Postwar Consumer Capitalism
and the Environment

Earth, Wind, and Fire:
Nature and History in America

The “Fifties Syndrome”

The energy transition to petroleum from coal

Rise in demand for oil

Pennsylvania (1859) and Texas (1901): gushers

Oily sheen on land, streams, forests

Venting & loss of cheap natural gas

1922-34 1,250,000,000 cubic feet/day

1950s: 1/2 of all gas burned at wellhead

From Industrial to Consumer Capitalism

New consumer goods in the 1920s

Automobiles, refrigerators, electric mixers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, water heaters

First products made from nonbiodegradable synthetic materials: cellophane and Bakelite

Problem of durable goods

1924: planned obsolescence (light bulbs)

1924: regular changes in styles and features (GM’s automobiles)

1920s: disposable products (safety razors, tampons, Kleenex)

1924: White Castle, the first fast food restaurant

Advertising: selling sex, status, and self-gratification

Movies, mass media, national radio

Consumer capitalism speeds transfer of money, increasing income

Postwar development

Prosperity fuels consumerism

FHA & GI Bill fuel urban sprawl

Cheap, inefficient housing

Flooding, erosion

Septic tank pollution

Freeways, interstate highways

Era of automobile

Cities rip up mass transit tracks, buy buses

Urban Sprawl: Levittown, Long Island, N.Y.

Urban Sprawl

A Throwaway Society

1950s: Rise of fast food: McDonald’s

Disposable food packaging

Cans replace returnable bottles

1960: disposable styrene cups

By 1970, landfills are overflowing