Few episodes in United States history helped forge today’s culture of environmental awareness more than a controversial proposal to build dams within Grand Canyon National Park.
The Grand Canyon’s unique beauty and immense scale have impressed generations of Americans, making the Northern Arizona landmark one of the nation’s most symbolically rich natural landscapes.
The Canyon is formed by the Colorado River, a water system running from the Rocky Mountains into the Gulf of California. The Colorado is one of the largest sources of fresh water and hydro-electric power available to arid portions of the western United States. The river’s resources have been taxed by ever-increasing populations. Dams had already been built on much of the Colorado when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed erecting new dams within the Grand Canyon in the mid 1960s. The dams were proposed despite the Grand Canyon’s designation as a federally protected National Park (1919.)
The group "Bike for a Better City" encouraged New York commuters and lawmakers to view bicycling as a means for everyday transportation. The organization, founded in 1970 by Barry Fishman and Harriet Green, called for the establishment of special bike lanes to make city biking safer.
The menace of air pollution and global warming proved a potent motivating force for groups advocating renewable energy sources. The benign nature of wind power became another selling point, especially after the 1979 reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island raised widespread concern about the safety of nuclear power generation.
The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.
This button promotes the recreational uses of nature. The tremendous expansion of outdoor recreation throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s helped raise the level of support for environmental causes. Ironically, it also contributed to the degradation of natural areas. The increasing numbers of visitors have caused traffic jams inside national parks and increased use has damaged fragile ecosystems.
The slogan on this button refers to James G. Watt, who was named Secretary of the Interior by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Due to controversial positions regarding the commercial development of federal lands, environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, and Friends of the Earth criticized Watt during his tenure and called for his ouster. Watt resigned in 1983 after making inappropriate comments before Congress regarding the makeup of his department.
Produced by the group Zero Population Growth, this button highlights anxiety created by the continued growth of the world’s population, first remarked upon by Englishman Thomas Malthus in his 1798 work, An Essay on the Principle of Population. Paul R. Ehrlich’s bestselling book The Population Bomb, published in 1968, renewed interest in the topic by raising concerns about the potential risks of overpopulation.
On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, off the coast of Alaska. Almost 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the sea, the largest oil spill in United States history. The resulting oil slick contaminated 1,300 miles of coastline and killed over 200,000 sea birds and sea mammals such as otters, seals, and killer whales. The clean-up cost over 2.2 billion dollars.
Environmental disasters are often used to galvanize public support for reform; the Exxon Valdez accident is a perfect example. This button was produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the event.