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Your mission, if you choose to accept it, document the problems and promise of America’s environment.

Nearly 40 years ago, the Nixon Administration EPA set 100 photographers out on this mission.

Those photos help change the national psyche then.

They have been put onto Fickr.

Can they help us today?

For a National Archives discussion of the project and the archives, see C. Jerry Simmons, Documerica: Snapshots of Crisis and Cure in the 1970s, Prologue, Spring 2009.

By the late 1960s, the American landscape was ravaged by decades of unchecked land development, blighted by urban decay in the big cities, and plagued by seemingly unstoppable air, noise, and water pollution. In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a monumental photodocumentary project to record changes in the American environment

If a photo is worth a 1000 words, this collection rates millions — which I will spare you here. These photos document tragic situations, stark problems that we see today in increased and worsened dimensions). They also have documentations of problems that we have solved (okay, perhaps ameliorated / partially addressed). And, as per the image to the right, they document promise that we have yet to see fulfilled. This is a photo taken by Frank Lodge of an

Exhibit at the First Symposium on Low Pollution Power Systems Development Held at the Marriott Motor Inn, Ann Arbor Vehicles and Hardware Were Assembled at the EPA Ann Arbor Laboratory. Part of the Exhibit Was Held in the Motel Parking Lot General Motors Urban Electric Car Gets Battery Charge. in the Background (Left) Is the Ebs Electric “Sundancer” 10/1973

And, of course, 30 years later, GM remained in the EV picture as we wondered “Who Killed The Electric Car?”

Documerica ran from 1971 through 1977 as “the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s.”

The National Archives has digitized more than 15,000 photos and made them available for public access.

Time to speak 1000s of words …

Marc St Gil’s shot of what comes out when you burn automobile batteries, Houston, TX, 1972.

Also from Marc St Gil, in quite a contrast, a Milk Wort and Butterfly near San Antonio, TX, 1973.

Staying with the Texas theme, sprawl epitomized with Bill Reaves photo of recreational development near Lake Travis.

Well, opposition to strip mining isn’t a new phenomena as Erik Calonius’ photo from Ohio shows. The caption:

There Is Some Local Opposition to Stripping the Land in Southeastern Ohio. Most People, However, Are Employed by the Coal Companies and Are Afraid Any Demands for Reform Will Cost Them Their Jobs.

And, in an iconic photo, there is Earth as seen from Apollo 17