Simply an incredible book.
- Body: 623 pages
- Acknowledgments: 12 pages
- Appendix I: National Wildlife Refuges
- Appenidx II: National Parks
- Appendix III: Protection for Animals, Initial Endangered Species List, 1966 - 1967
- Notes: 100 pages
- Bibliography: 13 pages
- Image Credits: 4 pages
- Index: 33 pages
- 857 numbered pages in all. This does not include 30 pages (Roman numeral-ed) of preface.
The thread:
- Harry Truman
- Rachel Carson
- Albert Schweitzer
- William O. Douglas
- John F. Kennedy
- Steward Udall and Lyndon Johnson
- Richard M. Nixon
For me it would have been a better book had the underlying theme not been "human-caused climate change." It puts the book, for me, into the "political" realm. The good news: if it's human-caused, then "humans" can manage it. If global warming was 100% due to earth moving closer to the sun, that would be a completely different story. At the end of the day, one can argue that the United States, and perhaps Europe, actually did the most with regard to the issues covered in this book.
Quick: what did Africa do? What did China do? What did Russia do? What did any country in South America do?
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Notes From The Book
Bridge Canyon Dam (proposed, never built):
- Grand Canyon is more than a mile deep, from surface to base; in some places slightly more than 6,000 feet;
- the Bridge Canyon Dam: 740 feet tall
Chapter 14: Point Reyes (California) and Padre Island (Texas) National Seashores
key paragraph, page 279:
On April 11, 1962, the Senate passed the Padre Island national Seashore bill -- [Democratic senators] Robert S.] Kerr [of Oklahoma] and [George] Smathers [of Florida] were among the thirty-nine "nay" votes -- and teh bill moved to the House, where it eventually passed.
On September 28, 1962, just two weeks after the Point Reyes victory, President Kennedy signed the bill creating Padre Island National Seashore at a White House ceremoy with Ralph Yarborough [long-serving US Senator, Texas] leaning over his shoulder. Compared to the excitement that had accompied teh Cape Cod and Point Reyes bills, national enthursiasm for the Padre Island National Seashore was low key.
Nonetheless, approximately seventy miles of the most extensive natural barrier island along the entire Gulf of Mexico was protected for the ages. As a footnote, Corpus Christi's newspaperman, Ed Harte, would establish a $46 millioin endowment in 2000 at Texas A&M's Corpus Christi campu to create a marine institute like Woods Hole specifically for the study of the Gulf of Mexico. One of many initiatives of the Harte Research Institute is the conservation of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle on Padre Island.
Note: it is " ridley sea turtle," with a lowercase 'r'. The "ridley" is not a proper noun like a person's name; it refers to the genus Lepidochelys, which contains the two species of ridley sea turtles: the Kemp's ridley and the olive ridley.
Note: the Harte Research Institute in Corpus Christi is still active.
The institute is part of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and is currently working on its 25th anniversary celebration for 2025, with ongoing research initiatives focused on the Gulf of Mexico. Mission: The institute's mission is to create science-driven solutions for the long-term sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico. Research: Its work integrates marine science with policy, social sciences, and economics to address issues such as coral reefs and coastal conservation. Activities: Recent announcements include preparations for its 25th anniversary in 2025, highlighting its continued work and collaborative efforts. Link here. Wiki here.
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Anne Gorsuch
Scanning quickly through the book I first saw the name Anne Gorsuch on page 668. From AI:
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is the son of Anne Gorsuch, the first female administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Ronald Reagan.
Anne Gorsuch's tumultuous tenure at the EPA, which ended in her resignation after being held in contempt of Congress, significantly influenced Neil's legal views on federal regulations, as noted by friends and colleagues, including his famous 2024 decision in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case, which helped overturn the precedent set by the Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. ruling, a case that arose from his mother's time at the EPA.
Mother's career: Anne Gorsuch was the first female administrator of the EPA, serving from 1981 to 1983. Her time in office was marked by controversy, including accusations of favoring polluters and a scandal over the Superfund cleanup program.
Contempt of Congress: She was the first Cabinet member to be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents. This led to her resignation from the EPA in 1983.
Impact on Neil Gorsuch: His mother's experience at the EPA had a profound impact on Neil Gorsuch's views on the power of administrative agencies. He has written about this influence and his work, including his judicial career and writings on administrative law, has been seen as shaped by his mother's experiences.
The Chevron case: In a 2024 Supreme Court case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Neil Gorsuch voted to overrule the Chevron deference precedent, a doctrine that gave significant deference to federal agencies' interpretations of statutes—a doctrine that arose partly from his mother's time at the EPA. This decision is seen as directly related to the controversy surrounding his mother's tenure.
Chevron deference case:
- overturned a 1984 "Chevron case"
- began as a fishing / marine case
- plaintiff felt regulators given too much power, taking power away from judges (judicial branch)
- Gorsuch on the US Supreme Court -- agreed
- threading the needle: US Supreme Court agreed that previous court cases that could have been affected by this case would not be overturned
- now, cases that go to court, judicial branch / judges free to use independent thought free of regulators' interpretation of regulations to determine cases; obviously, judges still listen to regulators but their decisions can't be second-guessed by appeals citing "other" interpretation of regulators.
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Epilogue: Ansel Adams
From page 669:
Ansel Adams continued taking his ethereal photographs of wind-blown trees, mountain vistas, and redwoods standing tall in the fog, and in the late 1970s, art museums worldwide began acquiring his works for high sums of money.
His conservation advocacy remained relentless, and though the Vietnam War had kept him at arm's length from Nixon, he became personal friends with both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, whom he photographed in November 1979 for the National Portrait Gallery.
With his trademark ardor, Adams continued to fight on behalf of California's parks and beaches from his home studio in Carmel Highlands on the Big Sur coastline. Following his death in 1984, the Minarets Wilderness in California's High Sierra was expanded and renamed for him. His archive was acquired by the University of Arizona in Tucson, where it is housed along with Steward Udall's personal papers.
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Richard Nixon
Interesting comments on Richard Nixon, bottom of page 669.
Nixon's "young" research assistant Monica Crowley, who published two books of her reminiscences, Nixon off the Record (1969) and Nixon in Winter (1998), recalled "He was therefore frustrated and disappointed when the Republicans later ended the political and. policy high-ground on those issues, and allowed the left to hijack and redirect them for more radical policy purposes."
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