Movement Civil Rights and Social Transformation

The Environmental Movement

From Silent Spring to Earth Day and the EPA

1962 – c. 1973

The whole Earth photographed from space by the Apollo 17 crew — The Blue Marble, NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans, 7 December 1972. Via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

In the 1960s, growing alarm about pollution, pesticides, and the destruction of open space produced a mass environmental movement. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) warned of the dangers of pesticides to wildlife and people. The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, was, in the words of the American Yawp, the largest demonstration in history. A burst of lawmaking followed: the National Environmental Policy Act, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and new laws to protect air, water, and endangered species.

Key facts

Date: 1962 – c. 1973
Dating note: From Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) through the wave of environmental laws of the early 1970s.
Silent Spring: Rachel Carson, 1962
Earth Day: April 22, 1970
NEPA: National Environmental Policy Act, signed 1970; required environmental impact statements
EPA: Created 1970; first administrator William Ruckelshaus confirmed December 2, 1970
Other laws: Clean Air Act amendments (1970), and laws protecting water and endangered species

Why it matters

The environmental movement made protecting nature and public health a permanent responsibility of the federal government.

Goals

Environmentalists sought clean air and water, controls on pesticides and toxic chemicals, protection of wilderness and wildlife, and government accountability for the environmental effects of its projects.

Strategies

The movement grew from Americans’ postwar enjoyment of the outdoors and from science-based warnings like Carson’s. Dramatic events — such as the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland bursting into flames — drew attention. Activists organized mass demonstrations such as Earth Day and lobbied for legislation at every level of government.

Opposition

Chemical companies attacked Silent Spring, suggesting it was the product of an emotional woman rather than a scientist. Industries resisted the cost of regulation; President Nixon, while creating the EPA, impounded billions of dollars Congress had authorized for the Clean Air Act and subjected environmental rules to cost-benefit analysis.

Achievements

President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970, requiring environmental impact statements for federal projects, and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Amendments to the Clean Air Act required reductions in automobile emissions. Laws protecting water, endangered species, and natural areas followed.

Unresolved questions

Debates over the economic costs of regulation, already visible in the Nixon years, have kept environmental policy contested.

Study this entry

Check your understanding

Try answering in your own words, then open the answer.

1.What did the movement want?Show answerHide
Environmentalists sought clean air and water, controls on pesticides and toxic chemicals, protection of wilderness and wildlife, and government accountability for the environmental effects of its projects.
From “Goals” above.
2.How did it pursue its goals?Show answerHide
The movement grew from Americans’ postwar enjoyment of the outdoors and from science-based warnings like Carson’s. Dramatic events — such as the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland bursting into flames — drew attention.
From “Strategies” above.
3.Who opposed it, and how?Show answerHide
Chemical companies attacked Silent Spring, suggesting it was the product of an emotional woman rather than a scientist.
From “Opposition” above.
4.What did it achieve?Show answerHide
President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970, requiring environmental impact statements for federal projects, and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Amendments to the Clean Air Act required reductions in automobile emissions.
From “Achievements” above.

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How this connects to the rest of the atlas.

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Richard Nixon

Thirty-seventh president: opened relations with China, then became the only president to resign

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Progressivism

Reformers confront the problems of industrial America, c. 1890s–1920

Sources

1.
The American Yawp, “The Sixties”
The American Yawp (eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright; Stanford University Press) · Scholarly · cited for civil rights, Great Society, Vietnam, social movements
2.
The Origins of EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · Institutional · cited for EPA founding, environmental awakening
3.
Richard Nixon: Domestic Affairs
Miller Center, University of Virginia · Scholarly · cited for environmental policy, Watergate, resignation

Image credits

The Blue Marble, NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans, 7 December 1972. Via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source

Written for American History Atlas from the sources above. See how entries are researched.

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