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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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the great question of the seventies is
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shall we surrender to our surroundings
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work shall we make our peace with nature
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and begin to make reparations for the
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damage we have done to our air to our
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land and to what you just saw is a small
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sample from one of Richard Nixon’s many
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speeches urging environmental action all
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he was president nixon was a republican
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but ran on a generous environmental
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agenda in 1968 how then do we get from
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this we can make 1972 the best year ever
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for environmental progress today as we
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keep hearing that 2014 has been the
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warmest year on record I asked the chair
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you know what this is it’s a snowball
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and that just from outside here so it’s
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very very cold out a recent New York
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Times article points toward citizens
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united which ended corporate campaign
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finance restrictions as one of the major
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causes of the recent polarization of
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climate change and environmentalism but
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if we look back to the Reagan era in the
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1980s you can see this bifurcation
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already at work how to be overwhelming
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bipartisan support of environmental
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action in the 1970s
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become so fractured by the 1980s well
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there are a lot of factors that
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influence this shift
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such as corporate backlash and the
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impact of conservative think-tanks on
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political agendas but one of the main
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causes was the rise of neoliberalism and
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a free-market ideology Ronald Reagan and
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fellow Republicans began championing
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deregulation mindset in hopes that the
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market would thrive without a clunky
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federal hand controlling however this
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place 1970s environmental laws firmly
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within the sites of anti-regulation
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Crusaders Richard Andrews a professor
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emeritus of Environmental Policy at UNC
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Chapel Hill describes Reagan’s
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environmental approach in a radio
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interview for WNYC rather than trying to
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reform or tweak the environmental
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regulations that had come into play in
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the 70s he tried to just reverse them
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ultimately the environmental agenda ran
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counter to
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for ideological tenants of the new
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Republican deregulation platform in the
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eyes of free-market Republicans
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protecting America’s environments and
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placing unnecessary burdens on its
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businesses as a result of this
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neoliberal Republican mindset
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environmental progress suffered greatly
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they didn’t took many actions to
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distance himself from the 1970s
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environmental movement he removed Jimmy
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Carter’s solar haters from the roof of
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the White House an appointed EPA
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Administrator and Gorsuch Beauford who
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allowed first steep decline in the
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number of cases filed against pollutants
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thus Reagan’s presidential actions
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seemed to be the Republican Party’s
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first steps towards an agenda that
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ignored and times outright shunned
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environmental issues granted George HW
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Bush still tried to hold on to some
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semblance of a pro environment stance
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throughout his presidency but by the
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1990s and 2000 many Republicans began to
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face a realization that Richard Andrews
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plays out later on in his interview the
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Republican Party generally decided that
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no matter how much they tried to burnish
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their environmental credentials there
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would always be some Democratic opponent
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who would push for more government
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action than they were comfortable with
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as a party and so they began to dig in
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deeper with the anti environment
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constituencies and so forth while the
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Democrats in turn said okay this is our
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winning issue and the environmental
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groups can be our ground level support
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troops at the core of this Republican
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departure from environmental issues like
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climate change why the party’s
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resistance towards federal regulation
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and actions especially when it comes to
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corporations
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Andrew suggests that environmental
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issues are often so decisive nowadays
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partly because the environment has sort
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of been captured by this increasingly
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polarized partisan dynamic so a look
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towards the past reveals that there was
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a time when environmental issues like
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clean air and water were not tied to
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party lines but instead just a simple
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question of human lives and existing
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ethically on the
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planet NOW problems like climate change
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and fracking have been molded into
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partisan weapons which has created
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seemingly insurmountable gridlock
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America’s natural world been
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inextricably connected to the political
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struggles on Capitol Hill and not as it
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should be to questions of morality
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health and living well with our
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surrounding environments so maybe
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finding a path forward in our
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environmental ravaged world means
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looking back towards the common ground
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Americans on both sides of the table
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found in the 1970s and rekindling that
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understanding in our polarized political
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world this video is made possible in
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part by the wonderful people who support
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if you like what you just saw share it
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around and subscribe thanks so much for
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watching and I’ll see you next Friday
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