Thoreau started off keeping up a journal, then he published college essays and even wrote new ones. After a camping trip with his brother, they both agreed Henry Thoreau shouldn’t be a school teacher but a “poet of nature.” In the 1840’s, he had many poems published in the transcendentalist magazine, ‘The Dial’. He continued to write his poems about nature and also did a few book reviews on nature. After the death of his brother, his condition worsened and so he became a tutor for his friend’s brother in Staten Island. Henry Thoreau tried to get the attention of the New York market but he failed and moved back home to Concord. 

Thoreau took up the idea from a former Harvard peer and built a house on a lake two miles south of Concord. He restricted his diet to plant-based and found himself fully involved in nature; gardening, fishing, swimming, rowing, and observing became his new hobbies. He published Walden: Life in the Woods which consisted of eighteen essays describing his basic living and leisure time. The summer of 1847, Thoreau moved back up to live with his friend, Emerson, but found himself in jail for not paying taxes. He was bailed out and decided he did not support a government who allowed slavery so he waged an imperialist war against Mexico. He wrote ‘Civil Disobedience’ but was listed under a different name; this wasn’t a popular essay until the 20th century during the American civil rights movement. 

After he left Walden, his life went downhill. Thoreau collected botanical and reptilian specimens for himself and Harvard and continued journaling. After his father’s death he completely took control of the family business. He continued to publish essays in magazines and became an active abolitionist.

 Bush was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman. Bush served as the 41st U.S. president, and was known as the “Environmental President”. Bush supported beneficial environmental policies during his presidency. Bush passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992. This act provided incentives for using renewable and alternative energies, including ethanol, hydrogen, electricity, and bio-diesel. Bush also made amendments that strengthened the Clean Air Act in June 1989. Additionally, Bush created 15 National Wildlife Refuges and emphasized recovery for species such as bald eagles and the Yellowstone grizzly under the Endangered Species Act.

But her short, tumultuous tenure was marked by sharp budget cuts, rifts with career EPA employees, a steep decline in cases filed against polluters and a scandal over the mismanagement of the Superfund cleanup program that ultimately led to her resignation in 1983.

 During her 22 months as agency head, she cut the budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides.

 In 1971, he joined an environmental advocacy group (known as Greenpeace) to protest American nuclear testing in Alaska. Due to his aggressive and sometimes violent approaches to protect marine life, he was ousted from the organization and accused of being a terrorist. Watson developed a doctrine of direct action:  a declaration of war against illegal poaching or exploitation.

In 1970, he created the Environmental Protection Agency. This served to combine many other agencies with similar goals that were present at the time. The primary focus of this agency was addressing concerns regarding pollutants in the air, surface water, groundwater, and solid waste disposal. Nowadays, the EPA spends it’s resources in research, studying our impact on the environment and how best to reduce it. They also study the events of climate change, and how our actions can invoke severe weather. The rest of the 1970s became known as the “Environmental Decade.” He set up many more laws and policies throughout this time: the Clean Air Act Extension (1970) enforced regulations on harmful chemicals in the air, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972) regulated the commercial and trade use of marine animals, and The Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) protected the bodies of water filtered for consumption. Through these various policies and regulations, the government and private industries were able to decrease the number of harmful chemicals and emissions. By regulating the manufacturing, processing, distribution, and use of chemicals and harmful  substances, the larger corporations and citizens are more aware of the individual impacts they have on the environment, as well as long term consequences that may stem from their use.

Nixon brought global diplomatic attention to environmental issues using his presidential powers, and also promoted legislation in Congress to create a permanent structure for these legislations. By bringing light to these issues, Nixon reinforced them in the minds of American citizens and gathered global attention as well.