History 138 - Class 43

History 138: Science in the U.S.

Class 43 (12/2)
Ecological thinking
(There is no Class 42.)

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Outline

Ecology or environmentalism?

Roots of ecology
Disciplinary origins and presumptions
American examples: Forbes, Clements
Consolidating a community?

Conservation and resource management
The varmint problem and game management
Leopold's "land ethic"

Post-WWII environmental concerns
Radiation and fallout
Pollution control
Social ideologies

The meanings of ecological thinking
Environmentalists and resource managers
Different ecologies
Objectivity

Names and Terms

Primary	Secondary
oikos (Greek for "household") Stephen Forbes (1844-1930) Frederic Clements (1874-1926) ecosystem Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) A Sand County Almanac (1949) Environmental Protection Agency (fd. 1970) Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Silent Spring (1962) DDT	"The lake as a microcosm" (1877) climax community environmental impact statement Chicago School of animal ecology population ecology systems ecology

Assignment

President's Science Advisory Committee, "Pollution," in American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, ed. Roderick Frazier Nash (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990), 195-201.

How is this report similar to and different from the progressive-era conservation movement?
What had changed objectively, in the production of pollution, since the nineteenth century? Was it principally a technical or a social change?
What had changed in people's perceptions?