Lyne Starling Trimble Public Event Series

Shaping a Middle Ground: Emergence of the AGU Committee on Environmental Quality, 1970–1974

Abstract

In late 1969, Helmut Landsberg, world-renowned climatologist and President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), believed that the time had come for the American geophysics community to engage with popular discussions about future environmental threats. Frustrated by what appeared to be a ubiquitous disconnect between established science and sensational rhetoric about environmental catastrophe, he envisioned what became known as the Committee on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Chaired by physicist S. Fred Singer, the committee was comprised of geophysicists who — like Landsberg — believed that they had an obligation to frame environmental problems in a way that was anchored to reliable and credible science.

Using archival records located at the American Institute of Physics, this talk examines the conceptual origins and activities of the AGU CEQ during its brief existence between 1970 and 1974, when it was dismantled by then AGU President Frank Press. While invisible within current historical literature on the rise and maturation of the American environmental movement, Henderson argues that the CEQ represented a particular brand of political engagement that sought to define what Singer called a “middle ground” within American environmental politics. Utilizing their connections with some of the most prominent names within the American science establishment, Singer and Landsberg published articles, contacted newspaper editors and scientific journal editors, gave speeches, and testified in front of Congress about their concerns. Their goal was to minimize the influence of what they saw as emotion-laden advocacy and media-based sensationalism about environmental problems.

Speaker Bio

Given by Gabriel Henderson, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Historian, Center for Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark