1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:22,716 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Imagine there's a place in our world where the 2 00:00:22,796 --> 00:00:28,876 Speaker 1: known things go. A deer haunted forest, crowded with pines 3 00:00:28,916 --> 00:00:32,996 Speaker 1: and hemlocks, the carpet of needles beneath your feet, grouse 4 00:00:33,156 --> 00:00:37,796 Speaker 1: in the underbrush. Welcome to the woods. Outside of the 5 00:00:37,876 --> 00:00:44,196 Speaker 1: Last Archive. I'm Jill Lapour. This episode, we're celebrating an anniversary, 6 00:00:45,276 --> 00:00:49,676 Speaker 1: sort of the anniversary of a dream, an alternate history. 7 00:00:50,156 --> 00:00:53,036 Speaker 1: We're imagining what the world might be like if fifty 8 00:00:53,116 --> 00:00:57,796 Speaker 1: years ago, in nineteen seventy two, Americans had ratified an 9 00:00:57,876 --> 00:01:03,076 Speaker 1: environmental rights Amendment, an amendment to the US Constitution granting 10 00:01:03,116 --> 00:01:09,396 Speaker 1: not only protection but representation to the natural world. This 11 00:01:09,516 --> 00:01:12,796 Speaker 1: did not happen, But this episode, I want to wonder 12 00:01:13,396 --> 00:01:15,636 Speaker 1: about what the world would be like if it had happened. 13 00:01:16,116 --> 00:01:19,316 Speaker 1: I want to think about the road not taken. I 14 00:01:19,396 --> 00:01:23,236 Speaker 1: want to rekindle a spirit of imagination about what could 15 00:01:23,276 --> 00:01:27,036 Speaker 1: still happen. To start, let's go back to where by 16 00:01:27,116 --> 00:01:32,036 Speaker 1: my reckoning. The American environmental movement began in a seaside 17 00:01:32,076 --> 00:01:35,836 Speaker 1: cabin on an island in Maine in nineteen sixty two, 18 00:01:36,596 --> 00:01:40,996 Speaker 1: when Rachel Carson issued a warning about pesticides and petroleum 19 00:01:41,036 --> 00:01:46,756 Speaker 1: companies so step through a screen door into Rachel Carson's 20 00:01:46,756 --> 00:01:52,636 Speaker 1: cabin in Maine, on the edge of the sea. Now, 21 00:01:52,916 --> 00:01:56,436 Speaker 1: to these people, apparently the vald of nature was something 22 00:01:56,476 --> 00:02:00,396 Speaker 1: that was repealed or as soon as man came on 23 00:02:00,476 --> 00:02:03,596 Speaker 1: the scene, Well, you might just as well assume that 24 00:02:03,796 --> 00:02:09,596 Speaker 1: you could repeal the law of gravity. Rachel person had 25 00:02:09,596 --> 00:02:11,996 Speaker 1: been writing for a long time by this point about 26 00:02:12,036 --> 00:02:16,236 Speaker 1: the natural world, especially about the ocean. She loved mucking 27 00:02:16,236 --> 00:02:19,836 Speaker 1: about in the shoreline, where she studied the tiniest creatures 28 00:02:19,956 --> 00:02:24,276 Speaker 1: eddying in tide pools. She was fascinated by their interdependence. 29 00:02:25,476 --> 00:02:28,956 Speaker 1: The balance of nature is built of a series of 30 00:02:29,036 --> 00:02:34,956 Speaker 1: interrelationships between living things and between living things and their environment. 31 00:02:35,796 --> 00:02:39,116 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three, a reporter from CBS News had 32 00:02:39,196 --> 00:02:41,996 Speaker 1: driven up to her remote cabin It's on a little 33 00:02:41,996 --> 00:02:45,716 Speaker 1: spit of an island, to ask her some questions. Carson 34 00:02:45,756 --> 00:02:50,396 Speaker 1: had just published Silence Spring, a lyrical and terrifying account 35 00:02:50,396 --> 00:02:54,316 Speaker 1: of what pesticides were doing to the natural world. Pesticides 36 00:02:54,396 --> 00:02:57,436 Speaker 1: kill insects, sure, but they also kill birds that eat 37 00:02:57,476 --> 00:03:00,796 Speaker 1: insects and the animals that eat the birds. You can't 38 00:03:00,836 --> 00:03:04,116 Speaker 1: just kill one thing, Carson demonstrated, You put out a poison. 39 00:03:04,516 --> 00:03:08,196 Speaker 1: It poisons everything because everything is connected to everything else. 40 00:03:08,796 --> 00:03:12,796 Speaker 1: They come one day, she warned, an entirely silent spring. 41 00:03:13,236 --> 00:03:18,116 Speaker 1: No crickets chirp, no frogs peep, no bird song. The 42 00:03:18,156 --> 00:03:21,196 Speaker 1: pesticide industry waged a campaign to try to portray Carson 43 00:03:21,236 --> 00:03:24,476 Speaker 1: as a silly old lady. It didn't work. We did 44 00:03:24,476 --> 00:03:26,956 Speaker 1: a whole episode about Carson in season one. It's called 45 00:03:27,436 --> 00:03:31,596 Speaker 1: for the Birds Anyway. In nineteen sixty two, Sound Spring 46 00:03:31,636 --> 00:03:34,676 Speaker 1: became a bestseller, and Carson was hailed as a visionary. 47 00:03:35,156 --> 00:03:38,356 Speaker 1: Her book fundamentally changed how people thought about the environment. 48 00:03:38,716 --> 00:03:42,476 Speaker 1: President Kennedy read it, and Carson testified before the Senate. 49 00:03:43,276 --> 00:03:46,156 Speaker 1: Carson died less than two years later, but she'd raised 50 00:03:46,196 --> 00:03:49,076 Speaker 1: in the public mind a new and urgent concern about 51 00:03:49,116 --> 00:03:53,996 Speaker 1: all kinds of environmental problems. Then nineteen sixty nine, NASA 52 00:03:54,076 --> 00:03:56,836 Speaker 1: sent men to the Moon, and their photographs showed the Earth, 53 00:03:57,196 --> 00:04:01,356 Speaker 1: the whole Earth, small and fragile, something to protect, a 54 00:04:01,396 --> 00:04:05,076 Speaker 1: pale blue dot, as if made of glass, a blue marble. 55 00:04:06,796 --> 00:04:10,156 Speaker 1: In September nineteen sixty nine, two months after men from 56 00:04:10,156 --> 00:04:13,956 Speaker 1: the Earth landed on the Moon, Moonday, a Maverick, Wisconsin 57 00:04:14,076 --> 00:04:18,756 Speaker 1: senator named gay Lord Nelson proposed a celebration, a national holiday. 58 00:04:18,796 --> 00:04:23,996 Speaker 1: He called it Earth Day. The environment is all of 59 00:04:24,036 --> 00:04:27,156 Speaker 1: America and its problems. It's the raps in the ghetto, 60 00:04:28,276 --> 00:04:31,796 Speaker 1: It's a hungry child and a land of affluence. Nelson 61 00:04:31,836 --> 00:04:35,956 Speaker 1: modeled Earth Day after anti war teachings. With all that urgency, 62 00:04:36,196 --> 00:04:39,556 Speaker 1: life and death at stake, the future of humanity itself. 63 00:04:40,236 --> 00:04:42,996 Speaker 1: I don't think there's any other issue, viewed in its 64 00:04:42,996 --> 00:04:48,036 Speaker 1: broadest stands, which is his critical to mankind as the 65 00:04:48,236 --> 00:04:52,716 Speaker 1: issue of the quality of the environment in which we live. 66 00:04:53,516 --> 00:04:56,796 Speaker 1: Gaylord Nelson had grown up in Wisconsin. When he was fourteen, 67 00:04:56,876 --> 00:04:59,716 Speaker 1: he'd started a campaign the plant trees in his hometown, 68 00:05:00,156 --> 00:05:04,236 Speaker 1: clear Lake. As governor of Wisconsin, he'd made environmental protection 69 00:05:04,316 --> 00:05:07,716 Speaker 1: his top priority. He taxed tobacco and used the money 70 00:05:07,716 --> 00:05:10,636 Speaker 1: to buy land for public park. In the Senate, he 71 00:05:10,716 --> 00:05:14,636 Speaker 1: dedicated himself to getting the environment on the national political agenda. 72 00:05:14,716 --> 00:05:17,716 Speaker 1: In his first year, he co sponsored the Clean Water Act. 73 00:05:18,076 --> 00:05:20,996 Speaker 1: He was also the first person to propose an environmental 74 00:05:21,076 --> 00:05:25,436 Speaker 1: rights amendment. In a speech in the Senate on January nineteenth, 75 00:05:25,716 --> 00:05:30,836 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, Nelson proposed a constitutional amendment that read, every 76 00:05:30,876 --> 00:05:37,516 Speaker 1: person has the inalienable right to a decent environment. People 77 00:05:37,556 --> 00:05:40,516 Speaker 1: propose amendments all the time that never go anywhere, but 78 00:05:40,636 --> 00:05:44,316 Speaker 1: still it planted a seed. I've been thinking a lot 79 00:05:44,356 --> 00:05:47,676 Speaker 1: lately about amending the Constitution and why it's so hard 80 00:05:47,716 --> 00:05:50,356 Speaker 1: to do, and when it got so hard to do. 81 00:05:51,236 --> 00:05:53,716 Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies, it looked like another amendment, the 82 00:05:53,756 --> 00:05:56,996 Speaker 1: Equal Rights Amendment banning discrimination on the basis of sex, 83 00:05:57,316 --> 00:06:00,596 Speaker 1: would surely be ratified. In the end, it wasn't. But 84 00:06:00,716 --> 00:06:03,676 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy when gay Lord Nelson proposed an environmental 85 00:06:03,756 --> 00:06:07,556 Speaker 1: rights amendment, it just didn't seem that crazy. In nineteen 86 00:06:07,596 --> 00:06:09,956 Speaker 1: seventy one, the twenty six the men it was ratified. 87 00:06:10,156 --> 00:06:13,556 Speaker 1: It lowered the voting age to eighteen. In the nineteen seventies, 88 00:06:13,556 --> 00:06:16,916 Speaker 1: In other words, you could still ratify amendments to the Constitution. 89 00:06:17,916 --> 00:06:21,836 Speaker 1: On January twenty second, three days after Gaylord Nelson proposed 90 00:06:21,836 --> 00:06:25,956 Speaker 1: his environment a rights amendment, Richard Nixon, the President, through 91 00:06:25,996 --> 00:06:28,556 Speaker 1: his support behind this idea in his State of the 92 00:06:28,636 --> 00:06:33,036 Speaker 1: Union address, The great question of the seventies is shall 93 00:06:33,076 --> 00:06:37,916 Speaker 1: we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our 94 00:06:37,996 --> 00:06:41,676 Speaker 1: peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the 95 00:06:41,836 --> 00:06:45,276 Speaker 1: damage we have done to our heir, to our land, 96 00:06:45,636 --> 00:06:48,996 Speaker 1: and to our wife. Nixon, in other words, seem to 97 00:06:48,996 --> 00:06:54,676 Speaker 1: have embraced Rachel Carson's agenda restoring nature to its natural 98 00:06:54,716 --> 00:06:59,356 Speaker 1: state as a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It 99 00:06:59,396 --> 00:07:01,636 Speaker 1: has become a common cause of all the people of 100 00:07:01,676 --> 00:07:07,276 Speaker 1: this country. The scale of the crisis was obvious to everyone. 101 00:07:07,796 --> 00:07:11,356 Speaker 1: By nineteen seventy, States had become a very trashy looking place. 102 00:07:11,436 --> 00:07:16,436 Speaker 1: It was embarrassing pollution, small glitter everywhere. The Cuyahoga River 103 00:07:16,516 --> 00:07:19,476 Speaker 1: in Cleveland had caught fire only months before, and not 104 00:07:19,596 --> 00:07:22,396 Speaker 1: for the first time. The water was so entirely polluted 105 00:07:22,436 --> 00:07:25,276 Speaker 1: with oil slick debris that when sparks from a passing 106 00:07:25,316 --> 00:07:28,036 Speaker 1: train flicked over the river, it went up in flames, 107 00:07:28,396 --> 00:07:32,156 Speaker 1: flames as high as a five story building. Public outrage 108 00:07:32,156 --> 00:07:34,836 Speaker 1: had been so intense that Nixon had signed into law 109 00:07:34,876 --> 00:07:38,836 Speaker 1: the National Environmental Policy Act, which helped establish the Environmental 110 00:07:38,876 --> 00:07:43,596 Speaker 1: Protection Agency. Through our years of past carelessness, we incurred 111 00:07:43,596 --> 00:07:46,076 Speaker 1: a debt to nature. And now that debt is being called. 112 00:07:47,316 --> 00:07:49,596 Speaker 1: The program I shall proposed to Congress will be the 113 00:07:49,636 --> 00:07:55,236 Speaker 1: most comprehensive and costly program In this view. Again, America's history. 114 00:07:57,916 --> 00:08:00,916 Speaker 1: I think about it this way, post War America, people 115 00:08:00,956 --> 00:08:03,756 Speaker 1: are finally fed up with the ravages of the Industrial Revolution, 116 00:08:04,276 --> 00:08:07,956 Speaker 1: the pollution, the filthy factories, the dead fish in the rivers, 117 00:08:08,156 --> 00:08:11,996 Speaker 1: the dying oceans, the smog. To stop all that, you've 118 00:08:12,036 --> 00:08:14,436 Speaker 1: got to pass some laws. One way to drum up 119 00:08:14,436 --> 00:08:19,436 Speaker 1: support invent a national holiday. Call it Earth Day, Tell 120 00:08:19,476 --> 00:08:22,436 Speaker 1: people about it, get them out on the streets, run ads, 121 00:08:22,556 --> 00:08:26,156 Speaker 1: and stir up news coverage on television across the country. 122 00:08:26,836 --> 00:08:28,596 Speaker 1: Do you feel as though all this is a reaction 123 00:08:28,636 --> 00:08:32,276 Speaker 1: to publicity that's been blasted across the nation. It's going 124 00:08:32,316 --> 00:08:34,956 Speaker 1: to be a real, real, big political move, probably bigger 125 00:08:34,956 --> 00:08:37,556 Speaker 1: than any other political move we've ever seen this country. 126 00:08:38,156 --> 00:08:41,156 Speaker 1: Birthday wasn't a federal holiday. We're like a rally day, 127 00:08:41,396 --> 00:08:44,676 Speaker 1: but also more than rally day. Governors agreed to on 128 00:08:44,876 --> 00:08:48,316 Speaker 1: Earth Day, so did a lot of musicians, poets, politicians. 129 00:08:49,156 --> 00:08:52,356 Speaker 1: In Washington, the House and Senator journed for the day. 130 00:08:52,436 --> 00:08:55,676 Speaker 1: Practically every Senator and congressman was off to make speeches 131 00:08:55,996 --> 00:08:59,796 Speaker 1: on the year's most popular and least risky election issial 132 00:09:01,196 --> 00:09:05,076 Speaker 1: April twenty, nineteen seventy, that first Earth Day took place 133 00:09:05,116 --> 00:09:08,596 Speaker 1: all over the country, in cities and towns, at state capitals, 134 00:09:08,796 --> 00:09:12,876 Speaker 1: a polluted highways. People picked up trash on river banks 135 00:09:13,116 --> 00:09:17,836 Speaker 1: from the Kalamazoo to the Mississippi. Schools canceled classes, kindergarteners 136 00:09:17,876 --> 00:09:21,556 Speaker 1: did crafts, college students marched in the streets, and middle 137 00:09:21,556 --> 00:09:24,876 Speaker 1: schoolers went on field trips wearing baseball caps and muck boots, 138 00:09:25,076 --> 00:09:28,236 Speaker 1: carrying binoculars as they trudged the woods to a lake 139 00:09:28,276 --> 00:09:32,076 Speaker 1: whose shoreline was covered with trash. This is pollution, and 140 00:09:32,156 --> 00:09:37,436 Speaker 1: it's poor hearby man, all right, So this isn't anything 141 00:09:37,476 --> 00:09:39,436 Speaker 1: that Nature staff was that when you look at nature, 142 00:09:39,476 --> 00:09:42,396 Speaker 1: you're going to find it a pretty peaceful thing. Twenty 143 00:09:42,476 --> 00:09:45,476 Speaker 1: eight poisoned girls from Councils Loves AIOH. We're out early 144 00:09:45,556 --> 00:09:48,916 Speaker 1: this Earthday morning. They are members of Missus Willard Hopper's 145 00:09:48,956 --> 00:09:52,956 Speaker 1: sixth grade science class. Right full of answers. Another triumph 146 00:09:52,956 --> 00:09:56,916 Speaker 1: of hope over experience. And pretty much everywhere that first 147 00:09:56,956 --> 00:10:13,236 Speaker 1: Earth Day, people sang out. In Boston, protesters held a 148 00:10:13,356 --> 00:10:15,956 Speaker 1: die in at Logan Airport to call attention to the 149 00:10:15,996 --> 00:10:19,916 Speaker 1: pollution caused by airplanes. They pretended to die there. There 150 00:10:19,916 --> 00:10:24,436 Speaker 1: were teachings and cleanups. Protesters wore surgical masks to call 151 00:10:24,476 --> 00:10:27,476 Speaker 1: attention to air pollution. Parts of New York City banned 152 00:10:27,516 --> 00:10:30,756 Speaker 1: cars for the day. Protesters in Chicago called for the 153 00:10:30,796 --> 00:10:35,156 Speaker 1: elimination of the internal combustion engine, and in Washington, civil 154 00:10:35,196 --> 00:10:38,916 Speaker 1: rights leader James Farmer tied the fledgling environmental movement to 155 00:10:39,036 --> 00:10:46,996 Speaker 1: racial justice. The garbage, the trash, the carbon monoxide, the junk. 156 00:10:48,196 --> 00:10:51,436 Speaker 1: Who suffers most from it if it is not the poor? 157 00:10:52,396 --> 00:10:57,356 Speaker 1: And so the poor, especially the ghatois poor, the black 158 00:10:57,436 --> 00:11:01,356 Speaker 1: and the brown and the red stand to benefit first 159 00:11:02,196 --> 00:11:07,116 Speaker 1: from any successes in cleaning up the environment. In Albuquerque, 160 00:11:07,596 --> 00:11:10,876 Speaker 1: in the Bareless Neighborhood, the leaders of a Chicano rally 161 00:11:11,036 --> 00:11:13,716 Speaker 1: made the same argument. We're going to make people understand, 162 00:11:14,316 --> 00:11:16,676 Speaker 1: but the kind of thing has come from our pollution, 163 00:11:16,796 --> 00:11:20,676 Speaker 1: water pollution are the same kind of things that cause racism, 164 00:11:21,076 --> 00:11:24,996 Speaker 1: to cause poverty, and cause hunger in this country. So 165 00:11:25,036 --> 00:11:34,636 Speaker 1: we're all going to be marching to day. Okay. In Philadelphia, 166 00:11:34,716 --> 00:11:37,596 Speaker 1: at the Salem Zion United Church of Christ, middle aged 167 00:11:37,596 --> 00:11:40,956 Speaker 1: congregants and Sunday suits and bonnets joined their young pastor 168 00:11:41,396 --> 00:11:44,836 Speaker 1: in a special Earth Day prayer. We have helped to 169 00:11:45,036 --> 00:11:49,356 Speaker 1: fill up your air pollute your streams and clutter your 170 00:11:49,396 --> 00:11:53,516 Speaker 1: earth with crash and gadgets. Now our high style heavy 171 00:11:53,596 --> 00:11:57,556 Speaker 1: with sorrow for what we have done, but not before 172 00:11:57,716 --> 00:12:02,716 Speaker 1: our sinuses and lungs warned us a great danger. Okay, 173 00:12:02,916 --> 00:12:05,476 Speaker 1: nice idea, but I confess the prayer doesn't entirely work 174 00:12:05,516 --> 00:12:08,196 Speaker 1: for me. Still, it's a measure of the intensity of 175 00:12:08,196 --> 00:12:10,796 Speaker 1: all of this. And out of all those meetings and 176 00:12:10,876 --> 00:12:15,276 Speaker 1: marches and clean ups and conversation after conversation came a 177 00:12:15,316 --> 00:12:27,036 Speaker 1: demand for something more power to the earth. But what 178 00:12:27,076 --> 00:12:31,116 Speaker 1: would that mean? Earth Day was the biggest protest in 179 00:12:31,236 --> 00:12:34,516 Speaker 1: human history. Listening to the tape, you can feel this 180 00:12:34,676 --> 00:12:38,396 Speaker 1: oceanic swell, this common knowledge that the earth is in trouble, 181 00:12:39,436 --> 00:12:42,316 Speaker 1: the sense that people will make sacrifices to save it. 182 00:12:43,276 --> 00:12:47,836 Speaker 1: It sounds as though things might actually change. But listening now, 183 00:12:48,356 --> 00:12:50,556 Speaker 1: who know as well as I do that things didn't 184 00:12:50,596 --> 00:12:53,676 Speaker 1: change nearly as much as they needed to. I don't 185 00:12:53,676 --> 00:12:56,196 Speaker 1: want to tell that story again, though, I want instead 186 00:12:56,476 --> 00:13:00,756 Speaker 1: to imagine what if that moment really had changed everything? 187 00:13:01,316 --> 00:13:17,956 Speaker 1: How could it have the answer? After this break? The 188 00:13:18,036 --> 00:13:20,196 Speaker 1: idea that everything could have turned out differently in the 189 00:13:20,276 --> 00:13:24,676 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies is not crazy. Remember that in nineteen seventy 190 00:13:24,836 --> 00:13:27,356 Speaker 1: at the very same time that Wisconsin Senator gay Lord 191 00:13:27,396 --> 00:13:29,596 Speaker 1: Nelson had come up with the idea for Earth Day, 192 00:13:30,116 --> 00:13:32,236 Speaker 1: he come up with the idea of an amendment to 193 00:13:32,236 --> 00:13:36,076 Speaker 1: the US Constitution guaranteeing people the right to a decent environment. 194 00:13:36,756 --> 00:13:39,636 Speaker 1: While he was working on that, some states started trying 195 00:13:39,636 --> 00:13:42,996 Speaker 1: to guarantee the same thing. The first to succeed in 196 00:13:43,076 --> 00:13:47,916 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one was Pennsylvania. The state ratified its own 197 00:13:48,036 --> 00:13:51,916 Speaker 1: environmental rights amendment by popular referendum by a margin of 198 00:13:51,956 --> 00:13:55,036 Speaker 1: four to one. So people who wanted to change the 199 00:13:55,036 --> 00:13:58,396 Speaker 1: federal Constitution to save the planet, we're getting pretty excited. 200 00:14:04,516 --> 00:14:09,036 Speaker 1: It all seemed so promising, so promising that environmental advoca 201 00:14:09,316 --> 00:14:12,596 Speaker 1: groups pressed the case. They came up with another way, 202 00:14:12,916 --> 00:14:15,876 Speaker 1: a fascinating way to think about how to grant power 203 00:14:16,076 --> 00:14:22,476 Speaker 1: to the earth. That idea spread it up. In California, 204 00:14:22,836 --> 00:14:25,436 Speaker 1: the Walt Disney Company was about to build a ski 205 00:14:25,516 --> 00:14:30,116 Speaker 1: resort in Mineral King Valley. The Sierra Club sued to 206 00:14:30,116 --> 00:14:32,996 Speaker 1: stop the plan, but the court said it lacked standing. 207 00:14:33,836 --> 00:14:38,156 Speaker 1: The Sierra Club challenged the permit permitting this to go on, 208 00:14:39,156 --> 00:14:42,276 Speaker 1: and case went up to the Ninth Circuit and the 209 00:14:42,836 --> 00:14:47,036 Speaker 1: far Service said, look, you the Sierra Club don't have standing. 210 00:14:48,476 --> 00:14:51,036 Speaker 1: Maybe this is a wrong to issue the permit, but 211 00:14:51,116 --> 00:14:53,356 Speaker 1: you're not injured. You as a club are not injured. 212 00:14:54,316 --> 00:14:58,116 Speaker 1: That's USC law professor Christopher Stone from an old interview 213 00:14:58,516 --> 00:15:02,116 Speaker 1: at the time, he followed the case very closely. When 214 00:15:02,156 --> 00:15:05,196 Speaker 1: I saw that case, I thought, this isn't a way 215 00:15:05,236 --> 00:15:09,996 Speaker 1: sort of silly. This is an important decision, I said, 216 00:15:09,996 --> 00:15:12,516 Speaker 1: whether to develop the Mineral King Valley in this way. 217 00:15:13,356 --> 00:15:16,396 Speaker 1: I'm not sure how it should come out, but at 218 00:15:16,436 --> 00:15:19,596 Speaker 1: least it should be heard. And if the problem of 219 00:15:19,636 --> 00:15:25,076 Speaker 1: its being heard is that this club was not suffered 220 00:15:25,116 --> 00:15:29,036 Speaker 1: no injury, why not just saying, look, the injury is 221 00:15:29,076 --> 00:15:33,316 Speaker 1: suffered by a Mineral King Valley. The injury is suffered 222 00:15:33,476 --> 00:15:37,396 Speaker 1: by the valley. Stone decided to write a law review article. 223 00:15:37,556 --> 00:15:42,756 Speaker 1: It's called should Trees Have Standing? Stone starts off talking 224 00:15:42,796 --> 00:15:46,556 Speaker 1: about the Sierra Club versus Mineral King Valley case, but 225 00:15:46,636 --> 00:15:49,956 Speaker 1: like most big legal arguments, Stones article made a very 226 00:15:50,076 --> 00:15:55,316 Speaker 1: general claim, a legal innovation. He argued that trees and 227 00:15:55,556 --> 00:15:58,596 Speaker 1: any other part of the natural world should have standing 228 00:15:58,716 --> 00:16:02,636 Speaker 1: in courts of law as persons. After all, a corporation 229 00:16:02,716 --> 00:16:05,356 Speaker 1: can be a person, so can a ship. So can 230 00:16:05,396 --> 00:16:07,356 Speaker 1: your dog. If you leave your dog, your estate and 231 00:16:07,436 --> 00:16:11,516 Speaker 1: your will, why not trees and valleys and rivers and streams. 232 00:16:12,316 --> 00:16:15,436 Speaker 1: Stone didn't want humans to protect the environment. He wanted 233 00:16:15,476 --> 00:16:21,316 Speaker 1: the environment itself to bear rights. He knew this might 234 00:16:21,356 --> 00:16:23,636 Speaker 1: strike some people as a nutty idea, but he also 235 00:16:23,676 --> 00:16:26,436 Speaker 1: felt the time had come for big, bold ideas because 236 00:16:26,436 --> 00:16:28,356 Speaker 1: of how bad he thought things would be in fifty 237 00:16:28,436 --> 00:16:31,236 Speaker 1: years time. There's a part of his article where he 238 00:16:31,276 --> 00:16:34,596 Speaker 1: writes about that, and I find it uncanny, having been 239 00:16:34,596 --> 00:16:38,836 Speaker 1: written in nineteen seventy two. He wrote, scientists have been 240 00:16:38,836 --> 00:16:40,996 Speaker 1: warning of the crisis the Earth and all humans on 241 00:16:41,036 --> 00:16:43,516 Speaker 1: its face. If we do not change our ways radically, 242 00:16:44,236 --> 00:16:48,596 Speaker 1: the Earth's very atmosphere is threatened with frightening possibilities. Absorption 243 00:16:48,636 --> 00:16:51,796 Speaker 1: of sunlight, upon which the entire life cycle depends may 244 00:16:51,836 --> 00:16:55,516 Speaker 1: be diminished. The oceans may warm, increasing the greenhouse effect 245 00:16:55,516 --> 00:16:59,156 Speaker 1: of the atmosphere, melting the polar ice cap and destroying 246 00:16:59,156 --> 00:17:02,676 Speaker 1: our great coastal cities. Stone rushed a copy of his 247 00:17:02,756 --> 00:17:05,516 Speaker 1: article to the Supreme Court, which was slated to decide 248 00:17:05,516 --> 00:17:08,716 Speaker 1: the Sierra Club case, to decide, to begin with, whether 249 00:17:08,716 --> 00:17:11,676 Speaker 1: the club had standing to try to block Walt Disney 250 00:17:11,676 --> 00:17:15,636 Speaker 1: Company from chopping down a forest. Now sort of by 251 00:17:15,676 --> 00:17:18,636 Speaker 1: one of those weird coincidences in the world. Write it 252 00:17:18,676 --> 00:17:22,796 Speaker 1: about that time. Early in nineteen seventy two, Doctor Seus's 253 00:17:22,796 --> 00:17:26,156 Speaker 1: book The Lorax was broadcast on television. You know, the 254 00:17:26,196 --> 00:17:28,756 Speaker 1: cartoon about a creature who lives in the woods is 255 00:17:28,796 --> 00:17:31,476 Speaker 1: trying to stop a lumber company from raising the forest. 256 00:17:32,836 --> 00:17:36,636 Speaker 1: I speaking for the trees. Let him grow, Let him grow. 257 00:17:40,716 --> 00:17:45,276 Speaker 1: But nobody listens too much, don't you know, No, they 258 00:17:45,356 --> 00:17:49,036 Speaker 1: don't listen too much. Weeks after The Lorax was broadcast 259 00:17:49,076 --> 00:17:52,116 Speaker 1: on TV, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in 260 00:17:52,156 --> 00:17:55,796 Speaker 1: the case of Sierra Club versus Mineral King Valley, issuing 261 00:17:55,836 --> 00:17:59,036 Speaker 1: a ruling in favor of the Walt Disney Company. Justice 262 00:17:59,036 --> 00:18:01,756 Speaker 1: William O. Douglas wrote in a descent that if a 263 00:18:01,796 --> 00:18:04,276 Speaker 1: ship can be a person under the law, so it 264 00:18:04,316 --> 00:18:11,196 Speaker 1: should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beeches, ridges, 265 00:18:11,436 --> 00:18:16,756 Speaker 1: groves of trees, swampland or even air. In a footnote, 266 00:18:17,196 --> 00:18:21,276 Speaker 1: he cited stones article should trees have standing? But Justice 267 00:18:21,356 --> 00:18:25,716 Speaker 1: Douglas said, but why not just essentially fall a stone's 268 00:18:26,836 --> 00:18:30,916 Speaker 1: physician and let the mineral king be the plaintiff lest 269 00:18:31,076 --> 00:18:35,716 Speaker 1: should be called mineral king against partner of interior. People 270 00:18:36,236 --> 00:18:39,436 Speaker 1: like the idea that we should be speaking for nature, 271 00:18:39,516 --> 00:18:43,636 Speaker 1: that nature should have its own voice. People did like 272 00:18:43,756 --> 00:18:47,876 Speaker 1: that idea. So imagine what if Douglas's opinion had been 273 00:18:48,196 --> 00:18:51,396 Speaker 1: not the dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court, but the 274 00:18:51,476 --> 00:18:55,716 Speaker 1: majority opinion of the Supreme Court. What might have happened next? 275 00:18:56,476 --> 00:19:01,396 Speaker 1: Imagine that with this incredibly huge legal victory, environmentalists had 276 00:19:01,436 --> 00:19:05,156 Speaker 1: decided to really fight for an environmental rights amendment, not 277 00:19:05,236 --> 00:19:07,836 Speaker 1: the one gay Lord Nelson had proposed in nineteen seventy. 278 00:19:08,116 --> 00:19:13,276 Speaker 1: Imagine they'd propose something much much bolder. I mean, imagine, 279 00:19:13,316 --> 00:19:17,276 Speaker 1: really imagine. Imagine that this crazy, bold constitutional amendment had 280 00:19:17,276 --> 00:19:20,676 Speaker 1: gotten ratified in nineteen seventy two. What if today, in 281 00:19:20,796 --> 00:19:24,796 Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, we were marking the fiftieth anniversary of 282 00:19:24,836 --> 00:19:29,396 Speaker 1: that environmental rights amendment. To imagine that, I've got to 283 00:19:29,436 --> 00:19:31,956 Speaker 1: take you to a place I've never taken anyone before, 284 00:19:33,756 --> 00:19:42,956 Speaker 1: to the last archives fiction annex. Imagine that in nineteen 285 00:19:43,076 --> 00:19:46,796 Speaker 1: seventy one, Christopher Stone and his students at USC Law 286 00:19:46,836 --> 00:19:50,596 Speaker 1: School had drafted a new constitutional amendment. Found a way 287 00:19:50,596 --> 00:19:54,556 Speaker 1: for the law to listen to the trees. Article one, 288 00:19:55,036 --> 00:19:58,636 Speaker 1: All legislative powers shall be vested in a Congress of 289 00:19:58,636 --> 00:20:02,556 Speaker 1: the United States, which shall consist of a Senate, a 290 00:20:02,636 --> 00:20:07,396 Speaker 1: House of Representatives, and a Chamber of Nature. The Chamber 291 00:20:07,516 --> 00:20:12,236 Speaker 1: of Nature better known as the tree branch. Imagine this 292 00:20:12,236 --> 00:20:15,116 Speaker 1: thing was ratified by a majority of states, and to 293 00:20:15,156 --> 00:20:18,156 Speaker 1: help spread the news, Schoolhouse Rock made a song about 294 00:20:18,156 --> 00:20:22,876 Speaker 1: it so the kids would know, Treehouse Rock. The Chamber 295 00:20:22,916 --> 00:20:28,116 Speaker 1: of Nature shall be composed of members has chosen every 296 00:20:29,076 --> 00:20:38,436 Speaker 1: fourth year by the people of several states. Representation in 297 00:20:38,716 --> 00:20:45,996 Speaker 1: the Chamber shall be abortion among the several states according 298 00:20:46,196 --> 00:20:55,516 Speaker 1: to the number of trees in the state relative to 299 00:20:55,556 --> 00:21:00,076 Speaker 1: the number of trees in state prison at the time 300 00:21:00,076 --> 00:21:06,356 Speaker 1: of the state entered the Union. Catch you right, But 301 00:21:06,596 --> 00:21:08,756 Speaker 1: the idea that a portion ofment in Congress should be 302 00:21:08,756 --> 00:21:11,716 Speaker 1: done by counting people that had been a new idea 303 00:21:11,796 --> 00:21:15,116 Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty seven when the Constitution was written. There'd 304 00:21:15,116 --> 00:21:17,796 Speaker 1: been other ideas at the time. They could have calculated 305 00:21:17,836 --> 00:21:23,236 Speaker 1: representation by square miles or by taxable income. Why not trees? 306 00:21:25,396 --> 00:21:28,196 Speaker 1: Imagine the people making this argument were very smart. They 307 00:21:28,276 --> 00:21:32,116 Speaker 1: argued it very well. They brought out the best evidence. 308 00:21:33,116 --> 00:21:37,156 Speaker 1: Rallies were held today in all the countries. National parks activists, 309 00:21:37,196 --> 00:21:40,596 Speaker 1: citing recent reports by the US Forestry Department, explained the 310 00:21:40,596 --> 00:21:43,556 Speaker 1: ability of trees to counter and even reverse them the 311 00:21:43,636 --> 00:21:47,316 Speaker 1: line effects of pollution. This amendment would have meant that 312 00:21:47,356 --> 00:21:50,076 Speaker 1: not only did nature have standing in courts the way 313 00:21:50,076 --> 00:21:53,316 Speaker 1: the Sierra case would have ruled, but that nature, at 314 00:21:53,356 --> 00:21:57,076 Speaker 1: least by proxy, had a voice in government that if 315 00:21:57,076 --> 00:22:00,156 Speaker 1: a state was going to lose vegetation, it would lose votes. 316 00:22:00,156 --> 00:22:03,316 Speaker 1: In Washington, the annual County of the Trees has begun. 317 00:22:03,476 --> 00:22:06,396 Speaker 1: This new forest census is to take place every July. 318 00:22:07,076 --> 00:22:11,196 Speaker 1: It follows this springs frenzy. At some eight million trees 319 00:22:11,236 --> 00:22:14,396 Speaker 1: were planted in April alone. The public awaits the results 320 00:22:14,396 --> 00:22:17,876 Speaker 1: of this first census with bated breath, as states by 321 00:22:17,956 --> 00:22:21,756 Speaker 1: for representation in the new so called tree Branch. A 322 00:22:21,836 --> 00:22:24,156 Speaker 1: chamber of Nature would have made protecting the environment not 323 00:22:24,276 --> 00:22:27,876 Speaker 1: something subject to the competing interests of different people, but 324 00:22:28,036 --> 00:22:33,476 Speaker 1: instead subject to the interests of nature itself. Interesting, right now, 325 00:22:33,476 --> 00:22:36,356 Speaker 1: How in our imaginary world could such a thing come about? 326 00:22:36,956 --> 00:22:41,236 Speaker 1: That's the easy part to imagine. First, Nixon, the environmental president, 327 00:22:41,476 --> 00:22:44,876 Speaker 1: gets behind it. I can almost hear him offering his endorsement. 328 00:22:45,756 --> 00:22:48,636 Speaker 1: By our decision, we will demonstrate the kind of people 329 00:22:49,116 --> 00:22:52,356 Speaker 1: we are and the kind of country we will be kind. 330 00:22:53,836 --> 00:22:58,756 Speaker 1: That's why I've charted the course I have laid out tonight. Admittedly, 331 00:22:58,756 --> 00:23:01,876 Speaker 1: the debating Congress would have been crazy, the timber trade 332 00:23:01,916 --> 00:23:06,236 Speaker 1: against it builders, developers, the construction industry, no way, but 333 00:23:06,396 --> 00:23:09,956 Speaker 1: in favor a lot of ordinary people and business interests 334 00:23:09,956 --> 00:23:11,876 Speaker 1: that wanted to stay on the right side of the 335 00:23:11,996 --> 00:23:15,356 Speaker 1: rising environmental movement. The whole of DC would have been 336 00:23:15,396 --> 00:23:25,196 Speaker 1: one giant environmental rally and counter rally for weeks, and 337 00:23:25,396 --> 00:23:29,796 Speaker 1: then it could have all happened so quickly twenty seven 338 00:23:30,076 --> 00:23:33,396 Speaker 1: the Environmental Rights Amendment might have passed Congress and gone 339 00:23:33,436 --> 00:23:36,916 Speaker 1: to the states. And imagine this. Imagine that the last 340 00:23:36,996 --> 00:23:41,116 Speaker 1: state needed ratified the amendment in nineteen seventy two. Imagine 341 00:23:41,156 --> 00:23:44,796 Speaker 1: that the federal government had become answerable to nature a 342 00:23:44,836 --> 00:23:48,916 Speaker 1: half century ago. This week, mining companies are lobbying the 343 00:23:48,996 --> 00:23:52,916 Speaker 1: Chamber of Nature seeking exemption from bands on fracking. But 344 00:23:52,996 --> 00:23:57,916 Speaker 1: the tree branch so far appears to be holding firm. Okay, 345 00:23:58,076 --> 00:24:02,596 Speaker 1: I'm locking up the annex again because this, all of this, 346 00:24:03,516 --> 00:24:07,756 Speaker 1: none of it happened. What happened instead? After the break, 347 00:24:12,956 --> 00:24:16,196 Speaker 1: there is no environmental rights Amendment to the US Constitution. 348 00:24:16,836 --> 00:24:20,116 Speaker 1: We are not today in twenty twenty two, celebrating the 349 00:24:20,156 --> 00:24:24,796 Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of its ratification. It was never ratified. It 350 00:24:24,836 --> 00:24:27,876 Speaker 1: was never even written. A lot of other things, though, 351 00:24:28,036 --> 00:24:31,796 Speaker 1: did happen in the early nineteen seventies, with Richard Nixon's 352 00:24:31,796 --> 00:24:35,796 Speaker 1: full support the EPA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean 353 00:24:35,836 --> 00:24:40,956 Speaker 1: Air Act. Still, the environmental movement never really trusted Nixon. Instead, 354 00:24:41,156 --> 00:24:45,156 Speaker 1: it spurned him. As Dan Rather reported several weeks ago, 355 00:24:45,236 --> 00:24:48,236 Speaker 1: the White House invited the Nice Stool organizers a birthday 356 00:24:48,316 --> 00:24:51,796 Speaker 1: to drop by for a chat. They refused. On that 357 00:24:51,916 --> 00:24:54,996 Speaker 1: first Earth Day in nineteen seventy, Nixon and his wife 358 00:24:55,036 --> 00:24:58,596 Speaker 1: Pat planted a tree in the White House lawn and 359 00:24:58,716 --> 00:25:02,996 Speaker 1: that's it. Pretty soon Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. 360 00:25:04,316 --> 00:25:07,396 Speaker 1: The leaders of the environmental movement white middle class college 361 00:25:07,396 --> 00:25:10,916 Speaker 1: students and young people, or pretty squarely anti Nixon for 362 00:25:10,956 --> 00:25:13,956 Speaker 1: all kinds of reasons, and they didn't ever really seek 363 00:25:13,996 --> 00:25:16,796 Speaker 1: his support, so it's hard to know how much he 364 00:25:16,876 --> 00:25:21,116 Speaker 1: might have given. In the end, the establishment business leaders, 365 00:25:21,436 --> 00:25:25,516 Speaker 1: the silent majority oppose the environmental movement. If you look 366 00:25:25,556 --> 00:25:28,836 Speaker 1: at TV footage on Earth Day or listen to it, 367 00:25:28,836 --> 00:25:32,076 Speaker 1: it looked and sounded pretty much like woodstock. And as 368 00:25:32,076 --> 00:25:34,836 Speaker 1: for what civil rights activists thought about it all merely 369 00:25:34,876 --> 00:25:38,156 Speaker 1: Evers put it this way. I was asked by someone, 370 00:25:38,356 --> 00:25:42,076 Speaker 1: why is it that you think there are not too 371 00:25:42,076 --> 00:25:47,236 Speaker 1: many black people participating in Earth Week? In Earth Day, 372 00:25:48,036 --> 00:25:53,676 Speaker 1: they're interested about the health of themselves and their children 373 00:25:54,796 --> 00:25:58,436 Speaker 1: when they are living in rat infested homes, about the 374 00:25:58,556 --> 00:26:03,116 Speaker 1: garbage that's piled up. CBS News spoke to civil rights 375 00:26:03,236 --> 00:26:07,236 Speaker 1: leader Herman Rice. He said, basically, we have bigger problems. See, 376 00:26:07,276 --> 00:26:09,076 Speaker 1: we still have hungry children to feed, and we still 377 00:26:09,116 --> 00:26:11,116 Speaker 1: will have houses to try to build. And I think 378 00:26:11,156 --> 00:26:15,036 Speaker 1: we're taking the emphasis off the beat up buildings and 379 00:26:15,196 --> 00:26:18,396 Speaker 1: the polluted streams that they're talking about. We've never seen 380 00:26:18,476 --> 00:26:21,316 Speaker 1: anyway but trout. I don't know if they're dying. We've 381 00:26:21,356 --> 00:26:23,676 Speaker 1: never seen that. I know, the rats of bike acue. 382 00:26:24,436 --> 00:26:27,916 Speaker 1: Earth Day, for all of its successes and its huge scale, 383 00:26:28,636 --> 00:26:32,276 Speaker 1: it's still had real limits. It's burned the establishment. It 384 00:26:32,396 --> 00:26:35,596 Speaker 1: was too white. And then in nineteen seventy three, the 385 00:26:35,636 --> 00:26:39,156 Speaker 1: gas crisis began, not just rising prices but in actual 386 00:26:39,196 --> 00:26:41,996 Speaker 1: shortage due to US foreign policy in the Middle East 387 00:26:42,316 --> 00:26:45,796 Speaker 1: and an embargo by OPEC, a consortium of oil producing 388 00:26:45,876 --> 00:26:48,516 Speaker 1: nations in the Persian Gulf. Here's a clip from a 389 00:26:48,556 --> 00:26:52,476 Speaker 1: special NBC News did about the crisis. There's almost unanimous 390 00:26:52,516 --> 00:26:55,596 Speaker 1: agreement among the experts that the crisis is real, that 391 00:26:55,716 --> 00:26:58,076 Speaker 1: it's been creeping up on us for about one hundred 392 00:26:58,116 --> 00:27:01,276 Speaker 1: years now, and that it's getting worse each day as 393 00:27:01,276 --> 00:27:04,876 Speaker 1: we continue to use up our precious supplies of oil, coal, 394 00:27:04,996 --> 00:27:08,596 Speaker 1: and gas. And by the nineteen eighties, the fossil fuel 395 00:27:08,636 --> 00:27:13,876 Speaker 1: industry was already organizing itself around an extraordinary project, undermining 396 00:27:13,876 --> 00:27:18,076 Speaker 1: the science and promoting oil and oil companies as good 397 00:27:18,076 --> 00:27:22,036 Speaker 1: for the environment. Climate change, pollution not real, they said, 398 00:27:22,356 --> 00:27:28,356 Speaker 1: or at least not relevant. Exon BP and DuPont great 399 00:27:28,396 --> 00:27:32,716 Speaker 1: for the environment. Recently, DuPont announced that its energy unit, Conico, 400 00:27:32,796 --> 00:27:35,476 Speaker 1: would and hear the use of new doubleholed oil tankers 401 00:27:35,476 --> 00:27:37,956 Speaker 1: in order to see if guard the environment. And the 402 00:27:38,036 --> 00:27:45,316 Speaker 1: response has been foodfully blamingly positive, better things for better living. 403 00:27:49,116 --> 00:27:52,196 Speaker 1: And as for what happened after that, you probably know 404 00:27:52,276 --> 00:27:56,876 Speaker 1: what happened next. Rising temperatures, the increasing severity of storms, 405 00:27:57,036 --> 00:28:00,516 Speaker 1: the forest fires. Why even bother thinking about whether it 406 00:28:00,716 --> 00:28:05,036 Speaker 1: could have gone another way? No one proposed tree branch. 407 00:28:05,916 --> 00:28:09,356 Speaker 1: That is my own cockamamie idea. But why is it 408 00:28:09,396 --> 00:28:13,076 Speaker 1: a cochomamy idea? What if it could have worked? What 409 00:28:13,196 --> 00:28:15,356 Speaker 1: would have happened if we'd had a third branch of 410 00:28:15,356 --> 00:28:18,836 Speaker 1: the legislature in which representation was proportionate not to people 411 00:28:18,876 --> 00:28:21,756 Speaker 1: but to trees. States would have had a huge incentive 412 00:28:21,836 --> 00:28:24,036 Speaker 1: not to cut down forests, certainly not to cut them 413 00:28:24,036 --> 00:28:27,996 Speaker 1: down without planting new ones. Urban forestry would have grown. 414 00:28:28,476 --> 00:28:31,596 Speaker 1: Cities would have planted more trees. Suburbs would have provided 415 00:28:31,596 --> 00:28:35,876 Speaker 1: incentives to homeowners to plant groves instead of lawns. More 416 00:28:35,956 --> 00:28:40,196 Speaker 1: carbon would have been sequestered. Okay, and obviously that is oversimplifying. 417 00:28:40,236 --> 00:28:42,396 Speaker 1: A lot of other messy stuff would have happened too. 418 00:28:43,236 --> 00:28:46,956 Speaker 1: But I've been thinking this last archive season of Solutions 419 00:28:46,996 --> 00:28:51,356 Speaker 1: about the US Constitution and its brittleness. Given the polarization 420 00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:54,876 Speaker 1: of American politics since the nineteen seventies, it is now 421 00:28:54,916 --> 00:29:00,836 Speaker 1: effectively impossible to amend the Constitution. But what if it weren't. 422 00:29:01,316 --> 00:29:03,796 Speaker 1: Could what I have imagined really have happened in the 423 00:29:03,876 --> 00:29:07,956 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. I decided to ask world renowned environmental activists 424 00:29:07,956 --> 00:29:11,396 Speaker 1: Bill mckibbon, we talked about that first Earth Day in 425 00:29:11,436 --> 00:29:14,716 Speaker 1: which one in ten Americans took part the watershed of 426 00:29:14,796 --> 00:29:19,756 Speaker 1: the environmental movement, probably the biggest protest in the history 427 00:29:19,756 --> 00:29:22,476 Speaker 1: of the country. And it wins most of the things 428 00:29:22,516 --> 00:29:25,756 Speaker 1: that it's asking for right away. You know, the Clean 429 00:29:25,796 --> 00:29:28,996 Speaker 1: Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, 430 00:29:29,316 --> 00:29:32,596 Speaker 1: and the air starts to get cleaner quickly, and all 431 00:29:32,636 --> 00:29:35,036 Speaker 1: of a sudden you can swim in lakes and streams 432 00:29:35,036 --> 00:29:38,396 Speaker 1: that were catching on fire, you know, a few years before, 433 00:29:38,716 --> 00:29:41,116 Speaker 1: and again it's Nixon's White House. Nixon is signing all 434 00:29:41,116 --> 00:29:43,596 Speaker 1: these bills, and he says the seventies are going to 435 00:29:43,636 --> 00:29:47,116 Speaker 1: be the environmental secade. And this was proofed by the 436 00:29:47,156 --> 00:29:50,636 Speaker 1: way of the power of that movement because Nixon literally 437 00:29:50,676 --> 00:29:53,756 Speaker 1: had not an environmental bonus. We know from listening to 438 00:29:53,756 --> 00:29:56,916 Speaker 1: the tapes now that he thought they were all smelly hippies. 439 00:29:57,356 --> 00:29:59,956 Speaker 1: But he had no choice. I mean, for four or 440 00:29:59,996 --> 00:30:02,996 Speaker 1: five years, if you put the word environment in the 441 00:30:02,996 --> 00:30:06,596 Speaker 1: title of a bill, it passed. And these were huge, 442 00:30:06,756 --> 00:30:09,796 Speaker 1: you know, big things. They're still those, I mean, the 443 00:30:09,836 --> 00:30:13,556 Speaker 1: only legislation had ever really passed about this stuff and 444 00:30:13,596 --> 00:30:15,836 Speaker 1: the stuff that we still rely on when we try 445 00:30:15,836 --> 00:30:19,356 Speaker 1: to fight nplians and stuff. All passed in nineteen seventy 446 00:30:19,396 --> 00:30:22,756 Speaker 1: three and was signed by Richard Nixon. And that was 447 00:30:22,756 --> 00:30:25,716 Speaker 1: true until a few months after I talked to mckibbon, 448 00:30:26,156 --> 00:30:30,316 Speaker 1: Biden signed the first major climate legislation. It did a lot, 449 00:30:30,756 --> 00:30:35,956 Speaker 1: it did nowhere near enough. Mckibbon says, in the nineteen seventies, 450 00:30:36,076 --> 00:30:38,756 Speaker 1: Earth Day was in a way a victim of its 451 00:30:38,796 --> 00:30:43,676 Speaker 1: own success. Had won the easy things, and then it 452 00:30:43,716 --> 00:30:47,996 Speaker 1: wasn't able to win the hard ones. Environmentalism stopped being 453 00:30:48,636 --> 00:30:51,996 Speaker 1: very early on a mass movement because it was so 454 00:30:52,036 --> 00:30:56,076 Speaker 1: successful after Earthday nineteen seventy or within a couple of years. 455 00:30:56,556 --> 00:31:00,316 Speaker 1: Everybody had left the streets because they were winning every 456 00:31:00,356 --> 00:31:04,676 Speaker 1: bill they put forward in Congress, every court decision, whatever, 457 00:31:04,756 --> 00:31:07,716 Speaker 1: and which was great. It was working until it wasn't, 458 00:31:08,156 --> 00:31:13,636 Speaker 1: and the other side fought back very hard. So the 459 00:31:13,756 --> 00:31:18,276 Speaker 1: environmental movement moves off the streets and into big institutions, 460 00:31:18,716 --> 00:31:21,076 Speaker 1: and it's just not prepared either for the strength of 461 00:31:21,116 --> 00:31:25,916 Speaker 1: the opposition or for the magnitude of the problem. And 462 00:31:26,036 --> 00:31:30,676 Speaker 1: the problem is that the things that were addressing are 463 00:31:30,716 --> 00:31:34,796 Speaker 1: the easy things. It turns out they're the problems when 464 00:31:34,956 --> 00:31:37,076 Speaker 1: something goes a little wrong, like you don't have the 465 00:31:37,156 --> 00:31:40,196 Speaker 1: right filter on your smoke stack or your car or whatever. 466 00:31:40,556 --> 00:31:44,876 Speaker 1: And you can fix them by putting a catalytic converter 467 00:31:45,036 --> 00:31:47,716 Speaker 1: in or a scrubber in your smoke stack. And yeah, 468 00:31:47,716 --> 00:31:49,636 Speaker 1: it costs a little money, but it's not the end 469 00:31:49,636 --> 00:31:51,916 Speaker 1: of the world. And once you do that, you've made 470 00:31:52,196 --> 00:31:56,756 Speaker 1: extraordinary progress. In fact, the pollution that you can see 471 00:31:56,836 --> 00:32:01,556 Speaker 1: with your eyes begins to disappear. So, having solved this 472 00:32:01,716 --> 00:32:06,156 Speaker 1: one set of things, but without making fundamental shifts in 473 00:32:06,356 --> 00:32:09,796 Speaker 1: how we ran the world, we were setting ourselves up 474 00:32:09,836 --> 00:32:13,516 Speaker 1: for much, much deeper trouble. We didn't know about climate 475 00:32:13,596 --> 00:32:17,796 Speaker 1: change yet, but we were beginning to sense that it 476 00:32:17,876 --> 00:32:20,796 Speaker 1: was coming. More to the point, it was clear that 477 00:32:20,916 --> 00:32:25,916 Speaker 1: relying on oil had all kinds of pitfalls. Kibbin had 478 00:32:25,916 --> 00:32:29,796 Speaker 1: a different counterfactual from my whole tree branch thing, another 479 00:32:29,956 --> 00:32:35,476 Speaker 1: near miss, maybe nearly as consequential as my counterfactual. His 480 00:32:35,596 --> 00:32:40,116 Speaker 1: counterfactual was what if Jimmy Carter had succeeded in steering 481 00:32:40,116 --> 00:32:43,796 Speaker 1: the country towards solar power and away from oil. If 482 00:32:43,836 --> 00:32:47,996 Speaker 1: we had turned away from it in the nineteen seventies 483 00:32:48,236 --> 00:32:51,356 Speaker 1: done what Carter wanted to do and made this all 484 00:32:51,356 --> 00:32:57,356 Speaker 1: out commitment to solar power. Well, we would have not solved, 485 00:32:57,436 --> 00:33:01,676 Speaker 1: but addressed in a fundamental way what now has become 486 00:33:01,756 --> 00:33:06,876 Speaker 1: the single existential challenge on planet Earth. So tell me 487 00:33:06,916 --> 00:33:10,076 Speaker 1: a little bit about what Carter was and what happened 488 00:33:10,076 --> 00:33:14,396 Speaker 1: to Carter's proposals. So his main message about how we're 489 00:33:14,396 --> 00:33:19,996 Speaker 1: going to combat this problem is a conservation and there's 490 00:33:20,036 --> 00:33:22,396 Speaker 1: you know there he puts on the sweater and gives 491 00:33:22,436 --> 00:33:26,876 Speaker 1: the talk from the White House with the temperature thermostat 492 00:33:26,956 --> 00:33:30,356 Speaker 1: turned down. And the other thing he's doing is saying, 493 00:33:30,476 --> 00:33:34,556 Speaker 1: we have to figure out ways to power ourselves that 494 00:33:34,836 --> 00:33:39,756 Speaker 1: aren't reliant on fossil fuel opeque the rest of the 495 00:33:39,756 --> 00:33:43,196 Speaker 1: world today and directly harnessing the power of the sun. 496 00:33:43,276 --> 00:33:46,356 Speaker 1: We are taking the energy that God gave us and 497 00:33:46,556 --> 00:33:49,956 Speaker 1: using it to replace our dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. 498 00:33:50,916 --> 00:33:55,076 Speaker 1: And yet that didn't happen. Carter productive solar panels, made 499 00:33:55,116 --> 00:33:58,436 Speaker 1: that plan, and then Reagan defeated him in nineteen eighty 500 00:33:58,516 --> 00:34:01,476 Speaker 1: and then Regan took down those solar panels and scrapped 501 00:34:01,476 --> 00:34:04,996 Speaker 1: that plan. Carter put on a sweater, Reagan said, turn 502 00:34:05,076 --> 00:34:08,716 Speaker 1: up the thermostat. This is America. So this is one 503 00:34:08,716 --> 00:34:12,756 Speaker 1: of these rare like counterfactual history things where it's pretty 504 00:34:12,756 --> 00:34:14,956 Speaker 1: easy to play out what would happen if you'd actually 505 00:34:14,956 --> 00:34:17,476 Speaker 1: done it, you know, if we'd done that, if we'd 506 00:34:17,476 --> 00:34:21,716 Speaker 1: made a serious governmental commitment to doing this, There's there 507 00:34:21,756 --> 00:34:24,916 Speaker 1: was no physical or technological obstacle that would have kept 508 00:34:24,996 --> 00:34:28,956 Speaker 1: us from developing cheap solar energy in the nineteen eighties 509 00:34:28,956 --> 00:34:32,276 Speaker 1: and nineteen nineties instead of in the twenty tenths, which 510 00:34:32,316 --> 00:34:34,836 Speaker 1: is when we finally did. You know, it would have 511 00:34:34,876 --> 00:34:37,796 Speaker 1: been the greatest of gifts to the whole world to 512 00:34:37,956 --> 00:34:41,076 Speaker 1: have done this thirty years earlier. Well, we would have 513 00:34:41,076 --> 00:34:43,116 Speaker 1: been well on the way to knowing what to do 514 00:34:43,196 --> 00:34:45,796 Speaker 1: and how to deal with it. But of course we 515 00:34:45,836 --> 00:34:50,716 Speaker 1: didn't do that. And just as I really can't say 516 00:34:50,756 --> 00:34:53,796 Speaker 1: what establishing a chamber of Nature would have meant, mckimn 517 00:34:53,796 --> 00:34:56,276 Speaker 1: can't be sure how far solar might have gone if 518 00:34:56,316 --> 00:34:58,916 Speaker 1: Carter had won re election in nineteen eighty and stayed 519 00:34:58,916 --> 00:35:02,276 Speaker 1: the course on solar power. It's still good to dream, though, 520 00:35:03,516 --> 00:35:06,836 Speaker 1: I told mckimn about our counterfactual the lorex, the tree 521 00:35:06,836 --> 00:35:09,716 Speaker 1: branch the whole nine yards. I wanted to see what 522 00:35:09,756 --> 00:35:15,316 Speaker 1: he thought about it. It's not a completely fanciful counter factual, 523 00:35:15,836 --> 00:35:18,676 Speaker 1: the idea that things might have broken very differently in 524 00:35:18,676 --> 00:35:21,316 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, and it may have been the last 525 00:35:21,396 --> 00:35:27,156 Speaker 1: chance for things to really break differently. Admittedly, the Chamber 526 00:35:27,156 --> 00:35:31,156 Speaker 1: of Nature is wacky calculating political representation by counting trees, 527 00:35:31,636 --> 00:35:34,516 Speaker 1: but as mckibbon pointed out, so is measuring the health 528 00:35:34,516 --> 00:35:38,116 Speaker 1: of a country with its GDP. It's gross domestic product. 529 00:35:38,836 --> 00:35:42,316 Speaker 1: I mean, governments count stuff. That's they're going to count something. 530 00:35:42,796 --> 00:35:46,916 Speaker 1: And if they were counting number of trees or number 531 00:35:46,956 --> 00:35:49,236 Speaker 1: of eagles or whatever it is, it would have led 532 00:35:49,236 --> 00:35:51,676 Speaker 1: to a whole different set of outcomes. Probably, But the 533 00:35:51,796 --> 00:35:54,716 Speaker 1: reason is because it would have shifted our sense of 534 00:35:54,756 --> 00:36:00,396 Speaker 1: what was important. Would it have worked the tree branch 535 00:36:01,116 --> 00:36:05,836 Speaker 1: political power based on trees? I expected out once using 536 00:36:05,876 --> 00:36:09,076 Speaker 1: Forest Service reports to calculate which dates would have benefit 537 00:36:09,196 --> 00:36:11,596 Speaker 1: it at the start, and how different states could have 538 00:36:11,636 --> 00:36:15,556 Speaker 1: benefited from the incentive to plant more trees save more forests. 539 00:36:16,436 --> 00:36:18,276 Speaker 1: What I came up with is that I think it 540 00:36:18,356 --> 00:36:22,236 Speaker 1: might have thwarted polarization because it's not the usual Red State, 541 00:36:22,316 --> 00:36:25,956 Speaker 1: Blue State divide. The season of the last Archive is 542 00:36:25,996 --> 00:36:30,356 Speaker 1: about fixes. Fixing the constitution is not really one of them. 543 00:36:30,476 --> 00:36:32,956 Speaker 1: What's the problem we're trying to fix here? It's not 544 00:36:32,996 --> 00:36:36,196 Speaker 1: a scarcity of information, a lack of knowledge, the absence 545 00:36:36,236 --> 00:36:39,876 Speaker 1: of proof. The evidence for climate change has been everywhere 546 00:36:39,916 --> 00:36:43,316 Speaker 1: for decades now. Every year the evidence has grown stronger, 547 00:36:43,756 --> 00:36:48,636 Speaker 1: and slowly, slowly, so did the environmental movement. There is 548 00:36:48,716 --> 00:36:54,156 Speaker 1: no planet by to have a lovable future. So what 549 00:36:55,156 --> 00:37:02,836 Speaker 1: are the climate change denihilists are? By now dead and dying? 550 00:37:03,596 --> 00:37:06,196 Speaker 1: Which should have been common knowledge in nineteen seventy two 551 00:37:06,276 --> 00:37:12,356 Speaker 1: is a half century later, undeniable, Dear representatives of the media. 552 00:37:12,516 --> 00:37:16,236 Speaker 1: I've seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing 553 00:37:16,316 --> 00:37:19,796 Speaker 1: like these. In twenty twenty two, a member of the IPCC, 554 00:37:20,196 --> 00:37:24,756 Speaker 1: the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reported that 555 00:37:24,876 --> 00:37:28,356 Speaker 1: any further delay in concerted global action will miss a 556 00:37:28,396 --> 00:37:32,076 Speaker 1: brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future. 557 00:37:32,756 --> 00:37:38,076 Speaker 1: Antonio Guteresh, head of the IPCC, underscored the point today's 558 00:37:38,116 --> 00:37:41,716 Speaker 1: IPCC report is a necklace of human suffering and the 559 00:37:41,836 --> 00:37:46,796 Speaker 1: damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, 560 00:37:47,276 --> 00:37:50,236 Speaker 1: these reports reveals all people on the planet are getting 561 00:37:50,316 --> 00:37:55,076 Speaker 1: clobered by climate change. These abdication of leadership is criminal. 562 00:37:56,636 --> 00:38:01,276 Speaker 1: I wanted Season three to be upbeat, cheerful, good ideas solutions. 563 00:38:02,476 --> 00:38:05,956 Speaker 1: This abdication of leadership is criminal. But I do still 564 00:38:05,956 --> 00:38:08,316 Speaker 1: think if a window is now closing, there's much to 565 00:38:08,356 --> 00:38:11,436 Speaker 1: be learned by looking back through the clouded light of 566 00:38:11,516 --> 00:38:16,916 Speaker 1: other windows. I know people everywhere are anxious and angry. 567 00:38:17,356 --> 00:38:20,236 Speaker 1: I am too. Now is the time to turn rage 568 00:38:20,236 --> 00:38:23,836 Speaker 1: into action. Every fraction of their degree matters, every voice 569 00:38:23,836 --> 00:38:28,996 Speaker 1: can make a difference, and every second counts. Twenty twenty 570 00:38:28,996 --> 00:38:33,596 Speaker 1: two was a year for real, genuine celebration, the first 571 00:38:33,676 --> 00:38:37,436 Speaker 1: meaningful climate legislation in the United States, and more than 572 00:38:37,476 --> 00:38:41,316 Speaker 1: a generation. It's gone a long way, but it hasn't 573 00:38:41,316 --> 00:38:45,676 Speaker 1: gone far enough. I don't want my grandchildren to look 574 00:38:45,676 --> 00:38:48,876 Speaker 1: back at twenty twenty two the way I look back 575 00:38:49,076 --> 00:38:52,956 Speaker 1: at nineteen seventy two and say, oh my god, they 576 00:38:52,956 --> 00:38:55,516 Speaker 1: were so close. They did so much, They were so 577 00:38:55,596 --> 00:38:58,836 Speaker 1: close to doing what needed to be done. If only 578 00:38:58,876 --> 00:39:03,316 Speaker 1: they'd had a little bit more imagination. I don't want 579 00:39:03,316 --> 00:39:20,436 Speaker 1: to have been close. Close is not enough. The last 580 00:39:20,556 --> 00:39:23,956 Speaker 1: archive is written and hosted by me Jill Lapour. It's 581 00:39:23,996 --> 00:39:27,916 Speaker 1: produced by Sophie Crane, Ben Natt of Hafrey and Lucy Sullivan. 582 00:39:28,196 --> 00:39:31,076 Speaker 1: Our editors are Julia Barton and Sophie Crane, and our 583 00:39:31,116 --> 00:39:34,796 Speaker 1: executive producer is Mia Lobell. Jake Gorsky is our engineer. 584 00:39:35,396 --> 00:39:39,476 Speaker 1: Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Original music by Matthias Boss 585 00:39:39,916 --> 00:39:44,076 Speaker 1: and John Evans of Stellwagen Symfinett. Our research assistant is 586 00:39:44,156 --> 00:39:48,716 Speaker 1: Mia Hazra. Our full proof player is Robert Ricotta. Many 587 00:39:48,716 --> 00:39:50,916 Speaker 1: of our sound effects are from Harry Janette Junior and 588 00:39:51,076 --> 00:39:54,476 Speaker 1: the Star Jennette Foundation. The Last Archive is a production 589 00:39:54,516 --> 00:39:57,756 Speaker 1: of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show, consider subscribing 590 00:39:57,756 --> 00:40:01,676 Speaker 1: to Pushkin Plus, offering bonus content like The Last Archivist, 591 00:40:01,996 --> 00:40:05,596 Speaker 1: a limited series just for subscribers, and add free listening 592 00:40:05,636 --> 00:40:08,916 Speaker 1: across our network for four ninety nine a month. Look 593 00:40:08,916 --> 00:40:12,556 Speaker 1: for Pushkin Plus channel on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin 594 00:40:12,796 --> 00:40:16,076 Speaker 1: dot Fm. If you like the show, please remember to rate, 595 00:40:16,196 --> 00:40:19,956 Speaker 1: share and review. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on 596 00:40:20,036 --> 00:40:24,076 Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 597 00:40:24,596 --> 00:40:25,396 Speaker 1: I'm Jill Lapor