During the last decade within the twentieth century environmental growth was significantly high. Society was able to gain higher knowledge of the environmental challenges and issues the United States faced. The Brundtland report provided a explicit voice around these issues through analysis of human life based on social networks and ecological systems. Many environmental historians who have studied the U.S. policy facing these economic challenges came to conclusion that there were three main time periods which new concepts and ideas evolved. These three time periods were (1) the American conservation movement, (2) the rise of environmental risk management as a basis for policy and (3) the integration of social and economic factors to create the sustainability of paradigm. During The American Conservation Movement most early colonists who arrived to the states noticed that much of the land had very limited resources and there was minimal effort to treat and minimize wastage. By the early 1800's the impacts of soil erosion and fertility, decreasing crop yield and other environmental deficiencies helped lead to a better effort to gain a better understanding of these problems. Initial conservation concerns were targeted at farming and mining, the same approach eventually found its way to the management of forests and timbering, wastes from mining and smelting, controlling human diseases, and the study of the chemical exposures on humans. There were many scientists during this time that dedicated to the understanding of these scientific unpinning of the environment. Eugene Willard, John Wesley Powell, George Perkins Marsh, Franklin Hough, and Gifford Pinchot just to name a few are some of the great scientists to help study these issues. Several Institutions also played a part to oversee the implementation of reforms and manage the governments' large land holdings. Some major intuitions were created during this time which was the Departments of the Interior(1849), and Agriculture (1862), the U.S. Forest Service (1881), the Geological Survey ( 1879) and the National Park Service (1916) were all enacted during this period. It was also during the time that several well known societies came into being apart of the Audubon Society (1886). Arboy Day and Bird Day were holidays that were created in the late 1800's due to this social movement. To summarize this large movement of growth ecological awareness first appears in the human record thousands of years ago. For example in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, we see challenges about forest destruction and the drying out of marshes. Gilgamesh cuts down many sacred tress, the deities curse Summer with drought, and Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. Five thousand years ago, the Indus civilization of Mohenjo Darro, were already facing the effects of pollution on human health and practiced waste management and sanitation. Some famous Greek physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen began to observe environmental health problems such as acid contamination in copper miners. Advancing agriculture boosted human populations but also caused soil erosion and attracted insect infestations caused several plagues between the years of 200 and 1200 CE. Then the 18th century was the first generation to witness the break of modern environmental rights. Although we have worked extensively throughout the years to control environmental awareness we still suffer many challenges related to climate change, oil and gas production, pollution, overfishing, and bycatch.
References
Weyler, R. (2023) A brief history of environmentalism, Greenpeace International. Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/11658/a-brief-history-of-environmentalism/ (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Sustainability: A comprehensive foundation (no date) Open Textbook Library. Available at: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/96 (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Comments
Post a Comment