The Early Environmental Movement
America in the 18th and 19th Century was heading down a dangerous path. Exploitation of natural resources was widespread leading to the rise of an environmental movement. The early environmental movement was spearheaded by the works of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot along with the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. By the 20th century, two major groups in the environmental movement emerged: the conservationists and preservationists.
Preservationist - To protect our wilderness completely so the sacred places live forever!
"These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar." -John Muir.
"Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep. This grossly destructive commercial scheme has long been planned and urged (though water as pure and abundant can be got from outside of the people's park."-John Muir on Hetch Hetchy Valley. |
Utilitarian Conservationist - To use, manage, and replace our natural resources!"the fundamental principle of the whole conservation policy is that of use, to take every part of the land and its resources and put it to that use in which it will serve the most people."
-Gifford Pinchot "Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men." -Gifford Pinchot "Then, if there is, as the engineers tell us, no other source of supply that is anything like so reasonably available as this one; if this is the best, and, within reasonable limits of cost, the only means of supplying San Francisco with water, we come straight to the question of whether the advantage of leaving this valley in a state of nature is greater than the advantage of using it for the benefit of the city of San Francisco." -Gifford Pinchot |