In chapters 10-12 of Nature’s Economy, Worster details the growth of ecology as a scientific study over the decades since German researcher Ernst Haeckel coined the phrase “Oecologie” in 1866.  One individual he covers in particular was Frederic Clements who pursued his study of ecology in the first half of the 1900’s.  Worster writes that during this time “no individual had a more profound impact on the course of American as well as British ecological thought” as he introduced the concept that habitats progress towards a “climax formation” or that they progress through succession after succession in a discernible path to a final state (Worster, 209).  One can see the importance of this idea play out in American expansion. 

     Clements thoughts on succession and climax followed from observations on the American pioneer as he compared the development of vegetation to that of the pioneering and settlement of the West.  He saw the stages of human progression as it went from trapper to homesteader to city dweller.  This idea of a set pattern of behavior is echoed in the writings of Tucker and Steinberg.  For Tucker, the pattern was one of ecological imperialism as American companies sought to take control of markets for tropical products.  Generally, the pattern included arrival and dependence on native techniques, then specialization of efforts, introduction of mechanized land management, introduction of irrigation and pesticides, abuse of local workers, land degradation and civic unrest.  This cycle played out from the banana fields in Costa Rica to the timber operations in the Philippines to the grasslands in Brazil.

     Steinberg detailed a somewhat similar pattern in America’s drive west.  Here, large numbers of settlers would arrive and begin the process of breaking existing patterns (in cities, progress broke historical human patterns while agricultural growth broke existing environmental ones), then technology would allow unsustainable growth, specialization would take over, large agricultural operations would grow, pesticides and chemicals would appear, land degradation would occur and often the poor were disadvantaged along the way as corporations fulfilled a growing consumerism.  In California, water projects brought incredible agricultural growth allowing companies from Sunkist to Sun-Maid to Sunsweet to consolidated ever-growing farm operations en route to dominating their markets.  Along the way California led the nation in pesticide use and focused on technology to maximize land use.  A Mexican work force was brought in to work the fields.  For the meat industry, technology in railroad refrigeration cars allowed a beef industry to flourish as traditional small farms were replaced as sources of meat by huge feedlots “channeling grain into fate” (Steinberg, 195).  Chemicals appeared in terms of antibiotics in the 1950s, with animals consuming 30 times more antibiotics then humans by the 1990s. The growth of demand for meat drove increased fertilizer use by farmers to raise corn contributing to the pollution of waterways.  As America continued to grow, the automobile spurred more development into areas unprepared for it.  Homes were built with air conditioning requiring atmospheric destroying Freon and lawns had to be fertilized.  Mountains of garbage were distributed out of sight and out of mind.
     This cycle is one that has consistently shown a negative environmental thought as humans have progressed over the last two centuries.   However, changes in the 1970s in air and water standards have shown a growing awareness of man's effects on the Earth.  Hopefully, that can help break the trend of human growth and environmental degradation.