The Environmental Moment

1968-1972

David Stradling, David Stradling

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780295804743
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Conservation & Protection
• Index: Biological Sciences

The Environmental Moment is a collection of documents that reveal the significance of the years 1968-1972 to the environmental movement in the United States. With material ranging from short pieces from the Whole Earth Catalog and articles from the Village Voice to lectures, posters, and government documents, the collection describes the period through the perspective of a diversity of participants, including activists, politicians, scientists, and average citizens. Included are the words of Rachel Carson, but also the National Review, Howard Zahniser on wilderness, Nathan Hare on the Black underclass. The chronological arrangement reveals the coincidence of a multitude of issues that rushed into public consciousness during a critical time in American history.

PART 1

WARNINGS

IN THE DECADES AFTER WORLD WAR II, A VARIETY OF AUTHORS—scientists, politicians, and activists—produced an increasingly urgent literature on the environmental consequences of economic and demographic growth. Many writers began to question the very idea of “progress,” and especially the widely held belief that the American system of capitalism would produce ever-increasing wealth. In the face of growing evidence concerning radioactive fallout from nuclear testing and the potentially ecologically crippling effects of commonly used toxic chemicals, skeptical voices questioned the nation's faith in science and technology.

This part of the book includes documents that warn of impending environmental disaster. Each one urges action. The first document was not widely read, but it concerns an important event—the smog disaster at Donora, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1948. Even though few people encountered the federal government's Public Health Service bulletin concerning the disaster, Donora attracted lasting public attention, and Americans began to recognize that air pollution was more than a nuisance. South of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela, Donora had a population approaching fourteen thousand, many of them Slavic immigrants employed in the steel and zinc plants along the river. During the deadly smog event, steep hillsides and a temperature inversion trapped pollution for five days at the end of October, and more than fourteen hundred residents reported severe effects, mostly shortness of breath and stinging eyes. Later research, conducted by the Division of Industrial Hygiene, concluded that perhaps twenty deaths could be attributed to the smog. The report excerpted in this book describes the “Air Pollution in Donora, PA” in part by describing the cases of all of the hospitalized victims of the smog. Even though these descriptions, just a few of which are included here, spoke to the severity of the problem, the recommendations made at the end of the document speak to a very limited concept of the growing air pollution problem in the United States.

Ten years after the Donora disaster, Paul Shepard wrote an influential essay that appeared in The Atlantic Naturalist, a publication of the Audubon Society of Washington, D.C. At the time Shepard was just beginning a long career of studying the human relationship to the natural world; he went on to become a leading thinker in the Deep Ecology movement. In “The Place of Nature in Man's World,” Shepard used some older language about “conservation problems,” but the problems he describes—related to such toxic chemicals as DDT and strontium 90—were quite new. This 1958 essay reveals a young man making the intellectual journey that many Americans would take as they thought more ecologically about the human relationship to nature. Shepard feared a world awash in poisons, a world that is “not quite fatal,” where urban residents wear masks to protect themselves from toxic air.

The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser expressed a different set of concerns as he addressed the seventh biennial wilderness conference in San Francisco in 1961. Like Shepard, Zahniser was thinking of the long term, but his life-long concern was wilderness, not gas masks for city dwellers. Also like Shepard, Zahniser was an important environmental thinker and author. Indeed, just three years after this speech in San Francisco, Zahniser helped push through Congress the Wilderness Act, of which he was the primary author. In this oft-reprinted speech, Zahniser used some of the language that appeared in the act, including the definition of wilderness as areas where “the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.” In arguing for wilderness, Zahniser also argued for a new definition of progress.

The fourth document included here is by far the most important. The scientist and gifted writer Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring, in 1962. Almost instantly it became essential reading for anyone concerned about the environment, and it has entered the cannon of great American books. Carson's immediate concern focused on the reckless use of very toxic pesticides, most infamously DDT, but Silent Spring also raised broader philosophical questions about the human inclination to dominate nature, to attempt to control the natural world through violence or poison. The first chapter, included here, offered a frightening “Fable for Tomorrow,” envisioning a world greatly diminished by “white granular powder” dropped from above. Carson's writing was so effective in part because she knew how to ask the right questions. In her second chapter, “The Obligation to Endure,” she asks why we would take such risks in spraying deadly chemicals so liberally.

The last document in this part of the book concerns another growing threat: industrial and residential growth. In the early 1960s Consolidated Edison proposed building a power plant at the scenic Storm King Mountain on the shores of the Hudson River. A number of conservation organizations protested vehemently and some of them gathered to create a new group, which became known as Scenic Hudson. Among these activists was the author Carl Carmer, who had written the Hudson volume of the popular Rivers of America series. In 1964, Carmer testified at a hearing before the Federal Power Commission, which by law had to review and approve Con Ed's plan. Carmer described a broader fear felt along the Hudson, not just of an obtrusive power plant but of a “wild irresistible monster” (development) that would suck the beautiful and historical valley into “the maw of the city.” Like Zahniser and Carson, Carmer asked his audience to reconsider the meaning of progress.

AIR POLLUTION IN DONORA, PA

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF THE UNUSUAL SMOG EPISODE OF OCTOBER 1948, PRELIMINARY REPORT

Public Health Bulletin No. 306, 1949, excerpts from pages iii, 31, 32, 36, 37, and 165.

FOREWORD

This study is the opening move in what may develop into a major field of operation in improving the Nation's health. We have realized, during our growing impatience with the annoyance of smoke, that pollution from gases, fumes, and microscopic particles was also a factor to be reckoned with. But it was not until the tragic impact of Donora that the Nation as a whole became aware that there might be a serious danger to health from air contaminants.

Before the Donora episode, there had been only one other similar incident in history. In 1930, in the Meuse Valley of Belgium, a period of intense fog in a heavy industrial area resulted in the death of 60 persons. Although several studies were made of those fatalities, the Donora study is the first thorough investigation into every facet of an air-pollution problem, including health effects as well as deaths.

The Donora report has completely confirmed two beliefs we held at the outset of the investigation. It has shown with great clarity how little fundamental knowledge exists regarding the possible effects of atmospheric pollution on health. Secondly, Donora has emphasized how long-range and complex is this job of overcoming the problem of air pollution—after we get the basic knowledge of its effects. This intensive piece of work by the Division of Industrial Hygiene of the Public Health Service will have its greatest value as the blueprint for our plan of proceeding to get that knowledge.

Our first step now, of course, is immediate basic research. We need to investigate for instance, what long-range effect continued low concentrations of polluted air has on the health of individuals—not only healthy individuals, but those with chronic diseases and the aged and children. We know nothing about the indirect effect of air pollution on persons with diseases other than those of the respiratory tract. We also need immediate research into another indisputable effect of air pollution: its ability to shut out some of the healthful rays of the sun.

When we find the answers to all of these unknowns, we can proceed to the problem of eliminating the causes. As a proof that air pollution is a health matter, as a model for future studies in air pollution, and as an important phase of our increasing efforts in the field of environmental health, this study will be invaluable.

Leonard A. Scheele
Surgeon General

HOSPITALIZED PERSONS

About 50 persons were hospitalized during the smog period; the records of 32 were obtained to study certain phases of the acute smog illness not available to us from other sources. The hospital records were in various stages of completeness from the point of view of studies made of the patients. The cases are presented in detail at the end of this section. The group consisted of 25 males and 7 females with ages ranging from 8 to 76 years. More than two-thirds of these persons were over 55 years old. There were three non-white persons hospitalized….

Case A-1, age 56, white, male, married, born in Czechoslovakia. In 1909 he came to Donora where he worked in the wire plant until his retirement 8 years ago because of heart disease.

His acute illness began in the morning of S-day [Wednesday, October 27], with dyspnoea [shortness of breath], orthopnoea [the inability to breath while lying flat], and a productive cough. Since there was no improvement, he was hospitalized on day No. 1.

The physical examination revealed that he was in acute respiratory distress. His head and neck were negative except for cyanosis of the mucous membranes [a blue hue caused by lack of oxygen]…. He was placed in an oxygen tent upon admission to the hospital and was given 2 ml. of aminophyllin intramuscularly, sedatives, and a liquid diet. Within 2 days (on day No. 3) his dyspnoea improved, cough diminished, and cyanosis disappeared…. Case A-2, age 47, white, female, married, housewife, born in Czechoslovakia. She came to the United States in 1921 and lived in Donora since 1926.

She became acutely ill on the morning of S-day with a sense of painful constriction in her chest. The chest pain became worse that evening and she was unable to sleep. On day No. 1 she became dyspnoeic, orthopnoeic, cyanotic, and developed a nonproductive cough. Despite medical attention her symptoms persisted and she was hospitalized on day No. 2….

She vomited clear fluid several times during the first hospital day. She then made a rapid recovery….

In an interview at a later date the patient stated that she also had the following complaints during the acute illness: She detected a foul odor; had an acid taste, headache, and weakness. The weakness persisted for 2 weeks….

Case A-23, age 47, Negro, male, married, steel plant worker, born in the United States, was hospitalized on day No. 4 after becoming ill on day No. 2.

On physical examination he was found acutely ill and semi-comatose. The examination of the chest revealed a few scattered rales anteriorly and posteriorly, and limited expansion of the chest….

He was given penicillin and placed in an oxygen tent. He made a rapid recovery and was discharged on the third hospital day with a diagnosis of bronchial asthma and tracheobronchitis.

Case A-29, age 65, white, male, widower, born in Czechoslovakia, resident of Webster, coal miner and zinc plant worker, was hospitalized on day No. 14.

His illness began on the morning of day No. 3 with dyspnoea, chest pain, and ankle oedema, which progressed after that date. He was a known bronchial asthmatic….

He was placed in an oxygen tent and given penicillin. He did not respond to the therapy but became progressively worse. He died at 10:45 p.m. on December 22, 1948.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Reduce the gaseous contaminants especially sulfur dioxide and particulate matter discharged from the sinter plant Cottrell stacks.

2. Reduce the particulate matter and carbon monoxide from the zinc smelters.

3. Reduce the particulate matter and sulfur dioxide discharged from the waste heat boiler stacks.

4. Reduce the discharge of oxides of nitrogen and acid mists from Gay-Lussac stacks.

5. Reduce the amount of particulate matter and carbon monoxide from the waste blast furnace gas.

6. Reduce the amount of carbon monoxide discharged from the stove and sinter stacks.

7. Reduce the amount of particulate matter discharged from the sinter plant and open hearth stacks.

8. Reduce the amount of particulate matter discharged from the waste heat and blast furnace boilers and the sulfur dioxide from the waste heat, steel and wire plant boilers.

9. Reduce the amount of particulate matter discharged from domestic heating systems, steam locomotives and steamboats.

10. Establish a program of weather forecasts to alert the community of impending adverse weather conditions so that adequate measures can be taken to protect the populace.

PAUL SHEPARD

THE PLACE OF NATURE IN MAN'S WORLD

THE ATLANTIC NATURALIST (APRIL 1958)

Excerpts from pages 85–88. Used with permission from the Audubon Naturalist Society, available at http://www.audubonnaturalist.org

The place of nature in man's world is a title borrowed from E. G. Murray of McGill University. He was describing to the St. James Literary Society the enormous impact of the smallest microbes on the destiny of man. There is a hint of sarcasm in such a title, in the image of nature shifting for herself in the humanized landscape. It shows the naturalist's rueful recognition of topsy-turvy values in a technological society. Its irony stems from the deep conviction that we do not change natural laws nor conquer nature, only impose ourselves on it and, in the end, suffer for whatever damage we do.

Of the two great conservation problems now before us—a population explosion and the poisoning of our environment—the second is a question of our direct action in nature. It is amenable only to an approach which does not deal piecemeal with resources. The biochemistry of this corruption is much too fundamental to isolate itself in soil, water, or wildlife. Pollution is just as much a product of capsule thinking in conservation as it is of exploitive disregard for the future and the habitat.

Our environment continues to become a more poisoned place. The self-cleansing capacity of the air, water, and soil is all that has saved us from the fate of a yeast population in a vat of cider—where it manufactures alcohol until it poisons itself. Mere diffusion and dilution would long ago have ceased to absorb our production of toxic wastes were there not compensatory, purifying natural machinery. According to the Department of Agriculture, we are still adding silt to the air and to streams in volumes comparable to the 1930's. Erosion is not only a problem of topsoil loss, it is a pollution problem. There is serious doubt expressed by the U.S. Department of Public Health that the self-cleansing ability of the atmosphere will stand up under the new addition of industrial wastes. Our larger cities now wear a permanent gray cap of toxic gasses and materials in suspension. These substances are chemically active and subject to transformation by radiation, as vividly indicated in the annals of recent outbreaks of respiratory ailments. Aside from the enormous bulk of combustion residue, there are organic materials from the plastics and other industries, and volatile acids which kill vegetation as well as animals. The country is 6,600 municipal sewage units short, and lacks 3,500 industrial units. Oil on the sea kills thousands of sea birds and other life.

Added to the soil and water, as well as the air, we now have continuing use of the traditional metallic poisons, plus the new organic insecticides, the chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as DDT, and the organic phosphates, such as parathion. The latter are so powerful that in pure form the minimum dose to kill a rat cannot be measured. DDT, which promised ten years ago to rid every dairy barn of horseflies, is no longer being used around dairies partly because the flies have become immune, but mostly because it accumulates and its toxicity is undiminished after passage through the cow in whose milk it appears. It is now annually sprayed over cities from New Haven to St. Louis to kill bark beetles and has been blanketed over extensive forest areas in the West and North.

The pollution of the atmosphere as high as 40,000 feet has taken a new twist with the radioactive residues of nuclear explosion, debris which comes down with gravity, with rain, and with dust. Unlike the other poisons, this new one yields inheritable effects. But like them, its danger is regarded in terms of its intensity of application. The concept of a threshold dosage, the maximum permissible amount that a human can take without pathological symptoms, is the crux of a score of running controversies, from the consumption of DDT in meat and vegetables to the absorption of a strontium-90 from fallout.

The defect in the expiatory thinking behind a “maximum safe dosage” is, first, that the more we know the more it is revised downward. A “safe” dose of DDT yesterday may poison our livers tomorrow. “Safe” roentgens received by X-ray technicians earlier are now known to have increased their chances of defective offspring. Secondly, it is wrong because it idealizes life with only its head out of water, inches above the limits of toleration of the corruption of its own environment. Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world...