Unit 2 environmental movement text 2.1 Conservation Movement

I. Read the text thoroughly and point out the most important facts.

Environmental movement is a post-industrial era phenomenon. It started in the United States in the second half of the 19th century as a conservation movement and was initiated by educated members of society who understood the dangers of resource exploitation. The main focus of the conservation movement was the protection of wildlife.

For more than two centuries Americans believed that their natural resources were inexhaustible. Indians with their deep rooted respect of nature and their traditional concern for it were decreased in population and driven to reservations. The herds of buffalo were estimated from 25 to 60 million in 1800 and in 1889. Only 541 buffalo remained in the entire country. The forests suffered the most. Timber was widely used and huge areas of forests were destroyed.

In 1864 George Perkins Marsh published the book "Of Man and Nature" and called attention to a growing environmental deterioration. In this book, Marsh emphasized the fact that people were making global and

often permanent and disastrous changes in the environment. He stressed the importance of good environmental management and environmental protection.

Growing environmental awareness led to establishing in 1879 the United States Geological Survey, It began its activity with studying natural wealth on public lands. In 1887 a forestry division was established in the department of Agriculture. In 1891 the Forest Reserve Act passed the Congress. It authorized the President to keep timber lands in public ownership. The same year 36 million acres {14.56 hectares) were reserved. The first National Park — Yellowstone — was established in 1872. Then several more were established mostly in the West.

It can be said that the conservation movement in America started, on the one hand, as forest protection, on the other, as some form of outdoor activity by people who loved nature and cared about it. The rise of the American conservation movement is closely associated with the formation of Sierra Club, Audubon Society, and the initiatives of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Sierra Club and Audubon Society are still very active in today's environmental movement. Audubon Society is one of the US oldest and best known environmental organizations. It was founded in 1886 by George Cird Grinnell and named after an American ornithologist John James Audubon. It is a nonprofit organization with 1.1 million members. It operates 100 wildlife sanctuaries and 6 nature centres, as well as camps and other educational programs. The Sierra Club was founded in the spring of 1892 by a determined group of men and women, led by the conservationist John Muir. In 1890, due in large part to the efforts of Muir, an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park, a portion of the Sierra Nevada mountains that stretches along California's eastern edge. Muir was also personally involved in the creation of Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon national parks. Muir deservedly is often called by Americans the "Father of Our National Park System". In its first conservation effort, the Sierra Club lead campaign to defeat a proposed reduction in the boundaries of Yosemite National Park. In 1995 Club delivered over a million signatures on the Environmental Bill of Rights.

When Theodore Roosevelt became the President in 1901, he declared at once his interest in promoting forestry, irrigation, and conservation measures. Between 1906 and 1908 Roosevelt added 148 million acres (59.89 ha) to the forest reserves. Roosevelt included in the territory of reserves not only forest areas but the areas containing coal, phosphates, and waterpower sites. The President wanted very much the states to support his conservation policy. In 1908 he called a conference of governors. The conference recommended that the federal government should retain ownership of all public lands containing minerals. As a result of the conference conservation commissions were created in 41 states.

In the last decade of the 19^th century the federal government started to set aside mineral and timber reserves. The government also stopped selling water power sites. Instead they began to lease these areas. In 1911, Congress approved a program of land acquisition under which the government purchased mountain land in the East to preserve its forests and prevent floods. Several projects were started on the West to prevent flood control and irrigate the lands. Nobody at that time talked about air or water pollution, soil or water preservation. It was too early for that. The country needs to reach a certain stage in its economic development to be able to take care of air and water pollution problems as well as many others. The country needs to possess certain economic mobility and be rich enough to take care of its natural resources, to put some of them aside, and not to use them to immediate income. The public should be educated enough to realize the dangers of environmental degradation and urge governments on all the levels — from local to national — to act upon the existing problems. It is very important to have educated and dedicated professionals who are willing to work as advocates for spreading the specific knowledge they have about environment. The conservation movement was born as an initiative of some educated men of the society and it remained as such till the 1970s when it changed overnight into a popular environmental movement with a lot of press coverage and new environmental organizations.

Environmental связанный с окружающей средой,

Conservation экологический, охрана природы ^охранение

Inexhaustible неисчерпаемый

Deterioration ухудшение

Environmental awareness понимание особенностей окружающей среды и ее

влияния на человека Sanctuary заповедник, также reserve

Pollution загрязнение

Degradation ухудшение, снижение

TEXT 2.2 Birth of the Environmental Movement