soon accepted. In

1961, the Surgeon General created a Committee on Environmental

Health Problems which was composed of twenty-one members. This

“public health engineering” requested a new Office of

34 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 181.35 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 182.

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Environmental Health and Sciences in order to conduct more in-

depth studying on the five national problems, which according to

Schaffer are as follows:

air pollution; water pollution by industrial wastes,

including radionuclides; urban crowding, ‘a form of creeping

paralysis which, if not recognized and corrected, can lead

to urban stagnation and death as surely as the most violent

epidemic’, food contamination by, for example, new strains

of Salmonella, and by pesticides and herbicides; and

problems in health created by, for example, lead, mercury,

phosphorus, silica dust, and cancer-producing tars.

All of these health concerns were strenuously studied until laws

could set regulations on what and what was not safe for human

consumption or interaction.36 This select group of scientists

began to rethink old public health theories and connect them to

the surroundings of everyday life.37 Their new approached opened

new discoveries and links that had not yet been revealed.

The 1970s were referred to as the environmental decade as

well as the era of environmental regulation. It became the era

within the Movement that encompassed the highest numbers of laws

36 Victor B Scheffer, The Shaping of Environmentalism in America. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991, 147.37 Mary Graham, The Morning after Earth Day: Practical Environmental Politics. Washington, D.C.: Governance Institute :, 1999, 142.

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passed to enhance the environment.38 The Clean Air Amendments of

1970 were passed right before the Occupational and Safety and

Health Act, which allowed there to be standards in the workplace

against exposure to harmful substances. With a large influence

from Carson’s Silent Spring, the Environmental Pesticide Control

Act of 1972 regulated the use of pesticides that were or were not

proven to cause harmful effects. The Endangered Species Act of

1973 established the rules for listing species that were either

threatened or endangered. In 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act

certified that the EPA set drinking standards for water, and also

the Clean Water Act of 1977 required waters to be “fishable and

swimmable” by 1983. The Resources Conservation and Recovery Act

of 1976 authorized industries and companies to have standards for

the disposal of hazardous wastes. 39 The 1970’s became a decade

that encompassed numerous laws and policies passed, while earning

the name the ear of environmental regulation.

The government proved to play a very active role in the

Environmental Movement with the numerous laws, policies, and acts

passed within just two decades, but the role of any average

American citizen proved to be just as important. For instance,

in 1966 there was a powerful movement against damming the Grand

Canyon. The protest was led by a Sierra Club member, David

38 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 180.39 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 181.

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Brower, but the biggest and most impressive milestone in the

citizen’s role of the Environmental Movement was the

establishment of Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Quickly the

movement took off on its own, and Senator Nelson, the leader,

said had it not been for the personal interest of Americans,

Earth Day would have taken a lot of money and time to create. It

is estimated that nearly 20 million people, all of whom were

different ages, genders, levels of education and occupations,

participated in rallies, teach-ins, debates, and marches to

salvage the environment. The interest in Earth Day influenced

the development of policies and legislations on a national

level.40 Letters, tabloids, commercials, billboards, and

newspapers are just a few ways American citizens got the word out

in the fight to save Earth. The single-handedly most effective

way to connect with the American populace was through pictures,

videos, and first-hand accounts.41 It was vital for Americans to

see the effects and not just hear about them. It was a national

effort and the cause became known to every individual which in

turn reshaped the environmental movement making it more

mainstream.4243 Gottlieb finishes his chapter on Earth Day with:

40 Robert Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993, 148.

41 Getting the word out in the fight to save earth42 Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement, 158.43 Merchant, The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History , 182.

16

In this context Earth Day can be seen as a transitional

event, tied in part to the rebellions of the 1960s. But it

also reflected the desire to fix things up, to conquer the

best of pollution by capping it, managing it, and ultimately

controlling it…. And how such a movement would define itself

in relation to the contemporary urban and industrial

order.44

The shift from conservation to environmentalism has been

explained, and now the slight shift from the 1960’s to 1970’s has

been described. As time progressed, more action took place and

policies and laws became more concrete and trust-worthy. With

all types of citizens participating in Earth Day, the movement on

April 22 solidified that it was not only the government who made

impacts on the nation’s environment. Everyone took a collective

stand, and it made the decade of the 1970’s something to look

forward to.

It is truly miraculous how every sector of the nation came

together from all aspects in order to make this Environmental

Movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s not only possible, but

effective. Had it not been for some of these courageous and

daring citizens, the environment could have been damaged so badly

to the point of no return and public health could be a very scary

44 Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement, 158.

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topic. The Environmental Movement truly was an important time for

the United States because it helped the nation unify while

preserving the environment, increasing public awareness,

advocating the establishment of laws and policies, and

diminishing the effects on human health. The countless apathetic

attitudes of citizens who simply lived in the US and justified

that environmentalism was not a critical aspect of American life,

significantly changed within these two decades. The expectations

and standards of the quality of life were substantially increased

and the American populace still strives to better the environment

and human population today. From the founding of this nation, to

the present day—everyone’s role is vital to the existence of

mankind. The Environmental Movement of these two decades left an

everlasting impression, and quite possibly saved the Earth from

damaging effects that could not be fixed.

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