Category Archives: about history

Environmental issues are part of history

Environmental concerns and conflicts have surfaced throughout human history, from the earliest settlements to the latest headlines.  This comes as a surprise to many people because our emphasis in history has all too often been on war and politics, rather than environment, culture and development.  Yet the evidence of  longstanding concern for the environment has been readily available in manuscripts, publications and historical archives. It can be found under Continue reading

The whale oil myth surfaces again

One of the oil industry’s greatest historical myths is that petroleum arrived in 1861, just in time to light up the night and, as a bonus, save the whales from the whalers.  

Even at the time it was something of a joke, as we see in this cartoon of whales celebrating the discovery of petroleum.

Oil industry historians took the joke seriously[1], and a century later, cracker barrel humor  settled in as established history.  

According to the myth:   whale oil was running out, prices were going up, and the  people wanted government intervention in the market. And yet, wisely, the government did not intervene and the free market soon found petroleum.

There’s just one problem: The myth is pure fiction. In fact, the US oil industry was created by subsidy, and not the free market.

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Feather heist

A pattern for a fishing tie. Flute player Edwin Rist stole hundreds of Alfred Wallace’s bird specimens from the 1860s to resell to obsessed fly tiers.

A million dollars worth of exotic bird feathers, collected in the 19th century and kept in a scientific museum, was stolen by a flute player in 2008.   An extraordinary story about under-funded science, over-amped fly tying, and indifferent police.

See This American Life, Jan. 19, 2020. The story is based on the book “The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century” by Kirk Wallace Johnson.

“You may laugh, but your grandkids will not.”

That’s one response from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to critics who have been trying to mock the Green New Deal resolution of Feb. 2, and we think it shows her admirable determination in the face of the very catastrophe that the critics are hastening. Here’s a more detailed video advocating the Green New Deal.

It’s useful to recall that similar criticism greeted Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s original “New Deal” in the 1930s. It was “anti-God,” said fascist priest Charles Coughlin. It was communistic or socialistic, said others who were so well off they did not understand the pain of joblessness and hunger during those years. But the New Deal lifted the country out of the Depression and provided a long term structure for the economy in situations where laissez-faire policies had led to economic deterioration.

Similar laissez-faire polices have led not only to environmental deterioration in general but a very specific and catastrophic threat: climate change, rising sea levels and extreme weather. It’s a deep crisis unlike anything we have ever faced. To laugh in its face, to deny the science, to mock attempts to engage in dialogue, is nothing short of a nihilistic and reckless disregard for the facts.

So AOC is right to say that the grandchildren won’t be laughing.

Read the 14-page document that describes the current environmental crisis, addresses economic and health issues, and then advocates steps towards renewable zero emission power. There’s nothing radical or strange in advocating renewable technology and conservation. What’s wrong is pretending there is no need for a response, and that future generations will be fine if we just do nothing.

Reflecting on the battle for the nature

Environmentalism has become the front line in a global battle for the survival of the natural world, says The Guardian’s environmental news editor, John Vidal, on his retirement.

Two people in particular stand out in his short memoir published Dec. 23:  Wangari Maathai from Kenya, and Ken Saro-Wiwa of Nigeria.

Barack Obama and Maathai, 2006. (Wikipedia)

Barack Obama and Maathai, 2006. (Wikipedia)

About Maathai:  The message she brought was that any debate about the natural world should not just be about science and parts-per-billion of obscure gases, or about genes or kilowatts, but must include developing countries and be rooted in justice, equity and the situation of the least advantaged. She went on to win the Nobel peace prize, and the planting of trees became a worldwide symbol of political hope and community regeneration.   

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The toxic history of lead

cropped-1.5.Franklin.jpg

The recent outrage over lead contamination in the water supply of Flint, Mich. reminds us of how much is known about the history of  lead poisoning.

In 1786, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter about the harmful effects of lead. In describing the problem in distilleries and the printing trades, Franklin noted how resistant people can be when it comes to understanding public health and environmental issues.

You will observe, with concern, how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on,” he said.

Although it hardly seems creditable, the useful truth about lead in the form of paint, water pipes, and leaded gasoline is still not practiced.

Lead is the oldest and best known of environmental hazards.For over two millennia, overexposure to lead was known to cause hallucinations and severe mental problems. Continue reading

Soft soap and fracking dangers

Some day soon, an oil & gas industry representative will probably tell a journalist, or a politician, or a concerned parent:  “Fracking water is as safe as dish soap. Check out the 2014 University of Colorado study.”

And of course that will be horribly wrong, but very few people will know why.

This is particularly important in light of New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that a state health department study found that fracking is too dangerous for New York state  (as reported in the NY Times Dec. 17, 2014.)

At best, people will chalk the difference up to the old adage:  For every PhD, there is an equal and opposite PhD.  But nothing could be further from the truth.

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Leaded gasoline keeps coming back

Franklin. Wikipedia.

You will observe with concern, Ben Franklin wrote in 1786 how long a useful truth may be known  known and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on. 

Franklin mentioned lead poisoning as an occupational hazard for printing.  Yet 228 years later, we are still grappling with the issue.

The latest event sparking concerns is the conviction of four  Associated Octel  managers for bribery and conspiring to sell leaded gasoline despite bans.   (Octel is now Innospec).

According to the Serious Fraud Office of the UK government: Continue reading

Before we go to war for oil again …

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The oil octopus – a 19th century cartoon.

By Bill Kovarik

Information about world oil reserves has been skewed for political purposes.  Until very recently, everyone believed the Middle East has 2/3 of all the world’s oil. But in fact, the Middle East has only 2/3 of a narrow politically defined category called “proven” reserves. How is it that we were so badly misinformed?

As a very young news reporter in Washington DC in 1979, I was invited to one of those  think tank “luncheons” where the speakers chat amiably about the next imminent disaster.  This one was  about world oil reserves and the possible collapse of the Persian Gulf.

Not surprisingly, all the speakers agreed that a shut-down of the Persian Gulf would be catastrophic and must be prevented at all costs. All the speakers, that is,  except one smiling Venezuelan named Alirio Parra, who was then the country’s oil minister.  The bottom line of his talk was this: Don’t worry. Venezuela has more oil in the eastern Orinoco region than all the Middle East. And if this seems surprising, he said, your petroleum geologists should be more honest with you.

I remember the shouts of outrage from the assembled policy wonks, one of whom yelled that there was “a journalist here” in the same tone that a Victorian preacher might caution:  “ladies present.”

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Baleful history and the Balcombe protests

An historian is always hopeful when stumbling across an appeal to history in the popular press. But more often than not, an historian is disappointed.

Take, for example, one particularly baleful reaction to the Balcombe fracking protests in the UK this August of 2013.  That the protesters were a superstitious lot, lacking any sense of history, is an argument employed by Daily & Sunday Express columnist, Niel Hamilton.

Although it must be read in its native ‘red-top’ context to be fully enjoyed, here are a few of Hamilton’s ‘lessons’ of history:

The doom-mongers are like primitive tribes, firing flaming arrows at the sun at sunset in order to make it rise again the next day, which obviously ‘works’  because the sun does rise again.    Continue reading