Renowned historian calls Rhode Island a leader for environmental change
PROVIDENCE – The modern environmental movement gained momentum in the 1960s when Rachel Carson exposed the damage caused by the pesticide DDT on animals and humans. Within a decade of the publication in 1962 of her book “Silent Spring” came a complete remaking of how America protects the natural world, inspiring passage of landmark laws on air quality, clean water and endangered species.
Historian Douglas Brinkley believes Carson’s work and the activism of others from the 1950s to the early '70s hold lessons for the country now as it grapples with a climate crisis that threatens all living things. But unlike in that past era, when change came primarily at the national level, politics today may be too fractured to allow for meaningful progress through the federal government.
“It may not be a moment when we expect presidential leadership. It might be more state by state, in particular blue states like Rhode Island,” Brinkley said Thursday in an interview before giving a talk at the State House on his new work of nonfiction, “Silent Spring Revolution,” which chronicles how environmental advocates influenced presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon to effect change.
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House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi invited Brinkley to speak after learning about his research into the history of policymaking involving the environment, which includes previous books on Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led efforts to conserve precious natural places.
Shekarchi saw parallels between the national work highlighted by Brinkley and recent efforts in Rhode Island. Over the last two years, the General Assembly has passed laws to curtail planet-warming greenhouse gases, ramp up renewables, ban single-use plastic bags and protect drinking water supplies from chemical contamination. The new laws came after years of inaction on the environment in the state and followed a leftward tilt in the House and Shekarchi’s ascension to speaker.
Brinkley’s writing “shows how the House’s work dovetails on a decades-old process of environmental advocacy,” Shekarchi said in a statement.
For Brinkley, who teaches at Rice University and has a national profile as a presidential historian, the visit, for which he wasn’t paid, was a chance for him to learn about what the Ocean State is doing to confront climate change, such as building the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
He spent Thursday morning with Reps. Lauren Carson and Terri Cortvriend, two of the leading advocates for environmental legislation in the House. They toured sites around the state affected by changes in environmental policies and got a glimpse of coastal flooding in the wake of Wednesday night’s storm.
While California and Massachusetts garner more attention for their progressive environmental policies, Rhode Island has made strides, too, said Brinkley.
“I happen to think Rhode Island is probably one of those states that could be an incubator,” he said.
In his talk, Brinkley traced the history of what he described as three waves of environmentalism from Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency to Nixon’s. Change reached its peak in the early 1970s, which included a ban on DDT and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
But the backlash from industry was almost immediate. The split between Democrats and Republicans on the environment has only widened over time.
“We need a fourth wave,” Brinkley said. “The fourth wave will have climate action as its centerpiece.”
And states like Rhode Island will be a part of that fourth wave, he argued.
“While everybody knows you’re the smallest state, they don’t realize Rhode Island is a ground-zero operation on the environmental action of today,” Brinkley said to applause.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Historian Douglas Brinkley calls on RI to lead environmental reform
