Why did the attitudes of people change in the 1970s in the realization of the affects of toxic waste on individuals and the environment and how and why did toxics become an issue? Why did the ethics of this time period bring an improved understanding of the effects these toxic wastes had and have on the environment, which paved the rode for the government to create the superfund?
The environmental movement started in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. At this time the movement was split into two segments, although none were focused on the toxic waste or the effects of Industrialization on the environment, it was an awareness of the finite world that we live in. Preservationists and progressive conservation were the groups that fostered environmental concerns. The preservationists attempt was to sustain the environment, while the progressive conservation attempts were a marriage to the land where man could utilize the land in the promotion of well being if necessary .
Water Pollution with Trash Disposal of Waste at th...
pollution
English: Mike Metzer, from the Environmental Prote...Paralleling these two environmental groups was the movements of two urban groups called profesionalization and reform in the late 1800's. These two groups defined themselves in the changing environmental situations in the urban industrial environment.2
The start of the Industrial Revolution ignited the start of the struggle between man and environment. Waste in the form of pollution was the reaction that Mother Nature took in the response of what man had thought to be progress. Well into the 20th century smokestacks were symbolic of production and a sign of progress. The area of pollution to get noticed first was air pollution. There are letters to the editor in the early 1900's complaining of the "smoke menace" in many New York Times articles dating back to this time period. In 1891 the professionalization was the first to...