Environmental SciencePeople you should

Know!

Industrial Revolution inspired environmental philosophers 1840’s Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry

David Thoreau Nature is a direct manifestation of

the divine Concerned with their cultures

growing obsession with materialism

Thomas Malthus An essay on the principle of

population (1798) Unless population growth is

controlled the number of people will outgrow the food supply

Starvation, war or disease will reduce the population

John Muir

John Muir convinces Roosevelt increase protected areas in the Sierra Nevada.

The Preservation Ethic: we should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state.

Muir founded the Sierra club, the oldest and most influential env. organization in the U.S. in 1892.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seek”

Theodore Roosevelt "The conservation of natural

resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."

Theodore Roosevelt.October 4, 1907

Responsible for the permanent preservation of some of the most unique natural resources of the U.S through the establishment of the National Forest and Parks system.

Gifford Pinchot The

Conservation Ethic: natural resources should be managed to provide the greatest good, to the greatest number of people, for the longest time

1st chief of the U.S. Forestry service

Which ethic do you most i.d. with? Development ethic: people

should be masters of nature. Economic development is key

Preservation ethic: Muir’s preservation of the pristine natural world

Conservation Ethic: Pinchot’s sustainable extraction and use of natural resources

The father of wildlife conservation in America

Best known for his concept of “ the land ethic” and his book:

“A Sand County Almanac”

He argued we had a responsibility not only to maintain the environment but also to repair the damage done in the past Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. Aldo Leopold

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

• Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book

Peter Matthiessen

Time Magazine elected her “one of the 100 most influential people of the century”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbtp2B-IFmw

Paul and Anne Ehrlich Neo-malthusians 1968: The

population bomb Population would

outstrip food supply and consume civilization by the end of 20thC.

Garrett Hardin The Tragedy of

The Commons (1968)

Resources open to unregulated exploitation will eventually be depleted

Overgrazing Goats in the Sahel