Theodore Roosevelt’s arrival at the White House could not have been better timed. This notoriously progressive president changed the trajectory of the nation by taking forward-looking action at a pivotal time. Taking office at the turn of the 20^th century, Roosevelt was faced with a rapidly industrializing country. Railroads zigzagged the nation, transporting people to previously pristine wilderness, and natural resources were being exploited to keep up with rapidly growing demands. By sticking to his progressive mindset of prioritizing the average person as well as future generations, Roosevelt was able to direct the nation towards a more sustainable and environmentally focused path.

Image from GreatOutdoordinary — Roosevelt at Yellowstone National Park

Roosevelt’s passion for environmentalism stemmed from his childhood outdoors. As a kid, he was fascinated by the natural world and the organisms around him, eventually studying Biology at Harvard. He then moved out west to explore the big game scene and consequently established the Boone and Crockett Club, which promoted the “conservation of large game and their grazing habits” (SCU) despite being an avid hunter himself. After his time out west, Roosevelt moved to North Dakota where he spent time herding cattle and tracking down outlaws.

Theodore Roosevelt brought these experiences with him to the White House. As president, Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service and several national parks, personally creating some of the most iconic parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone. Throughout his term, Roosevelt protected 230 million acres of land through creating 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, and 5 national parks.

Image by Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images — Roosevelt as President

Roosevelt had dual motivations for setting aside land. He wanted to ensure that future generations were able to experience these beautiful places like he had experienced them. But he also wanted to ensure that these resources would continue to be available for human use. He believed that they had even more value than solely their natural beauty. As president, he signed several bills including the Newlands Reclamation Act calling for the construction of dams across the country. Because of this perspective, Roosevelt frequently clashed with naturalist John Muir who believed that nature should be left as pristine as possible.

While Roosevelt was a hunter and advocate for the human use of natural resources, it was his extreme emphasis on the sustainable use of these resources that makes his legacy so impressive. While Muir’s belief that nature should be left pristine is good in theory, it is unrealistic. Roosevelt introduced the nation to the idea of conscientiously interacting with the natural world during a time when people were just beginning to grasp the financial benefits of exploiting the natural resources around them. By setting aside land and creating regulations for its use, Roosevelt solidified this mindset by making concrete changes to ensure the sustainable use of land for years to come.

Sources:

https://www.scu.edu/environmental-ethics/environmental-activists-heroes-and-martyrs/theodore-roosevelt.html

https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-and-conservation.htm

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-environment/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Roosevelt

Wangari Maathai’s establishment of the grassroots movement called The Green Belt Movement has resulted in substantial positive change not only in regard to the environment but also in regard to the overall well-being of struggling African communities.

Image By Patrick Wallet — Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai was born in 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya. She obtained degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Nairobi, becoming the first East and Central African to earn a doctorate degree. She then went on to become the first ever female professor in Kenya teaching veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi. She introduced the idea of the Green Belt Movement while serving on the National Council of Women in Kenya.

The Green Belt Movement is an organization that on the surface counters deforestation. It encourages women across Africa to plant trees in their communities and think ecologically.  Planting trees combats the extreme erosion and soil depletion that these areas face as a result of rampant deforestation. Deforestation is typically a product of widespread logging, often leading to famine due to crop failure, which is what happened in the devastating famine in Malawi in 2002. By planting trees as encouraged by the Green Belt Movement, soil can be grounded by the roots so that it is not swept away by water or wind.

Logo of the Green Belt Movement

But these trees serve an even greater purpose for these areas. Planting trees and participating in the Green Belt Movement “diversifies the sources of income for the communities neighboring the forest by generating income for tree planting activities and promoting alternative and profitable use of the forest”. These trees are also able to store water and provide food and firewood, significantly cutting down the previous trek to acquire these materials.

In 2004, Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize and was the first African woman to do so. As of today, the Green Belt Movement has planted over 50 million trees, and its work has expanded to other parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.

Wangari Maathai’s ability to expand her vision to include environmental restoration and the overall wellbeing of the people in the affected areas is truly remarkable. By uniting these two causes, she was able to address two crucial issues with something as seemingly insignificant as planting a tree. Since it is a grassroots movement that everyone can easily participate in, it has been able to spark change that a larger, more corporately focused organization may not have been unable to bring about.

Sources:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/biographical/

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/facts/

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/who-we-are

http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/famine-malawi-causes-and-consequences

Using the power of written word, Rachel Carson shifted the paradigm in terms of how we as humans view our interactions with nature, sparking an environmental movement that has lasted ever since. Her groundbreaking book titled Silent Spring published in 1962, exposed the harmful effects that pesticides and insecticides such as DDT have on the environment, and challenged the accepted mindset that humans should strive to control nature.

UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 24: Biologist and author Rachel Carson peering through a microscope at home. (Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

During the post World War Two era of surging technology and science, Carson couldn’t help but notice how policymakers were eager to use new technologies to improve the average quality of life for their citizens but lacked knowledge of their true effects. Interested in asking the questions that policymakers and other scientists weren’t, Carson focused her attention on the use of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), an insecticide used to prevent the spread of malaria, typhoid, and other such diseases.

Carson’s book Silent Spring highlights the effects that DDT has on the environment. She explained how while DDT was able to control insect populations, it was having negative effects on birds and other animals. DDT accumulates overtime, and if an animal was lucky enough to not amount a lethal dose, they would still pass the toxins up through the food chain, resulting in even more accumulation in animals higher up in the food chain—including humans.

Image by Houghton Mifflin Company — Cover of Silent Spring

The publication of Silent Spring resulted in a variety of reactions. Stakeholders in the insecticide and pesticide industry attacked Carson, saying that Carson had not adopted the views of “responsible, broadly knowledgeable scientists” and recommended that “in view of her scientific qualifications in contrast to those of our distinguished scientific leaders and statesmen, this book should be ignored” (excerpt from “Silence Ms. Carson”).

Despite this harsh criticism, Carson stood strong, and her book was received in a better light from the general public and scientists. By writing her novel in an engaging way that the general public could easily grasp, she brought this issue to light and presented it in a way that the average person could stand behind and fight for. In the scientific world, she introduced the idea of green chemistry. Chemists now began to take the environment into consideration when developing new technologies, “investigating the impact of human activity on the environment” (ACS), and weighing the potential consequences of new technology.

But the most important aspect of the paradigm shift brought about due to the publication of Silent Spring was the idea that humans and nature were inextricably linked. Prior to the publication of this book, the general mindset was that humans should strive to control the natural world, and the adverse effects of our actions were rarely considered. The fact that human actions can have a potentially negative, long lasting impact on the environment was a new idea at the time, and our current universal understanding and acceptance of this concept stemmed from Rachel Carson’s work. She introduced the novel idea that “humanity is not the center of life on earth, but part of nature” (ACS)– a cornerstone of all environmental movements today.

Sources:

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/rachel-carson-silent-spring.html#:~:text=The%20years%20following%20the%20controversy,harmful%20impact%20on%20the%20environment.

https://www.rachelcarson.org/Default.aspx

Rafe Pomerance: a man who dedicated his life to unite scientists, politicians, and the public. His quest to combat climate change began in 1979 when he came across an article that nonchalantly mentioned the potential impacts that carbon emissions would eventually have on the climate. He had never heard of the potential correlation between carbon dioxide and climate, and as a leader of the environmental lobbyist group, Friends of the Earth, he was taken aback. Why was nobody talking about this?

Image by Global Warming Mitigation Project — Rafe Pomerance

A few days later he happened across a study published in 1978 by scientist Gordon MacDonald, a member of the scientific group called the Jasons, that spelled out how the climate would change by 2035 if humanity kept on this track. MacDonald predicted that carbon dioxide levels would double from what they were at the start of the industrial revolution, causing massive droughts, sea level rising, and habitat destruction– all of which would have major implications on society. Due to his Cold War era frame of mind, MacDonald had compared carbon dioxide to a weapon of mass destruction that the whole world was deploying against their enemies and themselves.

Pomerance, excited to finally have some concrete information, urged MacDonald to present his findings to some of their connections in politics. The pair of them proceeded to relay this information to the EPA, the National Security Council, the New York Times, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Energy Department, and then finally, the president’s top scientist, Frank Press. Alarmed by what Pomerance and MacDonald shared with him, Press advised the President to assemble a team to conduct a “full assessment of the carbon dioxide issue”. The resulting group of top scientists assembled was the first real action from politicians in terms of climate change. Together, these top scientists complied a report that would withstand decades of scrutiny titled “Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment”. The scientists agreed that the temperature of the Earth would rise by three degrees Celsius by 2035, having disastrous impacts on the environment.

With Pomerance and politicians excited about the momentum that the climate change issue was gaining, a task force of “policy gurus, deep thinkers, an industry scientist, and an environmental activist” was sent to a conference in Florida in October of 1980. Their goal: write policy to help stop climate change. Everyone in attendance agreed that they needed to establish an international treaty that would limit carbon dioxide levels– that was without debate. But they began to disagree on how far the policy should go. For half a day, they got stuck on the first paragraph, whether or not they should say climate change will happen, will most likely happen, is extremely likely to happen, will surely happen, etc. An exasperated Pomerance reminded everyone that they all agreed that action had to be taken to combat climate change, so they needed to work together to write this policy. But after three days, all that the scientists and politicians were able to produce was an unsubstantial and vague statement that skirted around the real issues.

Later that year, Ronald Reagan was elected President, and one of his first actions as President was to increase coal production and deregulate surface mining. Reagan made it his goal to basically dismantle past Presidents’ environmental policies, dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. Pomerance saw the momentum he had built regarding climate change dissipate in practically a moment.

Image by CNN — Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office

In the years to come, Rafe Pomerance continued to advocate for climate change and urge politicians to take action, serving at a number of positions such as “Chairman of Arctic 21, President of Friends of the Earth, Senior Associate for Climate Change and Ozone Depletion Policy at the World Resources Institute, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Development, President of the Climate Policy Center (CPC), and Consultant to ReThink Energy Florida. He was a Founder and Chairman of the Board of American Rivers, as well as Chairman of the Board of both the League of Conservation Voters and the Potomac Conservancy. He currently serves as Senior Arctic Policy Fellow at the Woods Hole Research Center.”

Rafe Pomerance was one of the first people to bring attention to climate change and played a large part in gathering the information that we build upon today. However, his most valiant work came in his attempts to unite scientists, politicians, and the public. Without Pomerance, scientists would have most likely kept this policy-worthy information to themselves, leaving both politicians and the public to naively continue on their unknowingly destructive path. He brought the world to the brink of salvatory climate change action in 1980, and while the conference attendees would not come through for the world, Pomerance allowed climate change to become public knowledge and brought the issue to the center of the political world for the first time, and that deserves recognition.

Sources:

https://www.amacad.org/person/rafe-pomerance

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html

When you think of environmental activist today, Greta Thunberg  will likely come to the front of your mind. Her protests, speeches and actions have been the spark for the revival of the environmental movement that the world desperately needs.

Image by Hanna Franzen — Thunberg during one of her school strikes

Greta Thunberg began to enter the spotlight in 2018 at the age of 15 when she stood outside of the Swedish Parliament every Friday, striking from school in the name of environmental action. The first of her protests she spent entirely alone. She was subject to stares and strange looks, being asked, “Shouldn’t you be in school?”. But after a while, her movement caught on. People began to join her in protest. A crowd eventually amassed outside the Swedish Parliament every Friday, all protesting for action to be taken towards preventing climate change. Over the course of a year, Thunberg’s lonely protest evolved into the largest climate strike in history, with millions of people joining her from around the world.

Image by Johannes Eisele/afp/GettyImages — Greta arriving on her boat at the UN Climate Conference

Protesting is just one of many ways that Thunberg makes a statement and raises awareness for her environmental cause. When she was invited to the UN climate conference in New York, Thunberg refused to fly on an airplane to get there due to the environmental impact of planes. Instead, she sailed on a sailboat— the more environmentally friendly way to travel across the Atlantic. But her impact did not end there. While she was at the conference, Thunberg delivered a searing speech, almost attacking the adults in the room for letting the younger generation down. She addressed the room with powerful statements such as “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words”.  Most of Thunberg’s other speeches from different events have carried the same tone, pointing out the lack of current leadership and the consequential duty of young people to make change.

While Thunberg has not created environmental policy or drastically changed the political landscape towards the favoring of environmental policy, she has absolutely made a lasting impact on the climate change movement through inspiring the world’s youth and religiously practicing what she preaches. And for that alone she deserves to be put down in the history books.

Image by BBC — Greta protesting with other youth

Greta Thunberg has been a key player in the environmental movement, but with an important distinction. She has sparked involvement amongst the youth of the world. She has pointed out how the adults of today have left behind an environmental catastrophe. And it will be up to a new generation to do something about it. The youth of today have almost adopted this problem as their own, knowing that this is something that is going to have to be faced. When the youth become the future policy makers and leaders of the world, combating climate change will have become something that has been talked about and demanded for years. And we will finally have the power to do something about it. We will be prepared to take action. And expected to take action. Because if we don’t, we will have let ourselves and Greta down once again.

Sources:

https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-bio-climate-change-activist-20199#:~:text=Greta%20Thunberg%2C%20a%20teenage%20activist,largest%20climate%20strike%20in%20history.

https://www.bbc.com/news/worldeurope49918719#:~:text=In%20May%202018%2C%20aged%2015,leaders%20in%20Paris%2C%20in%202015.