Environmental Awareness In America Essay

Environmental Awareness Throughout America

Environmentalism, now a widely contemplated topic throughout America, did not get the public’s support and awareness until after the Industrial Revolution with the help of beloved American President Theodore Roosevelt. With the boom of industrialization came the slow deterioration of the American environment1 to make room for the ambitions of man to further industrial success. This need had kickstarted a movement in which the environment was forgotten admist progress. However, key figures such as President Rosevelt and many others would fight hard to reverse these effects, raise awareness, and preserve the Earth and it’s inhabitants.

Before environmental awareness had its peak in American history with President Theodore Roosevelt, pro-environmental figures had already begun to speak out and aware their peers. Environmentalism in America had been unpopular but apparent in the very beginnings of the first industrial revolution; pre-19th century. Key enivronmentalist and conservationist figures began to arise who are looked upon today as some of America’s first environmentalist intellectuals. One major event happened in 1854, with the publishing of Walden by Henry David Thoreau2 that linked the effect the environment had on human life. This crucial novel written by Thoreau became an influential piece for environmentalists years to come thus Thoreau coining the nickname “father of environmentalism.”3 Similarly just ten years later in 1864, George Perkins Marsh, a Virginia congressman published the book Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action which also reflects on the harmful altercations human’s make on the environment through industrial progress and how it may b...

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...s in order to educate the public on the natural world and reasons to preserve it. “Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the United States, promoted conservation and the wise use of natural resources more than any chief executive in American history. As President, Roosevelt is remembered for setting aside national forests, initiating a national wildlife refuge system, and advocating the wise use of farmland to prevent erosion.”8 This quote briefly describes the several problems conquered and acts achieved by Roosevelt during his presidency which later impacted the future generations of the environmentalist movement in America.

After President Theodore Roosevelt left office in 1909, the environmental movement continued but slowed it’s pace. The conservation and movement chugged along with major happenings like the National Park Service being created in 1916