Historical Exercise (in class)

 

 

Using historical resources, esp. Pro-Quest databases (R) or America's Historical Newspapers (VT), explore an environmental issue before Silent Spring. See the Environmental History Timeline for ideas about events and issues before Silent Spring. Ask how was the event reported? How much detail was included? Who were the authorities cited? How much sensationalism was employed? Post your exercise on the class wiki. Be sure to use a variety of appropriate search terms, such as: public health, conservation, preservation of nature, smoke abatement, municipal housekeeping, occupational disease, air pollution and water pollution.

 

 

NOTES ON SEPT 26 -- Hetch Hetchy and the Chicago Drainage issue

 

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In 1906, San Francisco who was looking for a water supply wanted to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley. Only the Federal Government had the right to approve the dam construction because the valley is located in Yosemite National Park. Though this proposal was heavily debated, Congress (to the regret of many) finally permitted the dam in 1913.

 

 

I uncovered an article about this issue written on January 30, 1909 titled “Saving the Yosemite Park.” I found this article that was published in The Outlook to be surprisingly biased. Though it does not mention John Muir, the article preaches his preservation ideals as it is very opposed to damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley. It does reference and criticize “Mr. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, and Mr. Pinchot, National Forester, men of the highest character” who approved the project.

 

This article states that though San Francisco needs access to water, there is “excellent evidence from competent engineers” that “at least a dozen other sources of supply” could be utilized. The authors then insinuate that the Hetch Hetchy Valley dam should only be constructed in order to “save the lives and health of the citizens of San Francisco,” not just to save their dollars.

 

 

These comments are meaningful and relevant even in today’s society. I could not have agreed more when I read, “The National habit is to waste the beauty of nature and save the dollars of business.” This exact argument could be used in opposition of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

 

When Congress allowed the Hetch Hetchy Valley to be flooded, it allowed precious American wilderness to be destroyed. Hopefully, we can learn from the past and recognize the importance of preserving the wilderness in Alaska.

 

 

-Courtney Mitchell

 

 

Yosemite.pdf

 

NOTE: JOHN MUIR WAS PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN THIS, AND HE DIED, HEARTSICK, ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VALLEY.

 

 

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An article that I found interesting while browsing America’s Historical Newspapers was published in The Daily Inter Ocean, a Chicago based newspaper, in November of 1889. It reviewed a lecture given by a Professor Cooley on the Dangers from the New Drainage System. The drainage pipe proposed was criticized because its size did not account for non domestic sources of pollution such as Stock Yards, distilleries, and kitchens. The city’s size at the time was about 1 million but, with the inclusion of commercial waste, the sewage system should have been able accommodate 1700000 million, according to Dr. Cooley.

The article gives the modern reader insight into the perception of human waste (and the means of disposing it) then. Apparently, the equivalent of 250,000 peoples undecomposed sewage was dumped directly into the lake, the equivalent to the sewage of 500,000 carried down the canal and another 800000 decomposed within the city limits. This latter sum was viewed as posing the greatest danger to the citizens of Chicago, as it polluted the air. The professor considered the problem of polluted air “gingerly, but said that it was certainly great.” He explained that the gases arising from the gases of the decomposed sewage (which “was given off in cloudy or foggy days. Sunlight and air were the great resolvers of gasses.”) were particularly dangerous to Chicago as it kept the sunlight from the city for a week at a time.

The scientific language itself has an antiquated feel. “In his opinion the immense sewage that was discharged directly into the lake stayed there until it was diluted by the action of the waves. This kept the water in a constant state of pollution… until there was a wind which blew 300 miles in a single direction…which, experiments showed, happened very rarely… The only conclusion he could arrive at was that there must be diseases in Chicago all the time, which were produced by the sewage discharge in the lake….He knew his statement to be correct from extensive experiments made with lake currents… Lake currents, of course, were produced by the wind…” The assuring tone of the historic article is echoed by the scientific community of today. The what are now obvious inaccuracies or invalid assumptions in the article are a testament to the fact that time is the ultimate judge of all theories and beliefs.

Instead of solutions to the problem, the article poses further questions -- “how far shall we provide for the future and the increase of population?” These primitive considerations of the human contribution to water and air pollution as well as the dangers associated with them ring a familiar bell.

 

 

 

 

-DEANA

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/11A8869594D1BA28/0D13EB2D702F7E0A

 

 

NOTE: THIS IS FROM THE ENVIRONMETNAL HISTORY TIMELINE:

 

1900 -- Water pollution lawsuit begins in Supreme Court. The state of Missoui sues the state of Illinois and the City of Chicago's sewer system for polluting the Mississipi. Eventually, US Supreme Court allows the Chicago city sewer department to maintain a canal draining city sewage into the Des Plaines River and, eventually, the Mississippi River. In Missouri v. Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chicago, the court said:

"It is a question of the first magnitude whether the destiny of the great rivers is to be the sewers of the cities along their banks or to be protected against everything which threatens their purity. To decide the whole matter at one blow by an irrevocable fiat would be at least premature. If we are to judge by what the plaintiff itself permits, the discharge of sewage into the Mississippi by cities and towns is to be expected..." The court also said that a similar suit would have failed 50 years beforehand because an older common law nuisance standard would at least have required evidence of change obvioius to the senses such as new smells or a visible increase in filth. (Barros, 1974)

 

 

 

Civilian Conservation Corps: (10.6.08) - Chris Cox

 

The word ‘service’ can inspire many ideas about the American community. Often the idea is attached to political or military involvement as the chief way to serve the country. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected President in 1933, a year when the U.S. had no great military conquest, over 50% of American men were unemployed or working part time. Roosevelt needed to redefine service.

In a March, 21st 1933 address to Congress, Roosevelt called for, “a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects”. On March 31st, President Roosevelt signed the “Emergency Conservation Work Act” and the Civilian Conservation Corps began.

The Emergency Conservation Work Act was designed to bring together two “underused” resources: the hundreds of thousands of unemployed men, and the need for environmental conservation. The “CCC” was not an official name, rather, the name of a movement that involved the Forestry Service, the US Dept. of Agriculture, the Soil Erosion Service, and every community across the nation.

The idea was to create a “peacetime” army in the battle against destruction of America’s natural resources. The labor for this peacetime army would come from rural and urban areas alike, including Appalachia.

Communities all across the United States felt the effects of the Corps, and it garnered much attention. The CCC eventually became established in all 50 states, and even Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. By the end of 1935, there were over 2650 camps in operation.

Environmental stewardship started as a top-down change mechanism inspired by the President’s initial idea for the corps, but became a manifesto by those enrolled who had previous experience working on the land. Many of the CCC’s young participants were urbanites with little outdoor experience. The established land ethic of the more rural corps members allowed a migration of knowledge.

In 1936 President Roosevelt was running for re-election and wanted to find ways to cut spending and the CCC was minimalized. This was met with public outcry. The Corps had to begin to denying entry, as it could only afford about 300,000 members, as opposed to when it had peaked earlier to 600,000 members. In 1939 with WWII on the horizon, employment opportunities became available and enlistment followed funding. Finally, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, funding for the CCC was liquidated and its members disbanded.

Current environmentally themed service opportunities can be found in government institutions such as the Peace Corps and Americorps; and more specifically for college students the Student Conservation Association. As our nation faces global climate change and the impending energy crisis, it becomes more and more important to prioritize a stewardship ethic.

 

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I chose: 1933 -- Nov 11 -- Dust Bowl storms begin in the Midwest.

Margaret Bourke-White writes in The Nation:

 

By coincidence I was in the same parts of the country where last year I photographed the drought, As short a time as eight months ago there was an attitude of false optimism. “Things will get better,” the farmers would say. “We’re not as hard hit as other states. The government will help out. This can’t go on.” But this year there is an atmosphere of utter, hopelessness. Nothing to do. No use digging out your chicken coops and pigpens after the last “duster” because the next one will be coming along soon. No use trying to keep the house clean. No use fighting off that foreclosure any longer. No use even hoping to give your cattle anything to chew on when their food crops have literally blown out of the ground. ( “Dust Changes America” The Nation May 22 1935 )

 

I learned that the dust bowl lasted years from 1931-1939. Here is a timeline I found for the Dust Bowl.

1931

Severe drought hits the midwestern and southern plains. As the crops die, the 'black blizzards" begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow. 

1932

The number of dust storms is increasing. Fourteen are reported this year; next year there will be 38.

1933

March: When Franklin Roosevelt takes office, the country is in desperate straits. He took quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which time Congress came up with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilized the banking industry and restored people's faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it.

May: The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Farm Credit Act of 1933 established a local bank and set up local credit associations.

September: Over 6 million young pigs are slaughtered to stabilize prices With most of the meat going to waste, public outcry led to the creation, in October, of the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation. The FSRC diverted agricultural commodities to relief organizations. Apples, beans, canned beef, flour and pork products were distributed through local relief channels. Cotton goods were eventually included to clothe the needy as well.

October: In California's San Joaquin Valley, where many farmers fleeing the plains have gone, seeking migrant farm work, the largest agricultural strike in America's history begins. More than 18,000 cotton workers with the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) went on strike for 24 days. During the strike, two men and one woman were killed and hundreds injured. In the settlement, the union was recognized by growers, and workers were given a 25 percent raise. 

1934

May: Great dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely.

June: The Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act is approved. This act restricted the ability of banks to dispossess farmers in times of distress. Originally effective until 1938, the act was renewed four times until 1947, when it expired. Roosevelt signs the Taylor Grazing Act, which allows him to take up to 140 million acres of federally-owned land out of the public domain and establish grazing districts that will be carefully monitored. One of many New Deal efforts to reverse the damage done to the land by overuse, the program was able to arrest the deterioration, but couldn't undo the historical damage.

December: The "Yearbook of Agriculture" for 1934 announces, "Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production. . . . 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil. . . " 

1935

January 15: The federal government forms a Drought Relief Service to coordinate relief activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties that were designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head. Those unfit for human consumption - more than 50 percent at the beginning of the program - were destroyed. The remaining cattle were given to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food distribution to families nationwide. Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. "The government cattle buying program was a God-send to many farmers, as they could not afford to keep their cattle, and the government paid a better price than they could obtain in local markets." 

April 8: FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525 million for drought relief, and authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration, which would employ 8.5 million people. 

April 14: Black Sunday. The worst "black blizzard" of the Dust Bowl occurs, causing extensive damage.

April 27: Congress declares soil erosion "a national menace" in an act establishing the Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture (formerly the Soil Erosion Service in the U.S. Department of Interior). Under the direction of Hugh H. Bennett, the SCS developed extensive conservation programs that retained topsoil and prevented irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated. Farmers were paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.

December: At a meeting in Pueblo, Colorado, experts estimate that 850,000,000 tons of topsoil has blown off the Southern Plains during the course of the year, and that if the drought continued, the total area affected would increase from 4,350,000 acres to 5,350,000 acres in the spring of 1936. C.H. Wilson of the Resettlement Administration proposes buying up 2,250,000 acres and retiring it from cultivation. 

1936

February: Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis sends 125 policemen to patrol the borders of Arizona and Oregon to keep "undesirables" out. As a result, the American Civil Liberties Union sues the city.

May: The SCS publishes a soil conservation district law, which, if passed by the states, allows farmers to set up their own districts to enforce soil conservation practices for five-year periods. One of the few grassroots organizations set up by the New Deal still in operation, the soil conservation district program recognized that new farming methods needed to be accepted and enforced by the farmers on the land rather than bureaucrats in Washington. 

1937

March: Roosevelt addresses the nation in his second inaugural address, stating, "I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished . . . the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."   FDR's Shelterbelt Project begins. The project called for large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern Texas, to protect the land from erosion. Native trees, such as red cedar and green ash, were planted along fence rows separating properties, and farmers were paid to plant and cultivate them. The project was estimated to cost 75 million dollars over a period of 12 years. When disputes arose over funding sources (the project was considered to be a long-term strategy, and therefore ineligible for emergency relief funds), FDR transferred the program to the WPA, where the project had limited success.

1938

The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts, and other conservation methods has resulted in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil blowing. However, the drought continued. 

1939

In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought. During the next few years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and the plains once again become golden with wheat. 

 

 

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm

 

 

I had heard of the dust bowl, but I definitely did not know the devastation it caused people and the length of time that had passed. It affected 27 states and about 75 percent of the country. I am surprised we do not here more about this in classes in high school, either history or earth science.

 

~Koryn Stevens