HIST 302: Environmental History in the Modern US -- Professor Kleiman: Ideas for your Research Paper Topic

Pollution:

• Hazardous waste (EPA)
• Recycling
• Pesticides
• Nuclear waste disposal (DOE)
• Oil spills (Santa Barbara, 1969; Exxon Valdez, 1989)
• Ozone depletion (EPA)
• Fuel efficiency standards (cars)
• Automobile and environment (cars vs. wilderness/parks, cars and suburban sprawl)
• Asbestos (EPA)
• Lead poisoning/tetraethyl lead (EPA, NIH)
• Love Canal case (EPA, NYS)
• Eastman Kodak case (EPA, NYS)
• Agent Orange (DOD)

Technological Disasters:

• Oil Spills (Santa Barbara, 1969; Exxon Valdez, 1989)
• Love Canal case (EPA, NYS)
• Three Mile Island, (1978)
• Ozone depletion and Climate Change (EPA)
• Deforestation
• Strip Mining (EPA, Bureau of Mines)
• Dam Breaks

Population and Land-Use Issues:

• Population control
• Suburban sprawl/land-use planning (EPA)
• Automobile and environment (cars vs. wilderness/parks, cars and suburban sprawl)
• Conservation Land Trusts and Community Land Trusts
• Resource depletion
• Factory farming/industrial agriculture (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• Sustainable agriculture (USDA, LISA/SARE program)
• Space Colonization (NASA)
• self sufficiency, technology, and the environment (Borsodi, 1960's back-to-the-land movement)

Sustainable versus Industrial Agriculture:

• Sustainable agriculture (USDA, LISA/SARE program, non-profit organizations)
• Community Supported Agriculture
• Organic standards/labeling
• Agricultural biotechnology: genetic diversity; genetic drift; human health (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• Technology assessment (Congressional Office of Technology Assessment)
• Amish and technology
• Appropriate technology movement
• self sufficiency, technology, and the environment (Borsodi, 1960's back-to-the-land movement)
• Pollution (EPA)
• Resource depletion
• Pesticides
• Factory farming/industrial agriculture (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• River dams and irrigation projects (Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers)
• Economic growth debate

Early Conservationists/Preservationists:

Politicians/Civil Servants
(Pro- and Anti-Environmental Protection):

• Theodore Roosevelt
• Lyndon Johnson
• Jimmy Carter
• Al Gore
• Ralph Nader
• John F. Kennedy, Jr.
• Bernie Sanders
• Nelson Rockefeller
• Harold Ickes
• Rexford Tugwell
• Floyd Dominy
• Earl Butz
• Jamie Whitten
• Richard Nixon

Resource Depletion:

• Factory farming/industrial agriculture (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• Oil dependency
• Ozone depletion (EPA)
• Fuel efficiency standards (cars)
• Mining and environmental degradation (EPA, Bureau of Mines)
• Sustainable agriculture (USDA, LISA/SARE program)
• Space colonization (NASA)
• Appropriate technology movement
• self sufficiency, technology, and the environment (Borsodi, 1960's back-to-the-land movement)

"Natural" Disasters:

• Forest fire policy: suppression, controlled burns, etc. (FEMA)
• Earthquakes (FEMA)
• Floods (FEMA)
• Landslides (FEMA)

Biotechnology:

• Agricultural biotechnology: genetic diversity; genetic drift; patent issues; human health (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• Green Revolution (Rockefeller Foundation, Norman Borlaug)
• Perennial Polyculture (Land Institute)
• Factory farming/industrial agriculture (USDA, EPA, FDA)
• Organic standards/labeling
• Sustainable agriculture (USDA, LISA/SARE program)

Appropriate Technology:

• Appropriate Technology Movement (NCAT, ATTRA, non-profit organizations, private enterprises)
• Renewable Energy (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen, etc.)
• Ecological Design
• Sustainable agriculture (USDA, LISA/SARE program)
• Technology assessment (Congressional Office of Technology Assessment)
• The New Urbanism/land-use planning (EPA)
• Economic growth debate
• Organic standards/labelling
• Amish and technology
• self sufficiency, technology, and the environment (Borsodi, 1960's back-to-the-land movement)

Governmental Policy:

• Climate Change
• Acid Rain
• Land-Use Planning
• Environmental Impact Statements
• Fuel efficiency standards (cars)
• Technology assessment (Congressional Office of Technology Assessment)
• Forest fire policy: suppression, controlled burns, etc. (FEMA)
• Sagebrush Rebellion
• Love Canal case (EPA, NYS)
• Three Mile Island, 1978)
• Storm King case, 1965 (Sierra club, NYS, Consolidated Edison Corp.)
• Eastman Kodak case (EPA, NYS)
• Agent Orange (DOD)
• Exxon Valdez oil spill, 1989
• Santa barbara oil spill, 1969

More Recent Conservationists/Preservationists:

Agriculture (Sustainable and Industrial):

• Hugh Bennett
• Paul Sears
• Walter R. Goldschmidt
• Wendell Berry
• Wes Jackson
• Marty Strange
• Jim Hightower
• Elizabeth Henderson
• J.I. and Robert Rodale
• Norman Borlaug
• Henry Wallace
• Earl Butz
• Jamie Whitten