Awareness of climate change has grown rapidly since 1970, when the first Earth Day led to the passage of new environmental laws.
The posters seen here represent a range of efforts to raise public concern. Could innovative technologies like nuclear fusion or the widespread adoption of solar power be part of the solution? Futures are inherently impossible to predict. But one thing is certain: there is no more important issue confronting us today than the wellbeing of our planet.
This section contains the following objects:
Environmental Buttons
Environmental Posters
Solar Panel
Scylla Nuclear Fusion Device Parts
Atoms for Peace Posters
Standing Up for the Environment
Buttons supporting environmental causes
Metal, plastic, and wood
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
Description: A series of Environmental statement buttons. They have various phrases on them. One example is, “Recycle or Die.”
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Freedom to Breathe
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1969
Ink on paper (reproduction)
Description: An environmental themed poster. A photo of the Statue of Liberty with a ventilator. The text reads, “Freedom to Breathe,” “Control Air Pollution.”
Credit: Division of Political and Military History, National Museum of American History
Give Earth a Chance
Milton Glaser, 1970
Lithograph on paper (reproduction)
Description: A poster of the Earth floating in a room. The text reads, “Give Earth a Chance,” “Environmental Action Coalition.”
Credit: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Gift of Uri Danyluk. 1970-18-1
Save Our Earth
Jennifer Morla, 1995
Offset lithograph on paper (reproduction)
Description: A poster of a collage of various images. The text reads, “Save Our Earth.”There are photos of eyes, a bird, water, land, clouds, and the cosmos. There are drawings over these images of various shapes, such as a leaf and concentric circles.
Credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, Morla Design, Inc., San Francisco; copyright 2021 Jennifer Morla
Is This Tank Under Your Town?
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1990
Ink on paper (reproduction)
Description: A poster of an underground tank. There is a colorful town on top of a hill. The central image is of an underground tank under the town. There is an oil spill coming from the tank. This leads to the text that reads, “Is This Tank Under Your Town?” The subheading reads, “If it is, you could have gasoline or other harmful chemicals in your drinking water.” There is smaller text below that with more information about contaminated underground water and what to do about it.
Credit: Division of Medicine and Science, National Museum of American History
Solar Panel Used at the White House
Inter Technology/Solar Corporation, ca. 1977
Glass and metal
Description: A large black solar panel. The solar panel is rectangular. There are lines running down the rectangle. It has a silver border. It is about the size of a window.
The White House Goes Green
In 1979, at the height of an energy crisis, President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. The panel you see here was one in an array of 32 (removed during the Reagan administration). By the year 2000, Carter said, 20 percent of the country’s energy should be able to come from renewable sources. Today we are only about halfway to that benchmark. There is heated debate about how to do better.
Credit: Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
Scylla Fusion Device Components: Capacitor, Spark Gap, and Discharge Tube 1958
Description: The device is dome-shaped with various wires coming out of the top of the dome. It has an arch over the top. There is a brown coil shape that makes up the body of the machine. It has a gray base.
A World-Changing Technology, Still Unrealized
The parts shown here come from “Scylla,” an experimental fusion apparatus that was built and successfully tested at the national Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1958. This was the first demonstration of a nuclear fusion reaction that could, in principle, be controllably sustained and used to generate power. In the reaction two hydrogen nuclei combine and release energy, just as they do in stars.
Fusion could be a transformative technology—far cleaner and safer than today’s fission-based reactors. This may be a reality sooner than we think: researchers are pursuing the goal of making such a device workable within the next decade. Such a breakthrough would greatly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and could even fuel travel into deep space.
Credit: Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
Description: A photo of a person using the Scylla Nuclear Fusion device. The person has light colored skin and white and beige shirt and pants. They are balding except for some white hair around their head. They appear to be of older age. They are working on one of the machines on a platform. There are many scylla machines surrounding the person. The scylla machines are dome-shaped with various wires coming out of the top of the dome. They each have an arch over the top. There is a brown coil shape that makes up the body of the machine. The many dome-shaped machines are arranged in a U shape around a central larger machine. This machine is gray and is shaped like a large box. It has many wires that connect from the front of the box to the individual dome-shaped machines.
Credit: IAEA Archives, F0023-483.
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s National Security Research Center
Erik Nitsche, 1955
Offset lithograph on paper (reproduction)
Description: A poster depicting an atom at the top of a colorful triangle. The triangle is made up of colorful shards and shapes that look like they are floating above each other. The atom is a gray circle with an atomic symbol made up of three loops. The loops form a star or flower shape. The top text of the poster reads, “atoms for peace.” The bottom text reads, “GENERAL DYNAMICS.”
Credit: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Gift of Arthur Cohen and Daryl Otte in memory of Bill Moggridge, 2013-42-10
El atomo para la paz (Atoms for Peace)
Erik Nitsche, 1955
Offset lithograph on paper (reproduction)
Description: A poster depicting concentric circles made up of colorful blocks. The center circle has no color or blocks. The blocks are smaller and more colorful towards the center. Towards the edges, there are fewer colorful blocks. The text above reads, “el atomo para la paz.” The text below reads, “GENERAL DYNAMICS.” The text on the right reads, “solar dynamics.”
Credit: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Gift of Arthur Cohen and Daryl Otte in memory of Bill Moggridge, 2013-42-1