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Caldwell's
Contributions to Indiana
The Nature Conservancy
Caldwell was a founding father to both New York and Indiana chapters of The Nature Conservancy. He also served on the Board of Directors in Indiana from 1959 - 1965.
Sycamore Land Trust
Caldwell helped create the Sycamore Land Trust in Bloomington, Indiana in hopes of helping "preserve our disappearing landscapes."
The Conservancy's Indiana Field Office is proud to have partnered with SLT over the years.
IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Caldwell was a key player in the creation of Indiana University's SPEA program. The School is geared towards students interested in studying both science and policy to prepare them in solving real world problems.
A BIG Thank You!
To Wendy Read Wertz for her help with editing and contributing to the Lynton Keith Caldwell article. Wendy is completing a first biography of Dr. Caldwell, presently under review by Indiana University Press for 2009 publication.
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The environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a crisis of mind and spirit. There could be no greater misconception of its meaning than to believe it is concerned only with endangered wildlife, human-made ugliness, and pollution. These are part of it, but more importantly, the crisis is concerned with the kind of creatures we are and what we must become in order to survive. - from Lynton K. Caldwell's textbook Environmental Science
Lynton Caldwell's Legacy
Lynton Keith Caldwell was many things: husband, father, scholar, professor, lecturer, birder, conservationist, and a prolific author who published more than 250 articles and monographs as well as 15 books (three with others) including Environment: A Challenge to Modern Society (1970); In Defense of Earth: International Protection of the Biosphere (1972); Man and His Environment: Policy and Administration (1975); Science and the National Environmental Policy Act (1982); International Environmental Policy (three editions, 1984, 1991, 1996); Between Two Worlds: Science, the Environmental Movement and Policy Choice (1990), Environment as a Focus for Public Policy (1995); and The National Environmental Policy Act: An Agenda for the Future (1998). Perhaps his greatest role, however, was as one of the great American political scientists and leading environmental visionaries of modern times. As the originator of public policy for the environment, he helped shape the future of our nation’s environmental policy and administration with just three words: environmental impact statements.
The Father of the National Environmental Policy Act
Lynton Caldwell was the major author and inspiration behind our National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, or NEPA. The purpose of the act was to:
To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality.
Caldwell believed that scientists and decision-makers needed to bridge the gap between them in the planning of major public projects. In the late 1960s, federal decision makers still generally possessed scant knowledge of ecological relationships and thus had little understanding of the adverse impacts their projects—ranging from sites for nuclear plants, dams, and highways to the construction of bridges, canals, reservoirs and airports—could have on the natural environment. In drafting A National Policy for the Environment in 1968 as consultant to Senator Henry Jackson, the head of the powerful Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Caldwell realized that a policy statement alone would not be enough: an action-forcing provision would be necessary to force federal agencies to comply with the Act’s requirements. Thus, in his testimony to the Senate Committee on NEPA held in April 1969 he suggested the need for such a provision. This became the section of the Act that requires the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) for all major federal projects that can result in some form of significant or adverse impact to our natural world. In these documents, all potential social, economic, and environmental effects of a proposed project and any possible alternatives to the specific action must be included before any federal action takes place.
What, exactly, are Environmental Impact Statements?
An Environment Impact Statement, or EIS, is a document that must be filed whenever the federal government takes a “major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.” During his work on environmental policy during the 1960s, Caldwell had come to believe such a measure would be vital since until that time, federal government agencies had never considered the effects on the environment when they planned new projects. Thus, using Caldwell’s draft policy and his Senate testimony, Senator Jackson’s legal team then devised language that would force federal decision makers to show that they had considered all alternatives—as well as the true costs and benefits of each—before a project could be approved. These statements were also required to be made available to the public for their information and input. In this way, all environmental impacts could be made available to everyone, including government agencies and the concerned communities.
Generally, an EIS is comprised of four segments: an introduction that states the purpose and need for the proposed action; a description of the affected environment; possible alternatives to the proposed action; and an analysis of the environmental impacts of each alternative. Almost immediately following the signing into law of the Act by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970, changes began in the way that large public projects like highways and dams were considered, designed, planned, and located—all because of the EIS provision. In these ways, Caldwell’s vision has greatly enhanced the ability of our federal government to better protect our country’s natural heritage.
A Full Life, Indeed
Lynton Keith Caldwell passed away on August 15, 2006 in Bloomington, Indiana, at the age of 92. Although many people remain unaware of his contributions, his rich and active life—he continued working until nearly 90—touched millions of people. Caldwell was not only the “father” of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 but the founder of both the Indiana and New York chapters of The Nature Conservancy. He also helped to found the Sycamore Land Trust in Bloomington (to whom he and his wife Helen donated their home and 12-acre property), and the South Bend chapter of the Audubon Society. Although not a scientist, over the years, as part of his work towards establishing interdisciplinary study in universities and achieving a greater merging of the two worlds of science and public policy, he became deeply involved in national and international environmental affairs, serving, among many appointments, on the Sea Grant Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the first Environmental Advisory Board, United States Army Corps of Engineers, the President’s National Commission on Materials Policy, the Science Advisory Board for the Great Lakes, International Joint Commission, as chair of the first Commission on Environmental Policy, Law and Administration for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and as advisor to the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB), and the UNESCO working program for the environmental education and training of engineers. He helped to draft the United States policy presented at the first Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972 which he also attended as a US representative. He was also the recipient of no fewer than 21 grants from the National Science Foundation to help with his research into science, environment and policy. His active years of work beginning in 1962 to establish environmental policy and environmental studies programs became a catalyst for the creation of IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) in 1972. He also helped to establish environmental studies programs in colleges in ten different states. He held the title of Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs from 1972 until his formal retirement in 1984 when he became Professor Emeritus of SPEA. From 1971 until his death he also held the Arthur F. Bentley Chair in Political Science (later Professor Emeritus) at Indiana University. He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws by Western Michigan University in 1977 for having established his reputation “as one of the nation’s leading political scientists . . . In these works, and through your service as a consultant to numerous governmental and advisory bodies, you have provided invaluable new insights into the nature of many of the most significant problems facing our nation and the world: namely, the essential effort to conserve and protect today’s natural resources in order to insure a safe, healthy, and humane environment for the children of tomorrow.” Among many awards he received, in 1982, on the tenth anniversary of Earth Day and of the signing of the National Environmental Policy Act, President Jimmy Carter wrote him a personal letter recognizing his “invaluable contribution to our understanding of environmental concerns.”
Beside his tenure at Indiana University which began in 1956, Caldwell also served on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Oklahoma, Syracuse University, and the University of California at Berkeley with shorter appointments at more than 80 other universities and collegiate institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Known fondly by his students during the late 1970s and 1980s as the “absent professor” because of his numberless commitments as guest speaker, lecturer, or teacher at universities and institutions in the United States and around the world, he still found time to write his books, hundreds of peer reviewed articles, and a very large number of speeches, monographs, chapters in books, book reviews, bibliographies, and presentations.
Yes, Lynton Keith Caldwell lived a full life, indeed, and Indiana—as the rest of the country—will forever be grateful for his compassion and ceaseless hard work on behalf of the nation and the natural world which he loved so well.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Indiana University - Bloomington.
