Environmentalism
on the Defensive

Earth, Wind, and Fire

1981: Ronald Reagan vs.
“environmental extremists”

End of bipartisan environmentalism

Philosophy: “government is the problem”

Business & right-wing think tanks in charge

◦ OMB gets veto over new regulations

◦ Citizen participation limited or avoided

Energy policy: cheap oil

Foreign nations take lead in alternative energy

Secretary of Interior James G. Watt

Plans commercial development of Western public lands

◦ Excludes environmental organizations, 1981

◦ Halt to any further parks or wilderness

◦ States, Congress block offshore oil development

◦ Congress blocks oil leases in wildlife refuges

◦ Court blocks strip mining & coal lease changes

Weakening the EPA

EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford, 1982

◦ Demands for cost-benefit analyses

◦ Opposition to “burdensome” regulations

◦ Proposed budget 1/4 of Carter’s

◦ Dismantled enforcement division

◦ Plans to weaken clean air standards

◦ Weaker auto emission standards

Backlash and radicalization

1,000,000 sign Sierra Club petition against Watt

◦ Watt & Burford resign amid scandals, 1983

◦ Congress renews, expands regulations

Rise of the radicals

◦ Greenpeace, 1971

◦ Sea Shepherds, 1977

◦ Earth First!, 1980

◦ Dave Foreman: ecotage

◦ Rainforest Action Network, 1985

New ideas of the 1980s and 1990s

James Lovelock’s “Gaia hypothesis,” 1979

◦ Life, oceans, air, soil = system for optimum environment for life

Arne Naess, “Deep Ecology,” 1973 (in the US, 1985)

◦ Anthropocentrism vs. biocentrism

E. O. Wilson, Biodiversity, 1986

◦ The trouble with “islands”

UN Brundtland Report, 1987

◦ “Sustainable development”

From 1967 “Lynn White thesis” to 1990s “ecotheology”

◦ Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, 2015

Environmental Justice Movement 

Warren County protests, 1984

◦ Rev. Benjamin Chavis and the UCC Report, 1987

◦ “Environmental racism”

Spreads across the country

“Chemical Corridor” or “Cancer Alley”?

◦ Louisiana’s petrochemical industry

New issues

Agriculture

◦ From family farm to agribusiness

◦ Changing government policies: “Get big or get out”

◦ Loss of farmland: urban sprawl

◦ Compaction & erosion

◦ Excess fertilizer and the Gulf’s “Dead Zone”

◦ Bioengineering (GMO’s) & exotic aliens

International Victories for the Air

Acid rain: an international problem

◦ Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, 1979

◦ Clean Air Act, 1990: Cap and trade

1974: CFCs and the stratospheric ozone layer

◦ 1985: discovery of Antarctic ozone hole

◦ 1987: Montreal Protocol

The fading of environmentalism?

Decline of outdoor recreation

◦ Decline in hunting, fishing, visits to National Parks

◦ “Nature deficit disorder”

◦ Youth of the 1980s: first generation raised mainly indoors

◦ Fearful parents keep kids from unstructured outdoor play

◦ Lure of video and electronics

Corporate opposition gets better

“Merchants of doubt”

◦ A few scientists against all government regulation

◦ Funded by corporations & libertarian groups

◦ Heritage Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute

◦ Attack dangers of smoking, secondhand smoke, ozone, acid rain, pesticides (Rachel Carson), global warming

◦ Tactics: discredit the science (“junk science”), disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt

◦ Major funders: Koch brothers, Exxon

◦ #ExxonKnew, 2016

Global Warming

1896: Svante Arrhenius: greenhouse theory

1950s-80s: Data accumulates

◦ Roger Revelle’s Mauna Loa CO2 measurements

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1988

1992 Rio Earth Summit calls for voluntary action

1997 Kyoto Protocols: stronger reductions

Worse than expected: heat, extreme weather, sea rise, polar ice cap, glaciers, ocean acidification, coral bleaching

2015 Paris Climate Change Conference

◦ Real commitments for the first time: 2°C goal

The “Anthropocene”

Humans a factor on geologic time scale

Global warming faster than any time in earth history

The “Sixth Extinction”

◦ Humans & Pleistocene extinctions

◦ Post-Columbian extinctions

◦ Contemporary crises

◦ Amphibian disappearance

◦ Mass bat deaths

◦ Oceans in crisis: warming, overfishing, pollution

◦ Pollinator decline

1990s: Marking time

George H.W. Bush, 1989–93, “environmental President”

◦ 1992 Rio Earth Summit: U.S. obstruction

Bill Clinton, 1993–2001

◦ VP Al Gore’s campaign book, Earth in the Balance, 1992

◦ Little leadership on environmental issues

◦ 1997 Kyoto Earth Summit: no leadership; Republican Congress

Another right turn

George W. Bush & Dick Cheney, 2001-2009

◦ Former oil company executives

◦ Secrecy and exclusion of environmental groups

◦ Silencing of scientists, reluctance to regulate, leadership vacuum

◦ Rejects Kyoto, 2001

◦ Boycotts Johannesburg Earth Summit, 2002

◦ “Clear Skies” and “Healthy Forests” initiatives

◦ Focus on hydrogen exclusively

◦ Energy Policy Act of 2005

◦ Subsidizes nuclear & oil, exempts fracking from Clean Water Act

Progress on other fronts

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, 2006

◦ 2 Academy Awards; 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (with IPCC)

Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

◦ Fuel economy, hybrids, biofuels, lightbulbs (leaves oil subsidies)

Mainstreaming of organic food

◦ Whole Foods and other organic grocery stores

◦ Industrial organic: Cascadian Farms, Earthbound Farm

Spread of renewable energy (solar and wind power)

Development of batteries and electric cars (Tesla)