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I think you had people with environmentalist views prior to the label. In fact plenty of people would have identified as "naturalists" in the early twentieth ce

I think you had people with environmentalist views prior to the label. In fact plenty of people would have identified as "naturalists" in the early twentieth century. Ken Burns documentary on the national parks shows this pretty well.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago
Oh, absolutely. But they were unusual. Often kind of grumpy and a bit misanthropic. Burns' films do seem to file out a few heroes ( meaning there seem fewer even than they were ) but there were not that many other people, especially in government, who felt that way. You had many more "man has Dominion Over Nature" types, like Floyd Dominy of the Bureau of Reclamation. Also; within Burns' film ( which is, as always, excellent ) note the rather large changes in management style over the years - and we're still learning . The part about how litter alone caused problems was pretty entertaining. I'm old enough to remember when people just littered. What's different now is that environmentalism to some level is now nearly universal. Even people who oppose the EPA have some belief in the importance of the environment.
- sedachv 10y ago
  > Oh, absolutely. But they were unusual. Often kind of grumpy and a bit misanthropic. Stop projecting. Animal conservation was a hugely popular movement in the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States. John Muir and Guy Bradley were national heroes, and those are just two that we remember today. Roosevelt's environmental policies received wide public support. Campaigns against hats made out of birds grew so large and so quickly that this almost-universal fashion trend ended entirely and for good by the 1920s (http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/15/422860307/hats-off-to-women-who-saved-the-birds http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/15/4228...), something that hasn't happened today with anti-fur and anti-ivory campaigns.

ArkyBeagle 10y ago

Oh, absolutely. But they were unusual. Often kind of grumpy and a bit misanthropic. Burns' films do seem to file out a few heroes ( meaning there seem fewer even than they were ) but there were not that many other people, especially in government, who felt that way. You had many more "man has Dominion Over Nature" types, like Floyd Dominy of the Bureau of Reclamation. Also; within Burns' film ( which is, as always, excellent ) note the rather large changes in management style over the years - and we're still learning . The part about how litter alone caused problems was pretty entertaining. I'm old enough to remember when people just littered. What's different now is that environmentalism to some level is now nearly universal. Even people who oppose the EPA have some belief in the importance of the environment.

sedachv 10y ago
> Oh, absolutely. But they were unusual. Often kind of grumpy and a bit misanthropic. Stop projecting. Animal conservation was a hugely popular movement in the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States. John Muir and Guy Bradley were national heroes, and those are just two that we remember today. Roosevelt's environmental policies received wide public support. Campaigns against hats made out of birds grew so large and so quickly that this almost-universal fashion trend ended entirely and for good by the 1920s (http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/15/422860307/hats-off-to-women-who-saved-the-birds http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/15/4228...), something that hasn't happened today with anti-fur and anti-ivory campaigns.