Description
1980s Environmentalism and How the Reagan-Era Shaped the Natural World
April 24, 2020
This week, environmentalism was in the spotlight, thanks to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Over the decades, environmentalism has adapted to new challenges, like increasing levels of greenhouse gases and a swinging pendulum when it comes to federal policy. But the 1980s exemplified a notable and often consequential shift in how people - from protestors to the president - approached environmental issues. So on this episode of BackStory, Ed and Brian dig into the 1980s and explore how actions in both federal policy and grassroots movements shaped environmentalism.
EARTH DAY AT 50 On April 22, 1970 millions of people around the world participated in a day of activism to promote better care for the environment. For 50 years, Earth Day has promoted principles like sustainable energy and greenhouse gas reduction, despite highs and lows in environmental federal policy. Denis Hayes is the founder of the Earth Day Network and was the first national organizer of the event in 1970. Ed talks with Hayes about the momentum Earth Day sparked in the 1970s and how things shifted with the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
THE REPUBLICAN REVERSAL Jay Turner, an associate professor of environmental studies at Wellesley, says the environment used to be a bipartisan issue. But then in the 1980s, something changed. He tells Brian how and why Republicans started reversing policies on environmental protection during the Reagan era.
BIRTHING THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT In 1982, a line of trucks rolled into Warren County, North Carolina filled with 60,000 tons of soil contaminated with a cancerous chemical called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The state government of North Carolina had designated Warren Co. as the site of a landfill for the PCB-laden soil, but local residents pushed back. Brian talks with Rev. William Kearney, associate pastor at Coley Springs Baptist Church in Warren Co., about how the protest is Warren Co. blended civil rights with environmental health, in turn sparking the environmental justice movement.
SAVING THE OZONE LAYER In the mid 1970s, scientists discovered a global problem that was only getting bigger. It turned out there was a hole in the ozone layer caused by CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, which were commonly found in aerosol items like hairspray, as well as refrigerants and foams. The news alarmed the American public. And by the 1980s, activists called for a global ban on CFCs. The question, though, was what the Reagan administration was willing to do about it. David Doniger is the Senior Strategic Director for the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). In the 1980s, he was an attorney with the NRDC, fighting for a global phaseout of CFCs. He tells Brian about what environmentalists were up against and how the lessons of saving the ozone layer can apply to the crisis of climate change.
