Lynton Keith Caldwell: An Environmental Visionary and the National Environmental Policy Act

Prologue: Choosing an Environmental Path

3 In the introduction to her biography of Aldo Leopold, A Fierce Green Fire, Marybeth Lorbiecki wrote, “How many Americans have ever heard of Leopold? Relatively few. Perhaps he was involved in too many aspects of the conservation movement to be pigeonholed into aneasilyrememberedhistoricalslot....Whateverthereason,themajority of Americans have not yet been introduced to this person who has been so influential in their lives. . . . This is a shame; it is a life well worth knowing.”1 These words could just as well be applied to Lynton Keith Caldwell, whose contributions, like Leopold’s, are difficult to categorize neatly. This is because they, too, were wide-ranging and because they covered a period of some forty years, during which significant evolution occurred in attitudes toward conservation and sustainability, in the growth and structure of environmental organizations, and in environmental policy, management, and legislation. The young Caldwell held Leopold in high esteem and once, in 1946, spent a memorable evening in his company. In Leopold’s midlife, as his daughter Nina Leopold Bradley explains, “through his . . . intellectual evolution, [he] advanced the development of ecological science.”2 In his own midlife, Caldwell’s particular intellectual evolution led him to change the course of his career in public administration to become a visionary developer of environmental policy, in which science and the ecological concepts and values so important to Leopold’s thinking played a large part. Leopold’s writings on the need for a more ethicsbased approach to interactions between humans and their environment influenced Caldwell’s groundbreaking 1963 article, “Environment: A Choosing an Environmental Path Prologue 4 Lynton Keith Caldwell New Focus for Public Policy?,” which played a pivotal role in spurring the emergence of the entirely new field of environmental policy, politics ,andadministration.3EthicalconsiderationsalsoinspiredCaldwell’s later pioneering work in biopolitics, his tireless advocacy on behalf of interdisciplinaryenvironmentalstudies,andtheleadingrolehetooknot only in drafting the “Magna Carta” of environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), but in initiating its environmental impact assessment provisions, which over time became globally emulated.Alltheseideasandendeavorswere groundedin the beliefthat humans,asthedominantspeciesandprincipalresourceconsumers,had theresponsibilityforensuringthatfuturegenerationswouldcontinueto inheritadiverseandhealthyplanet.Caldwelllaterattainedinternational recognition for his efforts to promote a globally shared environmental initiative, and in old age he fought hard for what, after three decades of writing, teaching, and research around the world, he had come to see as an imperative essential to the future economic and ecological sustainability of the United States: an environmental amendment to the Constitution. Despite disparities in age, background, and career path, Caldwell and Leopold held much in common. Both men were born in Iowa, developedaloveofthenaturalworldatanearlyage ,andhadbeensimilarly endowed with boundless energy, insatiable curiosity, and keen powers of observation. As they matured, both developed a values-oriented approachtotheirteachingandwritingonenvironment -relatedissues.Both came to believe strongly that the complexity of ecological interactions meant that environmental problems could only be addressed by viewing them in an integrative, multidimensional way. For this reason both argued against the growing tendency toward specialization in the arts and sciences.4 And both men, albeit in very different ways, devoted the larger part of their lives, through teaching, lecturing, and writing, to creating public awareness of the increasingly urgent need to take better care of the Earth. In his later life, as he pursued the idea of a constitutional environmental amendment, Caldwell argued that “another self evident truth should be added to the list.” He explained this to me later in his life: Prologue 5 Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all very well but cannot be achieved without the foundation of a healthy environment. In their day, the Founding Fathers did not have to concern themselves with such massive ecological problems as widespread pollution of air, soils, and waters, the build up of toxic wastes, disappearing species, desertification, overpopulation, the threat of nuclear war, or global warming. Education, greater public awareness of and involvement in environmental interactions, stronger government regulation regarding the use and protection of the environment, and the wisdom and understanding to enforce those controls for the greater good are the only ways to ensure a sustainable Earth in the future. These are the things I have done my best to teach.5 Aldo Leopold died in 1948. In the 1950s Caldwell’s work in government and public administration provided him with increased opportunities for foreign travel. Like George Perkins Marsh a century earlier, Caldwell became increasingly concerned about the rapid spread of pollution and environmental degradation.6 As a result of...