environmental history: story of change over time in human beings' relationship with our environment

• what is the biological relationship of human beings to the environment?
  
• what are our ideas about our relationship with our environment?
• how technology has changed it
• what do we care to do as individuals? (This is part of politics if broadly defined)
  
• what does the government do about environmental issues?  (policy)
• not just about what happened but what can we learn from that to do better in the future
  

in a course about environmental history--how important is politics? (how do we do something)

• politics includes several different things:
• political system--how decisions are made
• policies--what do we want to achieve and what do we think is the best approach
• working out the details of laws and enforcement
  
• partisan politics--the debate between political parties and candidates
• public opinion and public action
  
• public opinion drives what happens though it doesn't shape all the details
  
• the political system is a major way we do things collectively--it allows us to take action on topics where people disagree
  
• we use laws to make a commitment to do things differently
• regulation can be fairer than voluntary standards
  
• but how laws are written and how they work is the result of a lot of decisions
• how important are environmental issues in political debate (between Democrats and Republicans)?
• our changing sense of rights and responsibilities--how much can the government tell you what you are allowed to do with your land?  what do you think we should do
  

What are the possible approaches to getting people to wear seatbelts?

• persuade people to wear seatbelts (probably by advertising)
• some people ignore the arguments
• some people focus on the few examples where it might hurt instead of help
  
• pass a law requiring people to wear seatbelts (can this be the only reason for a traffic stop--law in sometimes says not)
  
• design the car so the driver has to wear a seatbelt
• give people incentives

Laws are effective, but if we try to do everything by laws we take away too much freedom.
For some things we have to persuade individuals to behave differently by their own choice.

• get people to care
• persuade people that their actions do make a difference
• teach people what will make a difference
• show people the benefits
  

If individual choices are as important as government policies, the larger issue is concern

• something like recycling requires both government services and individual action
• how much should be required by law, how much do we leave to individuals to do the right thing
  

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what has changed?

• attitudes
• individual values and behavior
• public opinion
  
• government policies

History in a nutshell

• In 1929 most people simply thought that technological progress was good
  
• the Great Depression raised some questions--it was in part due to overproduction
• the atomic bomb and fallout from nuclear tests raised more questions
• the prosperity of the 1950s started people thinking about quality of life but environmental problems were usually seen as the cost of progress
• in the 1960s these issues become clearer (we are harming the environment and need to change that), eg. Silent Spring
  
• by 1970 the environment was in fashion--Earth Day
• by the 1980s practices were changing radically, for example at the Forest Service
• by the 1990s interest had stabilized (no longer growing)
• environmental movement split apart and declined
  
• today concern over global warming is leading people to focus again on action, both individual and global
  

what the government can do to help the environment is limited by: public opinion, property rights, costs, what is scientifically feasible...

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Could you write a history of the environment in the last 40 years around the key laws?  You would leave out an awful lot.

• laws matter, they shape what we do and don't do (eg. endangered species act)
• but public opinion is a key force in what laws are passed
• our views of rights and responsibilities affect what laws can do
• it won't do you any good to pass a law to do what is scientifically impossible at along
• you need science to figure out what actions will best help a problem
• science is always changing
• experts disagree
• if you want to prevent a problem it is usually necessary to act before all the scientific answers are in
  

We want contradictory things--

• we want a nice environment but we don't want to pay more taxes
• lots of people want to live outside the city so you get sprawl
• we don't want to face that we don't have unlimited resources
  

Are we ready to face limits?--we can't continue to go on using more and more energy and resources, we are going to have to accept at some point that we need to make do with less

• we do have the idea of preserving wilderness and open space before it is gone
• we accept limits on hunting and fishing
  
• we haven't fully absorbed the idea that the world can absorb only so much pollution
• related area--rationing medical care (example: until the late 1980s if you were over 50 you generally weren't eligible for kidney dialysis in England)
• are we going to run out of oil?
  • look at known reserves and calculate when that will run out
  • we are about at the peak, production is going to start to decline
  • some people say there is a lot more oil that we can discover and learn to extract
  • oil is still a finite resource (except according to one weird theory)
  • consumption keeps going up so we are using it up faster and faster
  • U.S. has 3% of world's population and uses 25% of the world's oil
  • 20% of the world's population uses 80% of its energy
    
• global warming may stop us from using so much oil before we actually run out
  
• consumption cannot continue to increase indefinitely--we don't face that