研究美国环境史

自那时以来，这段时间内发生的三次主要的文化革命是一万到一万两千年前的农业革命，大约275年前开始的工业医学革命，大约50年前的信息化和全球化革命。这些变化通过三种方式增加我们对环境的影响，例如给我们更多的能量和技术让我们去开拓土地资源满足我们基本的需求，降低了人口的膨胀，它大大增加了我们的环境污染和环境恶化。

2.描述美国部落时代和边境时代，早期养护时代和环保时代的环境史。

美国的环境史可以分为四个时期，部落，，边境，保护和环保。一万年前，五百万到一千万人口的部落他们的生活方式是狩猎和可持续农业，对环境基本没有影响。在早期养护时代保护主义者像亨利•大卫•梭罗和乔治•珀金斯沼泽呼吁保护公众荒野地区。从1870年到1930年，联邦政府开始通过几次行动保护资源，如1891年的森林储备法等等。

1.The three major cultural changes that have occurred during this time period since then was the agricultural revolution which began around 10,000-12,000 years ago, the industrial- medical revolution which began about 275 years ago and the information and globalization revolution which began about 50 years ago. These changes increased our impact with the environment in three ways such as giving us more energy and new technologies that alter and control more of the planet to meet the basic needs, lowering expansion of the human population, and it greatly increased in the resource we use such as pollution and environmental degradation.

2. Describe the environmental history of the United States in terms of the Tribal and Frontier Eras, the Early Conservation Era, and the Environmental Era.

The environmental history of the United States can be divided into four eras which are the tribal, frontier, conservation, and environmental. Five to ten million tribal people had a low environmental impact for at least 10,000 years and their lifestyle was hunting and gathering sustainable agriculture. During the Early Conservation Era conservationists like Henry David Thoreau and George Perkins Marsh urged protection to public wilderness areas. Between 1870 and 1930, the federal government started to pass several acts to protect the resources such as the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 and much more. President Theodore Roosevelt also played a huge role in making Congress pass these acts. During the environmental era this was the reawakening and proved to improve the environmental quality. Rachael Carson researched the effects of the pesticides and wrote Silent Spring a book talking about how harmful it is to the environment and human beings. Public awareness grew and human beings are much more careful about the pollution and the loss for wildlife species. Earth Day became a huge impact on the society too. People from all over keep a lookout for all the harmful creations.

3. Compare slash-and-burn agricultural practices with the modern advanced forms of farming. State the advantages and disadvantages of each.

To prepare the land for planting, the hunter-gatherers cleared small patches of tropical forest by cutting down the trees and other plantations and then burning it underbrush. The ashes used are then fertilized and this is the slash-and-burn cultivation. This method lasted for no more than 5 years. These early farmers had fairly little impact on the environmentthough. Their dependence was mostly on human muscle power and crude stone or stick tools meant that they could cultivate only a small amount of their population. The modern day advancement is way better than the slash and burn practices because today we have mechanical machines that are durable and work way faster than the old methods. It saves time and it doesn't require humans to work. The advantage of the slash and burn method is that it provides the fertilizer once it is done being burned. The disadvantage of it is that you cannot control the fire and it might burn all of the area also it requires a long time and a lot of people to watch it. The advantage of the modern day farming is that it is done much quicker with the help of the machines. The disadvantage is that it is more costly.

4. List individuals who made major contributions to conservation/environmental movements in the United States and briefly describe these contributions.

Two early conservationists were Henry David Thoreau and George Perkins Marsh. Thoreau was shocked at the lost of all the wild species so he gained a better knowledge of nature by living in it for two years and then wrote a book called "Life in the Woods" about it. George Perkins Marsh was a scientist and member of Congress from Vermont who published "Man and Nature" which helped the legislators and citizens see the other side and need for the resource conservation. With the help of these two early conservationists, Congress started passing Acts to prevent the harmful wrongdoings to the environment. Later on, President Theodore Roosevelt played a huge role in trying to help the environment once again and he started to pass Acts such as the National Park Service Act. After he died, other Presidents also tried to conserve what they could. Rachel Carson, on the other hand played a huge impact on the pesticides involving insects. She wrote a book Silent Spring, saying that it is harmful and it is killing animals and humans when it is being sprayed on the crops that we eat.

5. Define environmental backlash. Briefly describe the effects of this backlash.

Environmental backlash was an anti-environment movement formed to weaken or do away with many of the environmental laws that were passed in the 1960s and 1970s, and to destroy all the political effectiveness of the movement. People during that time created this movement because they were very in denial. They didn't believe in all the acts that were passed by the Congress in order to conserve the environment. The effect of this backlash was when President Reagan started to cut back on the reforms. He didn't believe in this either. He cut federal funding for research on energy conservation and renewable energy resources and eliminated tax incentives for residential solar energy and energy conservation enacted during the Carter administration. He became a very popular president. And in 1988, anindustry-backed anti-environmental coalition called the wise-use movement was formed. Its goals were to weaken of repeal most of the country's environmental laws and regulations and destroy the effectiveness of the movement in the U.S.

6. Summarize the key environmental events of the 1980s in the U.S.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan became the president and he was a self-declared sagebrush rebel and advocate of less federal control. During his eight years in office he angered environmentalists by not taking in any consideration for environmental and public land regulations and policies. He cut federal funding for research on energy conservation and renewable energy resources and eliminated tax incentives for residential solar energy and energy conservation enacted during the Carter administration. And in 1988, an industry-backed anti-environmental coalition called the wise-use movement was formed. Its goals were to weaken of repeal most of the country's environmental laws and regulations and destroy the effectiveness of the movement in the U.S. Upon all this, in 1989, George H. W. Bush promised to bring back the environmental conservation works. He received a lot of criticism from environmentalists for not providing leadership on such key environmental issues as population growth, global warming, and loss of biodiversity. He allowed some environmental laws to be undercut by the powerful influence of industry, mining, ranching, and real estate development industries.

7. Compare and contrast the environmental policies of the Clinton administration and the two Bush administrations.

Both administrations received harsh criticism from environmentalists for not providing a great leadership in the conservation of the environment. The difference between the two administrations was that Clinton did a much better job than George W. Bush. George H. W. Bush the father of George W. Bush did a better job in protecting the environment by protecting valuable resources on public lands such as Clinton. Clinton protected the public lands and declaring it as national monuments. George W. Bush didn't do a good job. He failed and also repealed or tried to weaken most of the pro-environmental measures established by President Clinton.