exam 2 his
Exam 2
Cities and Progressives (after first exam)
Urbanization
Chicago experienced the fastest growth. 125,000 people moved there in one year. Puts pressures on housing, traffic, congestion, sewer systems were overloaded, and employment.
Industrialization is to blame for this rapid growth. City services and trash pickup were not existent. It was a private operation. Fire and police departments were also not ready for the influx of people.
Horatio Alger
Wrote stories about rags to riches, always a boy who becomes a wealthy man, they were hard-working and intelligent.
His first series was the “Ragged Dick Series”. The boy was far off then a businessman comes to fix him up.
Social Darwinism (Herbert Spencer)
Individuals rise and fall based on their individual merit. Herbert constructed a political ideology based on this. His theory was social Darwinism à survival of the fittest.
The more intelligent and hard-working you are the higher up the corporate ladder you will get.
If humans could selectively breed, then they would become a superior race. Leads to the eugenics movement later.
People who make bad choices will be in the slums. You cannot give people a living who don’t deserve it because then they will have kids (they don’t want more slums of society).
Laissez faire
“Let them be.”
Little government regulation as possible. Even democratic forms of government should be hands off when it comes to economy.
When governments interfered, there would be a corrupt and unproductive society.
Tammany Hall (patronage, laissez faire)
Tammany Hall is an example of a city government. William Boss Tweed à was the power behind the power of the city of New York. Political machine based on patronage à A system of rewards for political allies.
You may have people in positions that have no experience or are not qualified to be there.
Chicago Fire
1871 à A fire that whipped out almost half of the city’s buildings. Story that someone’s cow kicked over a lantern, however the cause is not known.
Helped people realize that one little accident can lead to detrimental outcomes.
The fire department could not keep up with the number of fires that are going around. They spread easily because the buildings were made from wood.
Settlement House (Addams)
Jane Addams started the settlement house movement in America.
In Chicago she created Hull House, which was its first settlement house. This is where young woman could stay away from home in a Christian environment. They had temporary housing for new families, and they would help people find employment.
Give people the resources they need, provide many different classes to help people rise and fall as they please.
Realized that there were problems that these people could not overcome. Began to propose larger reforms like trash pickup, building codes, and labor unions.
Upton Sinclair
Wrote a novel The Jungle à focused on immigrants and cries out for reform of the industry and help.
Had an interest in people who were struggling in lifelong poverty.
Worked in the meat packing industry. People were more concerned about the conditions of their meat than the conditions of the people working in the meat packing industry.
Inspired Roosevelt to start the FDA.
Frederick Law Olmsted
Created more parks in the cities. Designed central park in New York city. He believed that the park should be as natural as it can be. It will hopefully have a healthy development on people; they won’t turn into criminals because they have access to healthy, clean air.
Took the same method into the development of suburbs.
Smoke Abatement League
The cities were fighting with smoke pollution in the early 1920s.
Had a concept that this was unhealthy.
Tended to focus on industrial forces of smoke. They saw the dark smoke as the unhealthiest, so smoke produced from coal, oil, and steel.
Cincinnati was the first city who started a smoke abatement league. Started by a women’s club because it fits with their traditional role in society, and they can play a hand in reform. Realized companies may be producing more smoke than they should. Started to look at malfunctions to justify and regulate air pollution.
They created a smoke-density chart. Not scientific, but they were starting from scratch.
10-25-23 --> mass production and raw materials
Moving assembly line
Rather than bring parts to a single shop where skilled artisans were working, Ford made every part identical and standardized. The workers are more trained in one part of the manufacturing process. It was now simplified and required very little skill.
The line was controlled automatically, the management set the speed, which obviously would be problematic.
By 1920, there was a car coming off the line every 90 minutes.
Model T
Affordable for most middle-class people. Only one color and focused on the most inexpensive route to make it. How can we deskill, make things as cheap as possible, and productive?
Fordism
Paid workers 5 dollars a day. Double the average laborer’s wage. In today’s dollars, this is doubled out minimum wage at 15 dollars an hour.
Total loyalty, his rules could be odd, timed restroom breaks, and could not talk about unions. Everyone was replaceable because of this wage.
Mass production = mass consumption society.
He believed in equal wage with race, however, believed in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. Refused to hire Jewish workers. Was also a Nazi sympathizer.
River Rouge Plant
A 2,000-acre lot of ground outside Detroit.
Designed to integrate all the functions of automobile manufacturing.
Vertical integration to the extreme.
White workers lived on the site, but black workers had to live in Detroit neighborhoods.
Commodity chains started to cross across the world.
Fordlandia
Started his own rubber industry in Brazil, owned 4,000 miles of land in the Amazon. Would share profit in the Brazilian government.
Freighters would be shipped to Brazil, creating Fordlandia. Wanted to create an American-style town in the middle of the Brazilian Jungle.
Hired native workers, however, wanted to assimilate them to American culture.
Fords desire for control.
All kinds of problems with wildlife and the climate were inhospitable. His desire for control could not overcome the natural environment of the Amazon.
Ultimately, still relied on British rubber providers.
Steamships
Swift developed the refrigerated steamship in Argentina.
Ocean-going steamships were an invention of the late 1800s.
Took in Carnegies “fast and full” method with the steamships.
Gustavus Swift (Las Pampas)
Made a small fortune buying and selling cattle. Created some of the earliest meat-packing plants. Built some of the early stock yards in Chicago.
Bragged that his company used every part of the pig, used bones for fertilizer, fat for soap, etc. Undesirable parts were used for feed.
“Pampas” means plains. He tapped into the plains of Argentina to help continue build the American meat industry.
Developed a working class in Argentina.
United Fruit Company (bananas)
Founded in New Jersy in 1899 and would become the worlds leading producer of fruit.
Thought this would be a great crop to feed workers.
They could only be grown and eaten locally; however, port cities were starting to receive bananas.
They could do this because of the refrigerated steamships. Selling the banana as a healthy, breakfast food to grow the production. At the same time, they started to establish plantations in Honduras and south America. They took most of Honduras’ airable land to help the American market.
They created their own fleet, steamships called the “great white fleet”.
Anaconda Mining Company
Established in Montana in the 1900s. Specialized in copper mining for wires. Helps the increasing electrification of the country. They began searching in south America for cooper and found a lot in Chile.
Chuquicamata was a place in Chile that Anaconda created. Copper would become Chiles number one export because of America.
America took counties in south America and used their resources. They became reliant on the American economy and market because of it.
Farming the Plains
Sodbusters
Disturbed an ecosystem that had been largely the same for years. The great plains only grew short grass, even though there were multiple different species of grass.
Short grass maintained the topsoil, also a bunch of animals lived there and tended to be “nibblers” not “grazers”.
The soil was so dense that the sodbusters would cube up the soil to make houses.
The plow turned over the land, farmers believed that it was good to plow early and often. Wanted to plant wheat, which was relatively successful.
The more they plowed, the faster they were leading to the dust bowl.
John Wesley Powell
He said they needed to stop and think before they created more settlement in the great plains. He was trying to emphasize that there was not enough rainfall to farm the same way out east.
Raise cattle on the short grass, but do not plant wheat. You want to keep the short grass growing, you don’t want that plowed away.
Dry farming
How can we go beyond what we did last year??? How can we get more out of the land??
That’s what dry farming was. It called for additional plowing. Wants to plow the land and pack it down before winter so the topsoil replenishes.
“The rain would follow the plow” 🡪 there is always going to be rain. Believes God will follow the farmer, and the farmer would be rewarded for plowing.
“Next year people”
Called the dry farmers the “next year people”.
Next year, the harvest is going to be huge. Viewed farming as a gamble.
Tended to farm more intensively each year.
Encouraged them to plow up marginal land.
Planted wheat as their crop because that is what the market wanted most.
Tractors (Reeves, McCormick-Deering)
The first tractor was the Reeves tractor which ran off a steam engine. Needed a wide, flat piece of land.
The Fortson tractor ran off gasoline. Made the tractors cheaper, they were also lighter and smaller.
The McCormick-Deering was the first gasoline tractor.
This led to a supply-demand issue. The farmers were losing demand for wheat.
Dust Bowl
The result of all of this turns into a dust bowl. The soil could no longer stay down or take fertilizer. Topsoil turned into a powder.
The next-year mentality is what caused this. The droughts and high winds encouraged it as well.
Looked at this religiously. Thought it was sinful behavior and that they did something to offend God.
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The government tried to fix farm prices. Regardless of the product, prices were so low that farmers could not make a living.
Encouraged farmers to not use all their land. Wanted to reduce the surplus and tried to adjust the supply for prices to go up. This also allows some of the land to be untouched and replenished.
Land Utilization Project
“Americans have to learn how to live within limits”.
would take 75 million acres of land and give it to the federal government.
11-1-23 New Deal for the Environment
“Forgotten Man”
Frankin Roosevelt talked a lot about the forgotten man, differentiated him from his opponent, Herbert Hoover.
Roosevelt sympathized with the lower class and people affected by poverty.
Promised to give relief to the poor. Wanted to use the government to reform. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”.
The Master of media was friendly, citizens felt like they knew Roosevelt personally.
The “New Deal”
Roosevelt started the new deal, wanted the government to work with the average person. Will introduce new systems that they were not fully confident in if they would work.
Civilian Conservation Corps
“A young man’s opportunity.”
Its goal was to put 250,000 young men to work. The younger guys were having a hard time finding jobs. They did not view young women as fit to look for a job.
Believed, again, in fresh air, nature, and in the wild. Would send these men to work in national parks.
They were careful not to compete with private companies.
Their first project was to build the barracks that they would live in and would send the money back home to their family.
Could also fix mother nature a little bit with this. Replanted clear cut forests. Also did erosion and flood control, forest fire prevention, stocking fish in streams, and built fire look-out towers.
This ended because of WWII because all the men were being drafted.
Works Progress Administration
The goal was to put 3.5 million people to work. So, 4 out of every 10 people are out of work because of depression.
Hired artists to paint American landscapes. They also hired the first oral historians, hired playwrights, and included a lot of construction and flood control.
Resettlement Administration (Arthurdale)
Focused on the failing farms of America. Farmers would be exploited if they moved and tried to work in California.
Wanted to build new camps, housing, and farms for these farmers. Reluctant to compete with private owners. Also gave out some loans.
Arthurdale homes were being created. It had a nice house, garden, and livestock space. It cost more to build these then suburban homes.
Farm Security Administration (Dorothea Lange)
A section in the department of agriculture. It was created with the concept of rural rehabilitation. Turned into a loan program from farmers that are most likely to succeed.
The most desperate farmers were not helped by this program.
Became the largest credit program in the federal government. Helped a lot of people, however many people got turned down.
The other FSA program was when they hired photographers to shoot the struggling farmers. Dorothea Lange photographed farmers during the dust bowl. Dorothea was hired to travel around the great plain states, became a master of taking portraits of the struggling farmers.
Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA literature: an impoverished community. Wanted to address a few problems at once. They were going to address the poverty conditions in these communities. Tried to electrify these communities. Created hydroelectric dams which also helped control the river and prevent flooding.
Clearcut a lot of forests to create these dams. Never lived up to the promise of providing enough jobs and electricity. They eventually had to strip mines for coal to supplement what the dams weren’t giving them.
Atomic Energy
Manhattan Project (Oppenheimer, Los Alamos)
Dating back to 1938 when two physicists discovered nuclear fission. The United States dedicated their time during WWII to develop the nuclear bomb.
Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project. This project was in the United States, Canada, and the UK. Alamogordo, New Mexico is where they tested the first bomb.
The Manhattan project worked on enriching uranium.
Developed three bombs, Los Alamos is one of their labs.
Trinity
The trinity test was one of their first bomb tests. Happened in 1945, extremely successful, hoped to use it to turn the tide in the war against Japan.
When Oppenheimer saw this, he said, “Now I am death, the shatter of worlds”.
Hiroshima
They showed the city of Hiroshima because it was untouched by bombing in WWII. In the initial blast it killed 70,000 people. In total killed about 130,000 people. Japan surrendered after the US dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki.
Bikini Atoll
Wanted to continue to study the effects of the atomic bombs. They chose Bikini Island to continue testing.
They evacuated the people of the Island before testing. Tested 26 nuclear bombs at this site.
Hydrogen Bomb
Began to work om the Hydrogen bomb. This was developed in the Cold War, was all fueled by fear.
Called it operation Greenhouse. It was 450x more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. MAD 🡪 Mutually Absurd Destruction. Maybe if these could destroy the world, people wouldn’t use them.
These bombs could prevent sunlight from getting into our atmosphere and the radiation would not disappear.
Shipping port
Miricale solution to the world’s energy problem. The waste coming out of shipping port was radioactive.
Yucca Mountain
Remote places that won’t affect people send all the nuclear power waste to this mountain. Centralizing the nuclear waste could have had some serious ecological issues.
11-6-24 Creating American Suburbs
Streetcar suburbs
Rail lines to connect the city and suburbs. Started out being for the wealthiest people.
Exclusive
Home ownership loan corporation (redlining)
The government started to make the suburbs more accessible. People started to have their homes foreclosed after the depression, this program helped people hold on to their house.
Helped a lot of people refinance their homes. It was not granting money, it allowed them to refinance a more long-term mortgage.
Refinancing helped them because it will lower the monthly cost and the smaller payment is what helped them.
The government guaranteed the mortgage, and they did not want to ensure every loan. Good v. Bad mortgage.
Four grades of neighborhoods “homogonous” meant there was a completely white neighborhood, that considered the neighborhood to be a good one. If you were in the red zone, the bank would not approve the mortgage.
This will create more foreclosures, nobody will buy property, and created more segregation.
Federal housing authority
In 1934 to encourage homebuilding, this lowered the downpayment. Guaranteed minimum standards of living.
Selected a lot of red-lined lots for this program.
This was during a time of a housing shortage when people were flooding to the cities.
Started building high-rises and apartments as last resort housing in the worst red-lined neighborhoods.
Covenant deed restrictions (Shelly v. Kraemer)
This helped preserve neighborhood segregation.
If you sold the property, there were specific restrictions you had to follow so the neighborhoods could maintain their image.
No property could be sold or leased to anyone who is not of the white or causation race. These were more under the radar laws unlike Jim Crow laws in the south.
Shelly v. Kraemer was one of the victories that led to the brown v. board of education. Considered it unconstitutional to not sell a house because of race. Residential segregation continued in the north.
Blockbusting
Exposed the practice of getting an African American family into an all-white neighborhood. This encouraged people to move out of the neighborhood. The overall rating of the houses will go down, making it harder for people to receive loans.
Started to revoke realters licenses who did this.
The solar home
Designed by George Keck, wanted the homes to be energy efficient. If we energies homes, then we can lower people’s bills.
Became a leading promoter for solar design. Maximized sunlight in the winter, reduced it in the summertime.
Had to figure out how to do this in a prefab way and minimize material usage. During WWII a lot of government planners invested in this.
Claimed there was a simplicity in living closer to nature as well. The solar home died as soon as the war ended because atomic power plants came into play. Believed nuclear energy was going to solve all their problems.
Levittown
Focused on the Cape Cod style house. Wanted to build houses for returning veterans from the war.
The G.I bill gave veterans a guaranteed loan and gave them access to an education. They needed to minimize costs. No landscaping, few luxuries, all the same design built at the same time.
Levittown was built on an old potato farm outside New York. Each house was going for about 8,000 dollars.
This neighborhood would be all white and where all Cape Cods.
Septic Tank
Being outside the city led houses to not be connected to city infrastructure, so they developed the septic tank.
The waste would go to the tank, then the liquid would go into the soil and field. If you don’t have the right kind of soil, then you will have problems. If there is too much clay the soil will not absorb the liquid.
It can also be too porous, then it will go down to quickly and will get into the ground water.
Portuguese Bend 🡪 with too much watering + too many septic tanks = a mudslide.
William Whyte
Concerned about the populations leaving and moving out, that the population was becoming more dispersed.
Believe that nature will disappear because of suburban sprawl. People predicted that we would run out of rural space.
He wanted to protect the opened spaces and wanted to “save the vanishing”.
Wanted to use zoning to protect certain places. Believed the suburbs were just happening, not being planned.
Air pollution before and after the war: 11-8-24
“Pittsburgh at Noon”
Streetlights and neon signs were on in the middle of the day. Pittsburgh was the epidemy of air pollution in the 1940s.
Industrial pollution was a huge factor, and coal was used for home heating. It was their only source of heat. The coal heating was more of a pollutant than the steel industry.
Natural gas lines were installed, and it made a huge difference in air pollution.
American Steel and Wire (galvanizing)
Denora was the home of the steel and wire industry.
Coated their product in zinc, which required multinet zinc which let off a certain pollution.
Produced barbed wire, nails, etc.
Donora Smog (temperature inversion)
There was a temperature inversion, meaning it was colder closer to the surface and hotter in the atmosphere. This trapped all the smoke at the surface level.
The zinc contained a lot of toxic chemicals. Many people were choking, throwing up, etc.
Kettering Laboratory
Robert Kehoe wanted to figure out what happened during this disaster. Originally, the city council was reluctant to study what happened because of economic means.
The Kettering Laboratory with the university of Cincinnati studied this. They interviewed residents, most people did not obey. They concluded that it was a freak weather occurrence and was a once in a one-hundred-year occurrence.
Public Health Service
Discovered that there was a high concentration of sulfur dioxide still in Denora. Also discovered previous temperature diversions. They also studied the health of the residents; they had higher rates of heart and lung disease.
The emissions from the steel and wire company were endangering the health of the Denora residents.
Ultimate sink
They used to think the air was the ultimate sink. No matter how much waste you put up there, it will disappear.
“The solution to pollution was dilution.”
The “ultimate sink” idea started to disappear because there was no place that could get rid of toxic waste and pollution.
LA smog
The automobile was a major pollutant in LA. Found out that the leaded gasoline emissions also led to health problems.
LA had a lot of issues because the whole city was a suburb and there was no public transit. Also, LA is in a valley, which traps the pollution.
The smog covered the sun during the day, which wigged people out.
LA was known for their love of the automobile. The LA city council placed limits on the emissions, however, this did nothing.
Air Pollution control act
The US congress first attempt to deal with air pollution. They funded research on it. They needed to develop metric to set benchmarks to enforce.
The act itself had no reduction or limits.
Affluent society (Galbraith)
Americans had a “scarcity mentality” 🡪 you may already have enough but your still hoarding things out of fear.
Believed this led to bad decision making. For example, hospitals were still put where there was high property value. Stupid.
The Heyday of Environmentalism: 11-10-23
John F. Kennedy
Encouraged civic engagement. Kennedy inspired young people to get involved and do something for their country.
Status Seekers
People who were trying to improve their status through buying things. How businesses were using psychology in marketing.
People used to find status through their community and jobs, however, now status is based on what you own. House in the suburb, 2 cars in the garage, and a colored TV.
Raised concern for consumerist society’s, people were losing meaning.
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson 🡪 what are we doing to the environment?
First released articles in the New Yorker. Silent Spring analyzed pesticides and how they make their way to the river.
Counterculture movement
Seeks to replace the received culture with a new culture.
The received culture is the suburbs, now the counterculture was questioning part of that.
Closely tied with environmentalism.
Environmentalism
“What about future generations?”
“What are we putting in the air?” they became worried about the boomerang effect. Started to worry about their health and water quality.
More concern about the health of other living creatures and the earth. “We’ve got one planet” and that it’s not just a resource warehouse for human beings.
Acknowledged the interconnectedness of all living beings. More reverence for nature.
Earth day
Developed in the 1960s. Teaching became an idea around college campuses. They wanted to educate each other on other causes, they created this for the environment.
The first earth day was in the 70s. Dennis Hayes was put in charge. Used protest methods to promote this.
A lot of people supported this because they wanted a more meaningful existence.
Clean Air act (1963, 1964, 1970)
The clean air act funded research to try and enforce regulations. Focused on industry and wanted to get cars to pollute less.
Environmental Protection Agency
It would enforce the clean air act. Authority over the land, air, water, and endangered species. Low in the executive branch. Outsiders did not want them to be too heavy handed with the environmental regulations. They could not overrule state laws.
Back-to-the-Land movement
People wanted to get far out of the way. They wanted to meet their own needs. “Make a small part of the world sane”.
Country living.
After the EPA in the 1970s 🡪 11-13-23
Environmental protection agency (EPA)
Created to make a nationwide agency of enforcement. Started to make big companies like US steel to enforce environmental protection.
Working with the state department blunts the effectiveness of the EPA because policies are different from state to state, as well as states value industry over environmental well-being.
California was one of the world’s leading economies and has a lot of environmental regulations.
Clean water act (1972)
Common for industries to release their toxic waste into the water. They started taking samples of the water. Tracing the contaminate back to the source was the tricky part. If they found the source, then they could inspect the industry.
EPA began to monitor the city’s sewage treatment plans. Required waters to not be polluted with waste.
Duty to regulate environmental runoff. The EPA began able to deny permits. They could also go to court to seek an injunction.
Endangered Species Act
California Condor inspired a rallying cry because of how few there were. Started to notice animals going extinct since the 1800s.
In 1966, they complied a list of the first few endangered species. Realized these species were going extent because of the eradication of their habitats, not necessarily hunting.
Wanted to protect the endangered species and the ecosystems on they depend. Raised controversy because this would stop industry.
Once a species goes on a list, they develop a recovery plan, which often includes protecting the habitat. However, they rely on the start to work with them to deny a permit.
Keep America Beautiful
Wanted to end littering. This puts a lot of focus on the consumer. Worked through existing groups like the boy scouts. Every state had at least one chapter.
Had a bunch of litter drives.
Iron Eyes Cody was in the crying Indian commercial; however, nobody knows if he was a member of a tribe. Inauthenticity hurt the commercial, but it was actually very successful.
Love Canal
Toxic substances were buried under the ground, so a school decided to build on the site. Her community started to suffer because of the substances. Dioxins were the most harmful chemical.
To Save the Land and the People 11-15-23
Strip mining (Bucyrus-Erie company)
Stripping away at the top layers of the earth. Very little coal was minded this way until WWII.
Three kinds of strip mining: Agar mining, contour mining (follow the contours of the land), and mountain top removal (removing the top of the mountain).
Bucyrus-Erie shovel was one of the largest mining shovels. It could dig 90 ft. It was a mountaineer shovel.
“widow” Ollie Combs
Farmers started to protest because they were the first to experience the effects of it. They could strip mine farms to get to the coal. They also did not replenish the topsoil. Also, there was a tremendous amount of erosion and mudslides.
Ollie Combs was one of the most well-known activists. The first day the bulldozers arrived at the farm, they threatened the workers armed. She was arrested.
She was working with college students in VISTA.
Appalachian Group to save the land and the people.
Started to protest unarmed. Used sit-ins, rallies, wrote songs and used a lot of civil rights movement methods.
Ken Hechler
US congressman in West Virgina.
Decided to make ending strip mining his mission. Pitches a bill where there would be no new permits of strip mining sent out after six months. Sadly, the bill did not pass because the industry was too powerful.
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA)
This resulted from all the activisms. This law created 2 programs: regulate the strip mining in process and reclaiming the land.
Required companies to fill out paperwork on how they will strip mine. They also must acknowledge how this will affect the environment. They would also have to figure out how to prevent this.
Restoration was the other half. Now they would be required to replace the topsoil. Then they would be expected to use other methods to restore the land. Coal companies would plant the fastest growing plants, which were mainly invasive species.
It was done in coordination with the states.
Mountaintop removal
Disregarding the contour of the land, it just leveled a mountain.
Coal river mountain watch
Started in 1998 by a group of concerned citizens who lived in the area. They complained about the dust coming off the mining site. Their home values also dropped because of the mining site.
Became targets of the coal industry. Begin to monitor the air pollution. They also started to challenge permits.
Judy Bonds (marsh fork elementary)
Born in the coal river valley, watched her community dwindle because of the coal companies buying houses. She had to leave her life-long home. When she moved, she saw coal sludge come down by her new home.
A boulder killed a 3 y/o child, this inspired her to become an activist.
Marsh fork is at the bottom of a coal slurry, if it fails, they are toast. The children were also breathing in coal dust.
Mountain Justice
She formed the mountain justice program.
11-27-23 🡪 Environmental Justice and Disasters
PCBs
Polychlorinated Biphenyls
An excellent coolant in industrial applications. EPA studied them, the labeled them as persistent organic pollutants. This means it will not decompose and does not occur naturally.
The EPA also studied what they did to humans. People that were exposed to them were more likely to cause cancer.
They later proposed to make this a new landfill to dispose of the contaminated soil.
Shocco landfill
The EPA later banned the use of PCBs because it was a violation of the clean air act. One year before the ban, a contractor was hired to dispose of PCBs, which contained over 60,000 tons. He had to go to the sanitary landfill, however the realized if they didn’t go there, they wouldn’t have to pay the fees. The ended up going to a rural area in North Carolina and dumped the PCBs.
Warren County
The dump happened in because it was remote, poor, and remotely black.
They thought turning North Carolina could benefit from the dumping sights to get poverty out.
NIMBY
“Not in my back yard”
Accused the environmentalist movement of only caring about the environment if it affected them, not if it hurt someone else.
“Think globally, act locally.”
Politicians thought about NIMBY when they would plan dump sights. Where would they see the least resistance?
Property values (Hurley)
Hurley says it wasn’t just the lack of resistance, but also because of property value. Where could they buy the most land with the cheapest value?
He says that doesn’t mean that racism wasn’t at work, he thought racism and property work hand in hand.
A lot of land like this was already zoned industrial, in the 70s, solid waste landfills started to develop.
Environmental Justice
“Equality of all people in the regulation of the environment as well as environmental burdens”.
Air pollution affected everybody; however, they started to try and prevent air pollution from getting out. They used scrubbers to turn the pollution into solid waste, then you bury it in barrels.
If you’re going to have a toxic waste landfill, it shouldn’t be in the poorest areas, everyone should have to deal with it.
This can also affect trash pickup, if the richer neighborhoods get more pickups than the poorer neighborhoods.
Warren county sparked an environmental justice movement. This was inspired by the civil right movement. This was aimed to achieve equality throughout the environment. This proved successful. The landfill got shut down. They would not start cleaning up the site until the early 2000s.
Clean air and water became marginalized as a human right.
Toxic dumps
Solid waste became more prevalent. They were put into metal barrels; these were put over a plastic liner and later would be buried.
This was put in a reservation.
“Frontline communities” vs. “big greens”
Big Greens was a national environmental organization that raised money for communities affected by these environmental injustices. Used stories from frontline communities to help benefit fundraising. Exploited people’s stories.
The frontline communities are typically marginalized and have no political say. Believed the effects of climate change will hit marginalized and low-income communities the fastest.
Chicago Heat Wave
Occurred in 1995, and experienced temperatures of 106 degrees. It also hit records of energy use, which resulted in a widespread power outage.
More than 3,000 fire hydrants were opened, causing the city to lose water pressure. Trains were also delayed because the rails started to bend due to the heat.
Hospitals started to fill up due to heat-related illnesses. The official death toll from one week was 465.
People were debating if this was a real crisis, or a media driven crisis. African Americans were 50% more likely to die.
A New Era of Activism Pt. 1
Paul and Anne Ehrlich
Published a book called the population bomb, which was about the growing population of the earth and how it will affect earth’s resources.
Believed the population would outgrow the resources. Thought India would have a population collapse. Dates to Thomas Malthus.
Ideas of environmental justice and conservation are acknowledged within the book. Also, environmental concern with toxic contamination.
“Carrying capacity”
Some believed continued industrialization would lead to a resource decline.
Thought this would lead to the rebirth of the eugenics movement.
As early as 1968 people were thinking about population vs. resources.
Sustainable development (Brundtland Report)
Led by the UN. Tried to figure out a broader solution to the environmental issues.
“Our Common Future” was produced. Defined development as human activity to improve humans’ quality of life in a sustainable and considerate way.
Started to recognize the limits instead of finding a way around them.
Should strive to “resource equity” and that the poor should be given priority in sustainable development.
“Intergenerational equity”
Colin J. Cambell (peak oil)
Author of “End of Cheap Oil”
Graphs showed how if we keep mass producing oil, we will eventually run out. Pitched the idea to switch to different methods of energy.
Cambell tried to signal that oil will be on the decline and demand will raise the prices of oil.
In the last 15 years, oil has become more expensive to transport, which is ironic.
Prius
2000 Toyota Prius was the first developed hybrid electric car. It uses both electric and diesel.
Active concerns about electric vehicles not having enough power.
Critics also mentioned that bussing helps lower a person’s carbon footprint.
The Prius has been successful, however, the number one selling vehicle in the US is the truck.
Kyoto Protocol
Discussed concerns on global warming and talked about ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
First admitted that climate change was occurring, and they needed to reduce the amount of carbon emissions to reduce the effects of climate change.
The US was one of the few countries to not join the Kyoto protocol.
Battle of Seattle (World Trade Organization)
The WTO promoted free trade agreements. Protests happened because of free trade happening with no strings attached.
Environmental activists, trade unions, and indigenous groups came together to protest.
Tried to slow down deforestation, which was the birth of one of the first environmental activist groups.
Anarchism
Anarchists started to graffiti stores and would smash windows. People came to believe that they were primarily about vandalism.
Anarchy = chaos and destruction (people’s speculation)
Anarchism, however, spiked because of industrialization. They wanted to assassinate Henry Clay Fike to hopefully bring a rise in protest industrialization.
Anarchists live by “be the change you want to see in the world”. They typically do not vandalize and instead live in communes and a collective environment. Anarchists started part of the environmentalist movement.
2002 World summit on Sustainable development
Renewed focus on equity.
The United States wanted another developing country to take steps before they do. Expressed worries that only the US will act on this then will be penalized because of it.
Sustainability
Different from conservationism. Sustainability means to replace what is used, still benefiting industry but also keeping the environment in mind. Considers quality of life beyond consumer goods and economic growth.
Considering the environment, economy, society, bear ability, equity, and viability. These are also motivated by global concerns.
A new era of activism, part 2.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Al Gore released a documentary showing speaking engagements at universities.
Wanted to raise awareness around climate change. It was moving and his speeches worked. He connected carbon levels with weather patterns.
This documentary led to a national conversation on climate change, which became polarizing because he was associated with a political party. People assumed that there was a underlying reason why he was advocating for the climate.
350.org (McKibben)
Alarmed by climate change and wrote a novel about it in 1989. He initially called it global warming.
350.org refers to the amount of carbon dioxide parts per million that is at the upper limit of the safe level. Once you get over 350 parts per million of CO2, you have exceeded the safe levels.
Also referred to the tipping point, meaning once we’ve reached that point there is no going back. Called for a movement as large as the civil rights movement. Encourage “civil unrest” to make changes.
Appalachia Rising (2010)
Combination of concerns around MTR and climate change. “If we can’t change this, then we are done for” 🡪 referring to MTR.
Believed ending MTR would help end the use of fossil fuels.
Gasland (2010)
Josh Fox did a low budget documentary called Gasland. Told the story of gas fracking in Delaware.
“Can you light your water on fire?”
Story of the gas companies disregarding locals land and opposition to fracking.
Showed the lack of transparency in the drilling operations, especially with the chemicals used to shoot down and break the shales of land to reach the oil.
“Waste ejection wells” caused a lot of issues as well.
He became a catalyst for the anti-fracking movement.
Keystone XL protest (2011)
Keystone XL pipeline was used for tar sands. This oil pipeline was more of a mining operation getting oil that was trapped in sand.
Bill McKibben pointed out how this was 2 manufacturing processes plus new infrastructure. You must use more energy to drill tar sands. Obama eventually did not sign and listened to the people. However, Trump signed the papers later, then Biden put a stop to it.
Did the same protest as the Appalachia Rising people did.
The first time the Serria club participated in civil disobedience.
Power Shift
This was in Pittsburgh in 2013. Youth led organizations worked together to focus on climate change.
Big focus on fracking and protests around PNC because they financed MTR, eventually they changed their policy.
Paris Agreement (2015)
Conference that focused on controlling climate change by reducing carbon emissions. It was held on earth day to sign the agreement. 195 nations came together to try and avoid the tipping point.
Standing Rock (Dakota Access Pipeline, 2016)
Ladonna Brave Bullard Allard
Stood against another pipeline drilling because it would pollute native land and rivers, specifically the Missouri river.