Ecology Emerges 1970s - Revision history

Ccarlsson at 05:49, 24 November 2021

2021-11-24T05:49:21Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:49, 23 November 2021
Line 279:		Line 279:
	''reprinted from the anthology "Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78" (City Lights Foundation: 2011), edited by Chris Carlsson.''		''reprinted from the anthology "Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78" (City Lights Foundation: 2011), edited by Chris Carlsson.''

	[[Image:Ten Years small 87286100958430M.gif]] Find the book at [~~http~~://~~www.~~citylights.com/~~book~~/~~?GCOI=87286100958430~~ City Lights]!		[[Image:Ten Years small 87286100958430M.gif]] Find the book at [https://citylights.com/foundation-books/10-years-that-shook-the-city-sf-68-78/ City Lights]!

	The research for this article was based in part on a series of oral history interviews done as part of the [http://www.shapingsf.org/ecology_emerges.html "Ecology Emerges"] series.		The research for this article was based in part on a series of oral history interviews done as part of the [http://www.shapingsf.org/ecology_emerges.html "Ecology Emerges"] series.

Ccarlsson at 03:46, 11 September 2020

2020-09-11T03:46:57Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:46, 10 September 2020
Line 67:		Line 67:
	An influential figure that is not often credited with shaping the modern environmental movement is Saul Alinsky, the author of the 1971 ''Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals''.(7) He inspired Ralph Nader and Cesar Chavez, to name but two of the many important figures who learned about community organizing from Alinsky. Nader of course went on to establish a wide variety of public interest organizations, often addressing consumer safety and health issues, an early type of pre-environmental organizing. But Chavez would use the door-to-door and house meeting techniques he learned as a member of the Community Services Organization, a group affiliated with Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, to found the United Farm Workers Union.		An influential figure that is not often credited with shaping the modern environmental movement is Saul Alinsky, the author of the 1971 ''Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals''.(7) He inspired Ralph Nader and Cesar Chavez, to name but two of the many important figures who learned about community organizing from Alinsky. Nader of course went on to establish a wide variety of public interest organizations, often addressing consumer safety and health issues, an early type of pre-environmental organizing. But Chavez would use the door-to-door and house meeting techniques he learned as a member of the Community Services Organization, a group affiliated with Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, to found the United Farm Workers Union.

	Chavez put together an unprecedented alliance with environmental groups and consumers. The national grape boycott went on for several years before California growers gave in and signed union contracts in 1970-71. What is less remembered from that period was the agitation going on in supermarket parking lots on behalf of the grape boycott that educated middle- and working-class shoppers about the severe problem of pesticides on food. The farm workers were being contaminated by DDT and similar poisons (made infamous by Rachel Carson’s 1962 ''Silent Spring''). Historian Robert Gordon summarizes Chavez’s new awareness:		[[CESAR CHAVEZ and San Francisco\|Chavez]] put together an unprecedented alliance with environmental groups and consumers. The national grape boycott went on for several years before California growers gave in and signed union contracts in 1970-71. What is less remembered from that period was the agitation going on in supermarket parking lots on behalf of the grape boycott that educated middle- and working-class shoppers about the severe problem of pesticides on food. The farm workers were being contaminated by DDT and similar poisons (made infamous by Rachel Carson’s 1962 ''Silent Spring''). Historian Robert Gordon summarizes Chavez’s new awareness:

	<blockquote>Recognizing the potential appeal of a fight to protect workers, consumers, and the environment, Chavez stated that ‘the issue of the health and safety of farm workers in California and throughout the US is the single most important issue facing the United Farm Workers Union…We have come to realize… that the issue of pesticide poisoning is more important today than even wages.’(8)</blockquote>		<blockquote>Recognizing the potential appeal of a fight to protect workers, consumers, and the environment, Chavez stated that ‘the issue of the health and safety of farm workers in California and throughout the US is the single most important issue facing the United Farm Workers Union…We have come to realize… that the issue of pesticide poisoning is more important today than even wages.’(8)</blockquote>
Line 136:		Line 136:
	<blockquote>By the early seventies, the focus of the left counterculture had shifted to the countryside. Many of the people who had made up the countercultural wing of the antiwar movement were moving to rural areas in northern New England, Northern California, and elsewhere to construct communities where they hoped to live their values and perhaps begin to build a movement expressive of them… The counterculture’s use of guerrilla theater and other forms of creative expression, its lack of interest in the conventional political arena, its emphasis on the creation of alternative communities, all suggested that revolution had more to do with thinking and living differently, and convincing others to make similar changes, than with seizing power.(17)</blockquote>		<blockquote>By the early seventies, the focus of the left counterculture had shifted to the countryside. Many of the people who had made up the countercultural wing of the antiwar movement were moving to rural areas in northern New England, Northern California, and elsewhere to construct communities where they hoped to live their values and perhaps begin to build a movement expressive of them… The counterculture’s use of guerrilla theater and other forms of creative expression, its lack of interest in the conventional political arena, its emphasis on the creation of alternative communities, all suggested that revolution had more to do with thinking and living differently, and convincing others to make similar changes, than with seizing power.(17)</blockquote>

	In California the anti-nuclear movement had been growing for many years. Doris Sloan was one of the residents of the small apple-farming town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County who joined the effort to stop PG&E from building a nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast at Bodega Head (the struggle lasted from 1958-1963). Her proto-ecological opposition was informed by her sympathetic support for the anti-atmospheric testing movement, which had begun to demonstrate the health hazards of radioactive fallout. She recalls that she and her fellow Sonoma County citizens trying to stop the PG&E nuclear power plant did not identify themselves as conservationists or by any particular label. “We just saw ourselves as a small group of people battling for safety and aesthetic reasons. We were just a bunch of people battling PG&E because we didn’t think there should be a nuclear plant on the San Andreas Fault, y’know?!” PG&E was eventually stopped, but not before digging a big hole at Bodega Head, which at present day is an oceanside lagoon.		In California the anti-nuclear movement had been growing for many years. Doris Sloan was one of the residents of the small apple-farming town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County who joined the effort to stop PG&E from building a nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast at [[Battle for Bodega Bay: The Sierra Club and Nuclear Power, 1958-1964\|Bodega Head]] (the struggle lasted from 1958-1963). Her proto-ecological opposition was informed by her sympathetic support for the anti-atmospheric testing movement, which had begun to demonstrate the health hazards of radioactive fallout. She recalls that she and her fellow Sonoma County citizens trying to stop the PG&E nuclear power plant did not identify themselves as conservationists or by any particular label. “We just saw ourselves as a small group of people battling for safety and aesthetic reasons. We were just a bunch of people battling PG&E because we didn’t think there should be a nuclear plant on the San Andreas Fault, y’know?!” PG&E was eventually stopped, but not before digging a big hole at Bodega Head, which at present day is an oceanside lagoon.

	The Diablo Canyon controversy started in 1963 when PG&E gave up trying to build the Bodega reactor. Rather than face similar public opposition at Diablo Canyon, PG&E approached the Sierra Club’s president and cut a deal with certain board members where Diablo would be chosen rather than the Nipomo Dunes area, which PG&E had originally chosen. The Sierra Club president forbade any chapter from opposing Diablo Canyon, so the San Luis Obispo Chapter formed the Shoreline Preservation Conference to oppose the construction on the grounds that the area had been proposed as a state park, was a sacred Chumash Indian site, had some of the largest oak trees on the West Coast, was located on the second to last coastal wilderness area in California, and was very likely sitting on the fault that destroyed Santa Barbara in a 1927 earthquake.(18)		The Diablo Canyon controversy started in 1963 when PG&E gave up trying to build the Bodega reactor. Rather than face similar public opposition at Diablo Canyon, PG&E approached the Sierra Club’s president and cut a deal with certain board members where Diablo would be chosen rather than the Nipomo Dunes area, which PG&E had originally chosen. The Sierra Club president forbade any chapter from opposing Diablo Canyon, so the San Luis Obispo Chapter formed the Shoreline Preservation Conference to oppose the construction on the grounds that the area had been proposed as a state park, was a sacred Chumash Indian site, had some of the largest oak trees on the West Coast, was located on the second to last coastal wilderness area in California, and was very likely sitting on the fault that destroyed Santa Barbara in a 1927 earthquake.(18)

Ccarlsson: added link to new article and italics here and there

2019-09-14T22:26:23Z

added link to new article and italics here and there

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:26, 14 September 2019
Line 49:		Line 49:
	Bill Evers, who had been a founder of the mainstream California Planning & Conservation League in the mid-1960s, and became a longtime board member of the Greenbelt Alliance, found himself surprised at the new kind of politics that had erupted in the streets: “I did not ever envision [protesting in public]. I thought it could even be counterproductive, offend people. They’d say ‘that’s not how democracy works. If you gotta gripe, vote another guy into office.’ But I think the demonstrators have proven the value of it, in at least getting people to focus on the problem. It’s crude democracy, but it is democracy.”(4)		Bill Evers, who had been a founder of the mainstream California Planning & Conservation League in the mid-1960s, and became a longtime board member of the Greenbelt Alliance, found himself surprised at the new kind of politics that had erupted in the streets: “I did not ever envision [protesting in public]. I thought it could even be counterproductive, offend people. They’d say ‘that’s not how democracy works. If you gotta gripe, vote another guy into office.’ But I think the demonstrators have proven the value of it, in at least getting people to focus on the problem. It’s crude democracy, but it is democracy.”(4)

	In the fall of 1968, the Whole Earth Catalogue was published, featuring on its cover the first widely disseminated view of Earth from space. It had a galvanizing effect on many people, and gave a major boost to seeing the interconnectedness of life on Earth. Barbara Korr writes in the San Francisco Good Times underground newspaper of October 2, 1969, “We look around and see everywhere the plastic encroachment of the unreal on the natural. In the ecological view man is a member of a community which includes plants and animals—all the forms of life—and when the delicate strands of our mutual interdependence are destroyed or tampered with the result is a ravaged land and a ravaged people.” She was reporting on a Civic Center exhibit put on by Ecology Action, a group that was the ecology caucus within the Peace & Freedom Party, but which also started as an independent group. In 1969 they sponsored many events, including a “Smog-free Locomotion Day” on September 28 (a big bike ride through downtown Berkeley that looks a lot like a contemporary [[Critical Mass\|Critical Mass ride]]), an event that repeated itself in following years.		In the fall of 1968, the ''Whole Earth Catalogue'' was published, featuring on its cover the first widely disseminated view of Earth from space. It had a galvanizing effect on many people, and gave a major boost to seeing the interconnectedness of life on Earth. Barbara Korr writes in the'' San Francisco Good Times'' underground newspaper of October 2, 1969, “We look around and see everywhere the plastic encroachment of the unreal on the natural. In the ecological view man is a member of a community which includes plants and animals—all the forms of life—and when the delicate strands of our mutual interdependence are destroyed or tampered with the result is a ravaged land and a ravaged people.” She was reporting on a Civic Center exhibit put on by Ecology Action, a group that was the ecology caucus within the Peace & Freedom Party, but which also started as an independent group. In 1969 they sponsored many events, including a “Smog-free Locomotion Day” on September 28 (a big bike ride through downtown Berkeley that looks a lot like a contemporary [[Critical Mass\|Critical Mass ride]]), an event that repeated itself in following years.

	[[Image:Berkeley-daily-gazette-monday-march-1-1971.jpg]]		[[Image:Berkeley-daily-gazette-monday-march-1-1971.jpg]]
Line 61:		Line 61:
	The National Environmental Protection Act, passed prior to Earth Day after little debate in Congress by huge majorities in both houses, was signed by President Nixon in January 1970. It created the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and required for the first time an Environmental Impact Statement for every major federal project. Bevington reports that it provided “substantially increased opportunities for public participation in agency policy making, both by creating a detailed public record of environmental impacts and also by providing for increased public input and oversight.”(6)		The National Environmental Protection Act, passed prior to Earth Day after little debate in Congress by huge majorities in both houses, was signed by President Nixon in January 1970. It created the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and required for the first time an Environmental Impact Statement for every major federal project. Bevington reports that it provided “substantially increased opportunities for public participation in agency policy making, both by creating a detailed public record of environmental impacts and also by providing for increased public input and oversight.”(6)

	Only a decade earlier, Doris Sloan (who in 1975 took the helm of the fledgling UC Department of Environmental Sciences) had attended Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meetings as an activated housewife, only to find the officials sitting with their backs to the unexpected audience. As deliberations took place over PG&E’s proposed nuclear power plant in Bodega on the Sonoma County coast, there was no expectation of citizen participation, and the physical layout of government meetings reinforced the closed nature of the process. In 1970 the democratic surge outside of official channels would be given a seat at the table, at least with pre-arranged limits that reinforced who the real power holders were.		Only a decade earlier, Doris Sloan (who in 1975 took the helm of the fledgling UC Department of Environmental Sciences) had attended Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meetings as an activated housewife, only to find the officials sitting with their backs to the unexpected audience. As deliberations took place over [[Battle for Bodega Bay: The Sierra Club and Nuclear Power, 1958-1964\|PG&E’s proposed nuclear power plant in Bodega]] on the Sonoma County coast, there was no expectation of citizen participation, and the physical layout of government meetings reinforced the closed nature of the process. In 1970 the democratic surge outside of official channels would be given a seat at the table, at least with pre-arranged limits that reinforced who the real power holders were.

	Grassroots activism flourished and provided the public foundation for a challenge to scientific expertise, given impetus by the failure of establishment science to question the uses to which it was put. “Experts” pushed chemicals and chemical warfare, nuclear power, more freeways, increasingly industrialized agricultural systems, and so on. Opposition to the juggernaut of ecological destruction could only come from an emboldened citizenry, one that had learned to think and speak for itself. Karen Pickett was working at the Ecology Center in Berkeley in the mid-1970s, and she remembers “people feeling that even if they weren’t a scientist or an attorney they could go and testify at a BCDC hearing. Even if they didn’t have all the answers they could produce and distribute a factsheet or a booklet on something that people needed to know.”		Grassroots activism flourished and provided the public foundation for a challenge to scientific expertise, given impetus by the failure of establishment science to question the uses to which it was put. “Experts” pushed chemicals and chemical warfare, nuclear power, more freeways, increasingly industrialized agricultural systems, and so on. Opposition to the juggernaut of ecological destruction could only come from an emboldened citizenry, one that had learned to think and speak for itself. Karen Pickett was working at the Ecology Center in Berkeley in the mid-1970s, and she remembers “people feeling that even if they weren’t a scientist or an attorney they could go and testify at a BCDC hearing. Even if they didn’t have all the answers they could produce and distribute a factsheet or a booklet on something that people needed to know.”

Ccarlsson: added photo, fixed formatting

2018-09-07T23:34:22Z

added photo, fixed formatting

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:34, 7 September 2018
Line 134:		Line 134:
	Ecological campaigns were seeded in that first wave migration to the country. Those who retained a political approach turned themselves toward combating nuclear power, one of the most overwrought and self-defeating technologies ever invented. In later years many of these same activists, now much older, would be involved in the timber wars, river restoration campaigns, toxic waste and environmental justice struggles, and more. Barbara Epstein wrote an excellent history of the “nonviolent direct action anti-nuclear and peace movements” and nicely reconnects the anti-war movement’s back-to-the-land exodus with the next wave of ecological activism:		Ecological campaigns were seeded in that first wave migration to the country. Those who retained a political approach turned themselves toward combating nuclear power, one of the most overwrought and self-defeating technologies ever invented. In later years many of these same activists, now much older, would be involved in the timber wars, river restoration campaigns, toxic waste and environmental justice struggles, and more. Barbara Epstein wrote an excellent history of the “nonviolent direct action anti-nuclear and peace movements” and nicely reconnects the anti-war movement’s back-to-the-land exodus with the next wave of ecological activism:

	By the early seventies, the focus of the left counterculture had shifted to the countryside. Many of the people who had made up the countercultural wing of the antiwar movement were moving to rural areas in northern New England, Northern California, and elsewhere to construct communities where they hoped to live their values and perhaps begin to build a movement expressive of them… The counterculture’s use of guerrilla theater and other forms of creative expression, its lack of interest in the conventional political arena, its emphasis on the creation of alternative communities, all suggested that revolution had more to do with thinking and living differently, and convincing others to make similar changes, than with seizing power.(17)		<blockquote>By the early seventies, the focus of the left counterculture had shifted to the countryside. Many of the people who had made up the countercultural wing of the antiwar movement were moving to rural areas in northern New England, Northern California, and elsewhere to construct communities where they hoped to live their values and perhaps begin to build a movement expressive of them… The counterculture’s use of guerrilla theater and other forms of creative expression, its lack of interest in the conventional political arena, its emphasis on the creation of alternative communities, all suggested that revolution had more to do with thinking and living differently, and convincing others to make similar changes, than with seizing power.(17)</blockquote>

	In California the anti-nuclear movement had been growing for many years. Doris Sloan was one of the residents of the small apple-farming town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County who joined the effort to stop PG&E from building a nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast at Bodega Head (the struggle lasted from 1958-1963). Her proto-ecological opposition was informed by her sympathetic support for the anti-atmospheric testing movement, which had begun to demonstrate the health hazards of radioactive fallout. She recalls that she and her fellow Sonoma County citizens trying to stop the PG&E nuclear power plant did not identify themselves as conservationists or by any particular label. “We just saw ourselves as a small group of people battling for safety and aesthetic reasons. We were just a bunch of people battling PG&E because we didn’t think there should be a nuclear plant on the San Andreas Fault, y’know?!” PG&E was eventually stopped, but not before digging a big hole at Bodega Head, which at present day is an oceanside lagoon.		In California the anti-nuclear movement had been growing for many years. Doris Sloan was one of the residents of the small apple-farming town of Sebastopol in Sonoma County who joined the effort to stop PG&E from building a nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast at Bodega Head (the struggle lasted from 1958-1963). Her proto-ecological opposition was informed by her sympathetic support for the anti-atmospheric testing movement, which had begun to demonstrate the health hazards of radioactive fallout. She recalls that she and her fellow Sonoma County citizens trying to stop the PG&E nuclear power plant did not identify themselves as conservationists or by any particular label. “We just saw ourselves as a small group of people battling for safety and aesthetic reasons. We were just a bunch of people battling PG&E because we didn’t think there should be a nuclear plant on the San Andreas Fault, y’know?!” PG&E was eventually stopped, but not before digging a big hole at Bodega Head, which at present day is an oceanside lagoon.
Line 140:		Line 140:
	The Diablo Canyon controversy started in 1963 when PG&E gave up trying to build the Bodega reactor. Rather than face similar public opposition at Diablo Canyon, PG&E approached the Sierra Club’s president and cut a deal with certain board members where Diablo would be chosen rather than the Nipomo Dunes area, which PG&E had originally chosen. The Sierra Club president forbade any chapter from opposing Diablo Canyon, so the San Luis Obispo Chapter formed the Shoreline Preservation Conference to oppose the construction on the grounds that the area had been proposed as a state park, was a sacred Chumash Indian site, had some of the largest oak trees on the West Coast, was located on the second to last coastal wilderness area in California, and was very likely sitting on the fault that destroyed Santa Barbara in a 1927 earthquake.(18)		The Diablo Canyon controversy started in 1963 when PG&E gave up trying to build the Bodega reactor. Rather than face similar public opposition at Diablo Canyon, PG&E approached the Sierra Club’s president and cut a deal with certain board members where Diablo would be chosen rather than the Nipomo Dunes area, which PG&E had originally chosen. The Sierra Club president forbade any chapter from opposing Diablo Canyon, so the San Luis Obispo Chapter formed the Shoreline Preservation Conference to oppose the construction on the grounds that the area had been proposed as a state park, was a sacred Chumash Indian site, had some of the largest oak trees on the West Coast, was located on the second to last coastal wilderness area in California, and was very likely sitting on the fault that destroyed Santa Barbara in a 1927 earthquake.(18)

	After the oil shock of 1974, nuclear development in California was getting new support. In 1974-1975 Alvin Duskin, who played an important role in San Francisco and California environmental politics (he had funded a successful public relations campaign against the first Peripheral Canal plans in 1970, and organized hundreds of San Franciscan voters into a [[The House That Jack Built: A History of San Francisco Tomorrow\|grassroots campaign against high-rises]], popularly known as the effort to stop the Manhattanization of San Francisco),19 was involved in funding and organizing a statewide ballot proposition to ban nuclear power plant construction. The vote was slated for November 1975, and this author and many other young college students spent weeks handing out literature in shopping center parking lots and campaigning on campuses and in neighborhoods. PG&E was pressing ahead with plans to build Diablo Canyon, while Southern California Edison was promoting Sundesert, and an additional reactor at San Onofre. Duskin explains his role in this forgotten saga:		After the oil shock of 1974, nuclear development in California was getting new support. In 1974-1975 Alvin Duskin, who played an important role in San Francisco and California environmental politics (he had funded a successful public relations campaign against the first Peripheral Canal plans in 1970, and organized hundreds of San Franciscan voters into a [[The House That Jack Built: A History of San Francisco Tomorrow\|grassroots campaign against high-rises]], popularly known as the effort to stop the Manhattanization of San Francisco),(19) was involved in funding and organizing a statewide ballot proposition to ban nuclear power plant construction. The vote was slated for November 1975, and this author and many other young college students spent weeks handing out literature in shopping center parking lots and campaigning on campuses and in neighborhoods. PG&E was pressing ahead with plans to build Diablo Canyon, while Southern California Edison was promoting Sundesert, and an additional reactor at San Onofre. Duskin explains his role in this forgotten saga:

	<blockquote>I worked with Another Mother for Peace in getting this thing [Prop 15] on the ballot, the people in San Luis Obispo, fighting Diablo Canyon and all that. We stopped Sundesert. We stopped it. They’d spent money on it, Southern California Edison, they spent on San Onofre. We stopped that. We led to the decommissioning of the plant up in Eureka [in 1983]. [Proposition 15] said you can’t zone land in California for a nuclear power plant until you can solve the problem of waste. And for existing plants after a year or two, if the problem of waste isn’t solved, the plant has to be de-rated by 5% each year. That would mean that Diablo Canyon and San Onofre would be eventually decommissioned. If they just keep losing 5% a year, it would make them uneconomic to operate.</blockquote>		<blockquote>I worked with Another Mother for Peace in getting this thing [Prop 15] on the ballot, the people in San Luis Obispo, fighting Diablo Canyon and all that. We stopped Sundesert. We stopped it. They’d spent money on it, Southern California Edison, they spent on San Onofre. We stopped that. We led to the decommissioning of the plant up in Eureka [in 1983]. [Proposition 15] said you can’t zone land in California for a nuclear power plant until you can solve the problem of waste. And for existing plants after a year or two, if the problem of waste isn’t solved, the plant has to be de-rated by 5% each year. That would mean that Diablo Canyon and San Onofre would be eventually decommissioned. If they just keep losing 5% a year, it would make them uneconomic to operate.</blockquote>
Line 175:		Line 175:

	An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.(25)		An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.(25)

			[[Image:Owl-on-Bernal-Hts-March-2007 6281.jpg]]

			'''A couple of owls made their home at the top of Esmeralda Steps in 2007 on the Bernal Heights ring road, a product of the open space acquisitions made possible by the 1974 Parks Measure.'''

			''Photo: Chris Carlsson''

	[[Planet Drum Foundation\|Planet Drum]] co-founder and former San Francisco Digger Peter Berg has a different view of the environmental movement than most:		[[Planet Drum Foundation\|Planet Drum]] co-founder and former San Francisco Digger Peter Berg has a different view of the environmental movement than most:

Ccarlsson at 05:01, 2 January 2017

2017-01-02T05:01:45Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:01, 1 January 2017
Line 176:		Line 176:
	An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.(25)		An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.(25)

	Planet Drum co-founder and former San Francisco Digger Peter Berg has a different view of the environmental movement than most:		[[Planet Drum Foundation\|Planet Drum]] co-founder and former San Francisco Digger Peter Berg has a different view of the environmental movement than most:

	<blockquote>I think the environment movement as an interesting, engaging thing ended with Earth Day [in 1970] and the founding of the EPA. Mainstream environmentalists were stuffed shirts, careerists, anthropocentric. There was a lot of careerism, a lot of middle-class values. There was a whole other approach: to harmonize with natural systems, rather than protect or defend or whatever.</blockquote>		<blockquote>I think the environment movement as an interesting, engaging thing ended with Earth Day [in 1970] and the founding of the EPA. Mainstream environmentalists were stuffed shirts, careerists, anthropocentric. There was a lot of careerism, a lot of middle-class values. There was a whole other approach: to harmonize with natural systems, rather than protect or defend or whatever.</blockquote>
Line 182:		Line 182:
	Planet Drum is a small San Francisco organization that grew out of a series of cross-country trips he and his partner Judy Goldhaft made, seeking out radical communities that had gone back to the land. Everywhere they traveled in 1970-71 they encountered groups living adjacent to environmental disasters, whether clear-cutting of forests, toxic waste-spewing factories, or plans to construct nuclear power plants. Traveling with a video camera, Berg made “video postcards” from each commune, ultimately sharing his work at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. On their return to the Bay Area, Berg began working with conservationist Ray Dasmann,(26) who modeled an inquisitive and observational approach to nature that Berg took to heart. Dasmann and Berg spent many weeks driving around California together, visiting unique habitats and remote sites, giving Berg a crash course in California ecology. Later Berg adapted the concept of “bioregionalism” to reorient human politics on a biocentric basis, and Planet Drum began convening “continental bioregional gatherings.”		Planet Drum is a small San Francisco organization that grew out of a series of cross-country trips he and his partner Judy Goldhaft made, seeking out radical communities that had gone back to the land. Everywhere they traveled in 1970-71 they encountered groups living adjacent to environmental disasters, whether clear-cutting of forests, toxic waste-spewing factories, or plans to construct nuclear power plants. Traveling with a video camera, Berg made “video postcards” from each commune, ultimately sharing his work at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. On their return to the Bay Area, Berg began working with conservationist Ray Dasmann,(26) who modeled an inquisitive and observational approach to nature that Berg took to heart. Dasmann and Berg spent many weeks driving around California together, visiting unique habitats and remote sites, giving Berg a crash course in California ecology. Later Berg adapted the concept of “bioregionalism” to reorient human politics on a biocentric basis, and Planet Drum began convening “continental bioregional gatherings.”

	By 1978, Planet Drum had started a local gathering called the Frisco Bay Mussel Group that held regular meetings at The Farm,(27) bringing in various ecologists and activists to teach each other as much as they could about the local environment and the politics that shaped it. The Peripheral Canal was once again raising its head, with California politicians arguing over how to augment fresh water supplies for the southern part of the state by diverting it from the Sacramento River system and delta. It threatened to destroy the health of the San Francisco Bay.(28) The Frisco Bay Mussels gave Planet Drum impetus to borrow a commonly used tactic of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth by taking out a full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, but this time, turning their successful technique against the mainstream ecology groups. The full-page ad denounced the canal plans, but also had coupons that readers could clip and send to the Sierra Club—urging them to reverse their support for the canal—and Friends of the Earth, urging them to take a firm stand against the canal instead of their then-neutral position. Both organizations were deluged with coupons and came out against the canal. Later Planet Drum founded a Green City effort in San Francisco, to promote bioregional thinking in the urban context. This led to the publication of a book full of practical transformational ideas for a more ecological urban life, many of which have since been implemented.(29)		By 1978, Planet Drum had started a local gathering called the Frisco Bay Mussel Group that held regular meetings at [[The Farm\|The Farm]],(27) bringing in various ecologists and activists to teach each other as much as they could about the local environment and the politics that shaped it. The Peripheral Canal was once again raising its head, with California politicians arguing over how to augment fresh water supplies for the southern part of the state by diverting it from the Sacramento River system and delta. It threatened to destroy the health of the San Francisco Bay.(28) The Frisco Bay Mussels gave Planet Drum impetus to borrow a commonly used tactic of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth by taking out a full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, but this time, turning their successful technique against the mainstream ecology groups. The full-page ad denounced the canal plans, but also had coupons that readers could clip and send to the Sierra Club—urging them to reverse their support for the canal—and Friends of the Earth, urging them to take a firm stand against the canal instead of their then-neutral position. Both organizations were deluged with coupons and came out against the canal. Later Planet Drum founded a Green City effort in San Francisco, to promote bioregional thinking in the urban context. This led to the publication of a book full of practical transformational ideas for a more ecological urban life, many of which have since been implemented.(29)

	David Brower was by all accounts one of the most important people in Bay Area ecological history. He led the Sierra Club for 17 years in which he led many high profile campaigns against dams and to save wilderness before arguments over politics, publishing, and priorities pushed him out. In 1969 he was ousted from the Sierra Club, and with core collaborators like Tom Turner and Jerry Mander, founded Friends of the Earth that September. Friends of the Earth immediately became a vital voice for all things ecological. Mander worked on the original ad campaigns in the mid-1960s against building dams in the Grand Canyon. He got to know Brower during that time, and went on to collaborate with him for many years. Moreover, Brower deeply influenced his thinking:		David Brower was by all accounts one of the most important people in Bay Area ecological history. He led the Sierra Club for 17 years in which he led many high profile campaigns against dams and to save wilderness before arguments over politics, publishing, and priorities pushed him out. In 1969 he was ousted from the Sierra Club, and with core collaborators like Tom Turner and Jerry Mander, founded Friends of the Earth that September. Friends of the Earth immediately became a vital voice for all things ecological. Mander worked on the original ad campaigns in the mid-1960s against building dams in the Grand Canyon. He got to know Brower during that time, and went on to collaborate with him for many years. Moreover, Brower deeply influenced his thinking:

Ccarlsson: put in whole article

2017-01-02T04:58:37Z

put in whole article

Show changes

Ccarlsson: fixed audio and video code

2014-02-05T18:54:14Z

fixed audio and video code

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:54, 5 February 2014
Line 76:		Line 76:
	The research for this article was based in part on a series of oral history interviews done as part of the [http://www.shapingsf.org/ecology_emerges.html "Ecology Emerges"] series. This is an introductory video based on those same interviews:		The research for this article was based in part on a series of oral history interviews done as part of the [http://www.shapingsf.org/ecology_emerges.html "Ecology Emerges"] series. This is an introductory video based on those same interviews:

	<~~p class="footer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="504" align="center" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"~~ src="~~http~~://~~www.~~archive.org/~~flow~~/~~flowplayer.commercial~~-~~3.0.5.swf~~" ~~w3c~~="~~true~~" ~~flashvars='config~~={"~~key~~":"~~#$b6eb72a0f2f1e29f3d4","playlist":[{~~"~~url":"http://www.archive.org/download/EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism/format~~=~~Thumbnail?.jpg~~"~~,"autoPlay":~~true,"~~scaling":"fit"},{"url~~"~~:"http://www.archive.org/download/EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism/EE1_Final_264_512kb.mp4","autoPlay":false,"accelerated":~~true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"}],"clip":{"autoPlay":false,"accelerated":true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"},"canvas":{"backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"none"},"plugins":{"audio":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.audio-3.0.3-dev.swf"},"controls":{"playlist":false,"fullscreen":true,"gloss":"high","backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"medium","sliderColor":"0x777777","progressColor":"0x777777","timeColor":"0xeeeeee","durationColor":"0x01DAFF","buttonColor":"0x333333","buttonOverColor":"0x505050"},"h264streaming":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.h264streaming-3.0.5.swf"}},"contextMenu":[{"View+EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism+at+archive.org":"function()"},"-","Flowplayer 3.0.5"]}'> </embed>		<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
	</p>

	[[category:Bernal Heights]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:Ten Years That Shook the City]]		[[category:Bernal Heights]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:Ten Years That Shook the City]]

Ccarlsson: fixed audio link

2014-02-05T18:51:15Z

fixed audio link

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:51, 5 February 2014
Line 5:		Line 5:
	[[Image:24.gif\|64px\|left]] '''Listen to an excerpt from "Ecology Emerges" read by author Chris Carlsson:'''		[[Image:24.gif\|64px\|left]] '''Listen to an excerpt from "Ecology Emerges" read by author Chris Carlsson:'''

	<~~embed~~ src="~~http~~://~~www.~~archive.org/~~flow~~/~~flowplayer.commercial~~-~~3.2.1.swf" type="application/x~~-~~shockwave-flash~~" width="~~640~~" height="26" ~~allowfullscreen~~="~~true~~" ~~allowscriptaccess="always" cachebusting~~="true" ~~bgcolor="#000000" quality="high" flashvars~~="config={'key':'#$aa4baff94a9bdcafce8','playlist':[{'url':'24ChrisCarlssonBernalHeightsMastered2.mp3','autoPlay':false}],'clip':{'autoPlay':true,'baseUrl':'http://www.archive.org/download/24TenYears--ecologyEmerges/'},'canvas':{'backgroundColor':'#000000','backgroundGradient':'none'},'plugins':{'audio':{'url':'http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.audio-3.2.1-dev.swf'},'controls':{'playlist':false,'fullscreen':false,'height':26,'backgroundColor':'#000000','autoHide':{'fullscreenOnly':true~~},'scrubberHeightRatio':0.6,'timeFontSize':9,'mute':false,'top':0}},'contextMenu':[{},'-','Flowplayer v3.2.1']}~~"> </~~embed~~>		<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/24TenYears--ecologyEmerges" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>

	by [http://www.archive.org/download/24TenYears--ecologyEmerges/24ChrisCarlssonBernalHeightsMastered2.mp3 mp3].		by [http://www.archive.org/download/24TenYears--ecologyEmerges/24ChrisCarlssonBernalHeightsMastered2.mp3 mp3].

Ccarlsson at 21:15, 2 June 2011

2011-06-02T21:15:28Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:15, 2 June 2011
Line 73:		Line 73:

	[[Image:Ten Years small 87286100958430M.gif]] Find the book at [http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100958430 City Lights]!		[[Image:Ten Years small 87286100958430M.gif]] Find the book at [http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100958430 City Lights]!

			The research for this article was based in part on a series of oral history interviews done as part of the [http://www.shapingsf.org/ecology_emerges.html "Ecology Emerges"] series. This is an introductory video based on those same interviews:

			<p class="footer"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="504" align="center" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf" w3c="true" flashvars='config={"key":"#$b6eb72a0f2f1e29f3d4","playlist":[{"url":"http://www.archive.org/download/EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism/format=Thumbnail?.jpg","autoPlay":true,"scaling":"fit"},{"url":"http://www.archive.org/download/EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism/EE1_Final_264_512kb.mp4","autoPlay":false,"accelerated":true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"}],"clip":{"autoPlay":false,"accelerated":true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"},"canvas":{"backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"none"},"plugins":{"audio":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.audio-3.0.3-dev.swf"},"controls":{"playlist":false,"fullscreen":true,"gloss":"high","backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"medium","sliderColor":"0x777777","progressColor":"0x777777","timeColor":"0xeeeeee","durationColor":"0x01DAFF","buttonColor":"0x333333","buttonOverColor":"0x505050"},"h264streaming":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.h264streaming-3.0.5.swf"}},"contextMenu":[{"View+EcologyEmergesEvolutionOfEco-activism+at+archive.org":"function()"},"-","Flowplayer 3.0.5"]}'> </embed>
			</p>

	[[category:Bernal Heights]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:Ten Years That Shook the City]]		[[category:Bernal Heights]] [[category:Ecology]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:Ten Years That Shook the City]]

Lisaruth: rearranged photos and text to flow a little better

2011-05-05T07:50:26Z

rearranged photos and text to flow a little better

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:50, 5 May 2011
Line 15:		Line 15:

	<hr>		<hr>


	One of the galvanizing moments for the Ecology Center was the organizing done after the [[THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE OILY BIRD\|January 18, 1971 oil spill]]. The event itself “was so dramatic and horrifying that it just totally threw in people’s faces in a very big way what was happening,” says Karen Pickett, long-time local ecological activist. Chevron’s ''Arizona Standard'' and the ''Oregon Standard'' collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, dumping over 800,000 gallons of crude oil into the Bay. Thousands of birds and other aquatic life were soaked in crude oil and volunteers mobilized immediately. Volunteer centers were set up in Richmond and at the San Francisco Zoo, where for two months hundreds of volunteers taught themselves how to clean oil from aquatic wildlife. “There was no place for the volunteers to come. People were horrified, people wanted to do something, people could do something, but there was nobody to coordinate that huge volunteer force. There would be today,” notes Pickett. Coming two years after the massive oil spill along the Santa Barbara coast in southern California, the ecological consequences of the car/oil economy were suddenly starkly apparent.

	[[Image:Twin-peaks-and-mt-davidson-w-flowers 1556.jpg]]		[[Image:Twin-peaks-and-mt-davidson-w-flowers 1556.jpg]]
Line 26:		Line 23:

	An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.		An important achievement of 1970s environmental activism in San Francisco, rarely remembered but one that many of us enjoy every day, is our open spaces and parks. Billed innocuously in the 1974 local election as a “Parks Measure,” San Francisco voters passed Proposition J on November 5 that year by 116,654 to 64,527. It added to the local property tax assessment, raising over $2.5 million per year to fund park improvement, but most crucially, acquisition of open space. The monies raised from this initiative since that time have gone a long way to preserving most of San Francisco’s hilltops as open space, opening new parks, saving remnant habitats, and providing public land for community gardens. It’s difficult to imagine how densely built out the urban environment would be had this initiative not passed at the peak of the first wave of environmental awareness and activism.

			[[Image:Earth-rebirth-peoples-park-march-and-work-party-ad-in-good-times-jan-1970 2823.jpg\|460px]]

			'''from ''Good Times'' of January 13, 1970.'''

			[[Image:Berkeley-daily-gazette-monday-march-1-1971.jpg]]

			'''Long before Critical Mass rides started in the early 1990s, an earlier wave of ecology-minded folks cycled en masse through the streets of Berkeley in an annual "Smog-Free Locomotion Day, this one held February 28, 1971.'''

			One of the galvanizing moments for the Ecology Center was the organizing done after the [[THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE OILY BIRD\|January 18, 1971 oil spill]]. The event itself “was so dramatic and horrifying that it just totally threw in people’s faces in a very big way what was happening,” says Karen Pickett, long-time local ecological activist. Chevron’s ''Arizona Standard'' and the ''Oregon Standard'' collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, dumping over 800,000 gallons of crude oil into the Bay. Thousands of birds and other aquatic life were soaked in crude oil and volunteers mobilized immediately. Volunteer centers were set up in Richmond and at the San Francisco Zoo, where for two months hundreds of volunteers taught themselves how to clean oil from aquatic wildlife. “There was no place for the volunteers to come. People were horrified, people wanted to do something, people could do something, but there was nobody to coordinate that huge volunteer force. There would be today,” notes Pickett. Coming two years after the massive oil spill along the Santa Barbara coast in southern California, the ecological consequences of the car/oil economy were suddenly starkly apparent.

			<font size=4>Ecology & War</font size>

	[[Image:Top-of-foe-Ecology-and-War-ad 5339.jpg\|504px]]		[[Image:Top-of-foe-Ecology-and-War-ad 5339.jpg\|504px]]
Line 32:		Line 41:

	Massive anti-war demonstrations from 1967-1972 were the cauldron in which the modern environmental movement was forged. The devastation inflicted on Vietnam and Southeast Asia through massive bombardment and an unprecedented use of chemical warfare against nature itself in the region, inspired much direct opposition, but also shaped a new awareness of ecology. Here are excerpts from an open letter by Friends of the Earth in support of a telegram sent to President Nixon by dozens of environmental leaders in 1970:		Massive anti-war demonstrations from 1967-1972 were the cauldron in which the modern environmental movement was forged. The devastation inflicted on Vietnam and Southeast Asia through massive bombardment and an unprecedented use of chemical warfare against nature itself in the region, inspired much direct opposition, but also shaped a new awareness of ecology. Here are excerpts from an open letter by Friends of the Earth in support of a telegram sent to President Nixon by dozens of environmental leaders in 1970:

	~~<font size=4>Ecology & War</font size>~~

	''This advertisement is being placed by Friends of the Earth, a conservation group, but it concerns the war in Southeast Asia, and also wars in general.		''This advertisement is being placed by Friends of the Earth, a conservation group, but it concerns the war in Southeast Asia, and also wars in general.
Line 57:		Line 64:

	''Friends of the Earth, therefore, its Board of Directors and staff, wishes to go on record in unanimous support of the recent telegram to Mr. Nixon, signed by the leaders of the nation’s conservation organizations.		''Friends of the Earth, therefore, its Board of Directors and staff, wishes to go on record in unanimous support of the recent telegram to Mr. Nixon, signed by the leaders of the nation’s conservation organizations.


	The ecology-war connection goes back to the original A-bombs dropped on Japan, of course, and the 1950s campaign to end atmospheric nuclear testing. Anti-nuclear campaigning in that era was largely led by pacifists and religious organizations, especially the American Friends Service Committee of the Quakers. The spread of radioactive fallout around the planet, overwhelmingly produced by US nuclear testing, inflamed world opinion and led to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by President Kennedy in 1963 (it banned nuclear testing in the atmosphere, underwater or in space), though it was never signed by France or China.		The ecology-war connection goes back to the original A-bombs dropped on Japan, of course, and the 1950s campaign to end atmospheric nuclear testing. Anti-nuclear campaigning in that era was largely led by pacifists and religious organizations, especially the American Friends Service Committee of the Quakers. The spread of radioactive fallout around the planet, overwhelmingly produced by US nuclear testing, inflamed world opinion and led to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by President Kennedy in 1963 (it banned nuclear testing in the atmosphere, underwater or in space), though it was never signed by France or China.

	~~[[Image:Berkeley-daily-gazette-monday-march-1-1971.jpg]]~~

	'''Long before Critical Mass rides started in the early 1990s, an earlier wave of ecology-minded folks cycled en masse through the streets of Berkeley in an annual "Smog-Free Locomotion Day, this one held February 28, 1971.'''

	Few remember now that Greenpeace was founded in 1970 in Vancouver, Canada to protest the US government’s testing of nuclear weapons in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. For the organization’s first five years, its activities focused entirely on combating nuclear testing. Saul Bloom, a San Francisco social justice activist, founder of ARC/Ecology, and long-time ecologist joined Greenpeace in 1977 and worked for the organization for six years. He remembers, “The folks who founded Greenpeace understood the connections between environment, war and peace, and the media—that was fascinating stuff at the time.”		Few remember now that Greenpeace was founded in 1970 in Vancouver, Canada to protest the US government’s testing of nuclear weapons in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. For the organization’s first five years, its activities focused entirely on combating nuclear testing. Saul Bloom, a San Francisco social justice activist, founder of ARC/Ecology, and long-time ecologist joined Greenpeace in 1977 and worked for the organization for six years. He remembers, “The folks who founded Greenpeace understood the connections between environment, war and peace, and the media—that was fascinating stuff at the time.”

	~~[[Image:Earth-rebirth-peoples-park-march-and-work-party-ad-in-good-times-jan-1970 2823.jpg\|460px]]~~

	~~'''from the ''Good Times'' of January 13, 1970.'''~~