Environmental Changes in the Law
Uploaded by BebeMcC on Apr 04, 2022
In the middle of the 20th century, Americans started to see a change in their environment, not a welcome change. Many different problems became evident in their water, air, land, and animal population. These problems encouraged post-world war Americans to push their politicians to make changes. By the end of the century, laws had been passed to stop the proliferation of pollution and the decimation of wildlife.
The 1950s were a hallmark decade for environmental protection. President Eisenhower confronted air pollution when he gave his State of the Union address before Congress in 1955. He wanted the government to study "effective methods of control." (Eisenhower 1955); by the middle of the same year, the Air Pollution Control Act passed is passed by Congress. The Act is the very first piece of legislation to confront air pollution. At the end of the decade, Congress began to deal with air and water pollution by giving federal government regulators control over individual states when the health of the American public is concerned.
In 1962 Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring. This book becomes the catalyst of the environmental movement we now have today. Silent Spring condemns the use of pesticides, and by the time Ms. Carson writes her book, the amount of DDT found in a human had tripled. But, of course, the pesticide and chemical companies of the United States dislike and attack the book, even going so far as to advertise that "DDT is good for meeee…" (Penn Salt Chemical Ad). These ads drove the sale of Silent Spring and encouraged the government to start investigating the claims made in the book; by the 1970s, DDT was banned from all use in farming around the world.
The environmental movement is picking up steam at this point in America. While about 83 million Americans own cars, science is starting to prove the association between smog and car emissions. (Ruth Reck Ph.D. UC Davis Atmospheric Sciences) States like California pass local laws regulating car emissions, and the federal government steps in and passes the Clean Air Act. Congress designates $95 million to continue studying and cleaning up interstate air pollution, and the Clean Air Act also starts to enforce and regulate emissions standards for businesses that pollute.
The next important thing to address is the Endangered Species Act, often called the "Crown Jewel" (Endangered.org) of America's environmental laws. The Act allows to list and protect...