Environmental Protection Policy and Experience in the U.S. and China's Western Regions by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

1950s-1960s

The United States: Budding and Awakening

At the end of the 19th century, the United States completed the process of modern industrialization. Total industrial output value began to exceed the total agricultural output value. At the end of the 1920s, the realization of electrification began. In the 1930s, the United States suffered a serious economic recession, along with natural disasters also occurred. Out of this crisis, President Franklin Roosevelt took a number of measures, one of which was resource protection legislation, providing work as a form of relief, such as planting trees and grass and building irrigation. The most outstanding effective measures were the comprehensive treatment of the Tennessee River Valley, the Great Plains dust governance of the United States, and the building of a series of water conservancy and hydropower projects in the western area.

In the 1950s, the invention of the transistor caused the United States another scientific and technological revolution. Keypad telephones, stereo radio, drying/washing machines, air conditioners and frozen food emerged at that time. The U.S. economy had experienced unprecedented prosperity. As the Americans enjoyed the wealth, a blemish of the industrial society appeared gradually. Water pollution, nuclear pollution, chemical pollution, and air and noise pollution caused by the automotive industry, followed the rapid economic development.

The water pollution control law, which was promulgated in 1948, marked the beginning of the federal government’s involvement in environmental protection. However, the environmental pollution of the United States did not become a global issue at that time. The lack of the financial capacity of the federal government limited environmental protection in this period as well. Local governments took care of most of the management responsibilities and focused on the protection of water resources. In conclusion, the effects in different areas varied a lot.

In the 1960s, environmental degradation as well as environmental consciousness was generated among the elite of the United States. In 1962 Silent Spring, written by American marine biologist Rachel Carson, was published with a large number of facts. She demonstrated that industrial pollution damages the life on the earth including human beings and stated that the industrial revolution caused ecological damage and first alarmed the world to the seriousness of environmental protection. Carson said in the book: “For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.”11 The book was widely read and made the public concerned about contamination. In 1972, Carson’s work facilitated the ban of DDT in the United States.

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