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U.S. History 1877-Present 12.9: Environmentalism 22 Views
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Description:
Preserving the environment is actually pretty important... you know, because we live here and we don't want to leave a path of destruction in our wake and then die.
Transcript
- 00:03
Nowadays, Americans share a pretty universal understanding
- 00:06
that trees equal air, air equals good, and pollution equals bad air. The basic sense [Woman pointing at a tree]
- 00:14
of environmentalism is deeply ingrained into society. But this wasn't always the
- 00:18
case in the 1970s we had 'The Lorax' to show us the way. Dr. Seuss' character was
- 00:23
born during the birth of the modern environmental movement. It was an era of ['The Lorax' book cover]
Full Transcript
- 00:27
speaking up and making a difference. The environmental movement gained national
- 00:31
attention during this era right alongside the fight for women's rights
- 00:34
and free love. America was plowing full steam ahead into the modern era and for
- 00:41
those about to keeping score at home right about now is where history stops [Uncle Sam on the front of a train]
- 00:44
sounding like history and it sounds like what people argue about on cable news
- 00:48
all day. With the post-world war two baby boom and consequent production boom,
- 00:52
Americans started to wonder about the effects of all this progress on the
- 00:57
environment. While earlier conservation movements had centered on sustainable use
- 01:01
of the Earth's resources, but this movement focused on how to ensure a [Man chops down a tree with an axe]
- 01:04
safe and beautiful planet in this fully industrial age. Americans were leaving a
- 01:10
bigger footprint than ever before. Guess those baby boomers had heavy feet... [Giant baby foot slams down on the ground]
- 01:14
On top of that the emergence of a strong middle class encouraged more people to
- 01:18
get out into the great outdoors, people were beginning to see the joys of
- 01:22
traveling to national parks and other natural areas as proven by almost every
- 01:27
family vacation picture taken in the 1970s. Seriously everybody was camping and [Funny family picture]
- 01:32
for some reason all the dads were doing it in cutoff jean shorts, it was a
- 01:36
trying time... Well all this created a big push for the preservation of the natural
- 01:39
landscape and maybe a smaller push for the eradication of cutoff jean shorts... It wasn't [Person putting jean shorts into a fire]
- 01:44
long before the environment became a political issue, one we're still
- 01:47
grappling with in painfully today. One of the most influential environmentalist works
- 01:52
ever 'Silent Spring' was written in 1962 and it raised awareness of the harmful
- 01:57
environmental effects of the pesticide 'DDT'. Rachel Carson the book's author,
- 02:04
argued that DDT preyed upon not just one but several of the Earth's eco systems [Animals going into cloud of DDT and dying]
- 02:09
leaving a path of destruction in its wake. DDT was developed in 1939 and used
- 02:16
in World War II to help eliminate harmful insects soldiers encountered in [Soldier having DDT sprayed onto him]
- 02:20
the foreign theater of war. After the war it began to be used on a large scale on
- 02:24
America's farms to protect crop production. People were totally clueless
- 02:29
that this pesticide was harmful, they even sprayed it on kids.. Hey nothing says fun [Parent spraying DDT powder onto a child]
- 02:34
Sunday afternoon quite like a good delousing.. Well DDT had the power to
- 02:39
target and kill not just a single or few species of insects but hundreds of
- 02:44
species at the same time. Carson's research showed the effects of the [Bird dropping from the sky]
- 02:47
pesticide on both the bird population and other wildlife scariest of all she
- 02:51
warned that DDT entered the food supply by way of the plants and animals exposed
- 02:55
to it. She argued that the corruption of the food supply had cancer causing
- 02:59
effects on humans, and finally people started to pay attention. Cancer tends to [Man about to eat a fish looks shocked]
- 03:04
have that effect... After attacks from chemical manufacturers of the pesticide
- 03:08
President Kennedy himself ordered an investigation into the claims of her
- 03:12
book. Turns out Carson wasn't just some crazy hippie, the government backed up [Kennedy sending off an army of scientists]
- 03:17
her claims and DDT was banned. It was an early win for the fledgling
- 03:22
environmental movement, but the fight goes on to this day. Issues of climate
- 03:26
change, air pollution, water pollution and creating sustainable agriculture are
- 03:32
still hotly debated. But we think it's important to remember where the debate [Two men screaming]
- 03:35
started, because believe it or not it was a time when you couldn't buy organic everything. [Man pushing trolley in a supermarket]
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