Inspiration (and warnings) from Theodore Roosevelt’s radical environmentalism

Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite (photo courtesy David Gessner)

“Roosevelt created the rough draft. And there are flaws in that draft. … We can take the best parts of that old ideal and use them in a new way that’s more inclusive.”
— David Gessner

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon and called for the area to be protected.

“Leave it as it is,” he said. “You cannot improve on it.”

Roosevelt went on to preserve an unprecedented 230 million acres of American land.

Our guest on this episode is David Gessner, author of the book Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness. The book explores Roosevelt’s radical efforts to save wild places, while also condemning the dark reality that many of his environmental achievements came at the expense of indigenous communities.

On this episode, we discuss how we can learn from the accomplishments and atrocities of Roosevelt’s era to create a new environmentalism that is not only good for the planet, but also inclusive and just.

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