It was the summer of 1978 when Alan Toney’s phone in Atlanta rang with an unexpected offer.
On the other end of the line from the young Friends of the River volunteer was an official from the White House with an invitation. Would he like to come to Washington to see President Jimmy Carter sign legislation creating the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area?
A cash-strapped 20-something who worked for Gulf Oil at the time, Toney first said no before changing his mind. About 10 days later, he and other self-proclaimed “river rats” who fought for years to protect the Chattahoochee found themselves mingling with Carter and then-first lady Rosalynn Carter in the Rose Garden.
“At first, we thought maybe he’s just a politician, a dilettante,” said Toney, now the chairman for the Fulton County Soil and Water Conservation District, an organization he’s served for nearly three decades. “But we came to realize this guy really cares about this stuff. He cares about it the way we do.”
Peanut farmer. Naval officer. Nuclear engineer. Governor. President. Peacemaker. Nobel laureate. Champion of voting rights and global health. Carter’s journey from tiny Plains to the White House and back left an imprint on the world in many ways.
Carter died Sunday in his hometown of Plains. He was 100.
But those who observed and worked with him say his environmental record lives on as one of the most significant — and perhaps most underrated — parts of his legacy.
Carter oversaw a huge expansion of the National Park System and protected rivers across the country, plus millions of acres of Alaska wildlands. He was also the first U.S. president to address the dangers of climate change to the American people, staking his place as one of the most influential environmental leaders in U.S. history, experts say.
A passion for rivers, wildlands
Carter’s environmental advocacy started before he was Georgia’s governor or the nation’s 39th president.
Carter was a charter member of the conservation and environmental nonprofit The Georgia Conservancy founded in 1967. Over the years, the organization has helped protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land across the state, including the Sweetwater Creek and Panola Mountain state parks and the Okefenokee Swamp.
Credit: Steve Jackson
Credit: Steve Jackson
Carter, governor from January 1971 to January 1975, overhauled state government agencies and reformed schools. But he was also an ardent supporter of rivers.
In 1974, Carter famously canoed down the harrowing Bull Sluice Rapid on the Chattooga River in the North Georgia Mountains with then-Emory Professor Claude Terry. The pair’s descent is thought to be the first tandem excursion down the dangerous stretch of river.
Carter vetoed the construction of the Sprewell Bluff Dam on the Flint River to preserve the river’s natural state. To this day, the Flint remains one of only 40 rivers left in the U.S. with a stretch of more than 200 miles unimpeded by dams or reservoirs.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
In the White House, Carter also assembled a “hit list” of more than 30 water projects and successfully modified or canceled several that he viewed as too expensive and environmentally harmful.
Tom Kiernan, the president and CEO of the nonprofit American Rivers, said Carter was “the original river champion.”
“Now, we’re understanding how ahead of his time he was in realizing the need for healthy, free flowing rivers, for drinking water, for habitat and for recreation,” Kiernan said.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
Around the Atlanta area, environmental advocates say Carter’s efforts as governor and later as president were key to protecting the city’s main water supply, the Chattahoochee River.
As Georgia’s governor, Carter signed the Metropolitan River Protection Act. The legislation created 2,000-foot buffer zones prohibiting development on both banks of the river, stretching 48 miles between Buford Dam and Peachtree Creek. As president, Carter’s Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area further cemented the area as an escape for Atlantans seeking to connect with nature, just miles from downtown.
To this day, Toney said that when he crosses over the Chattahoochee at night in his car, he wonders how different the river might look, were it not for Carter’s action.
“If the river bill had not passed and if Jimmy Carter had not become governor and president, it would have been lit up condominiums all across there,” Toney said. “But it’s completely dark and there’s nothing there but wildlife at night. That gives me a warm feeling every time I do it.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Carter’s biggest land preservation effort, however, happened in one of the most remote parts of North America. In 1980, Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which added more than 100 million acres to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and grew the territory to roughly the size of the entire state of South Carolina, with 40% reclassified as protected wilderness.
Though parts of the refuge have since been threatened by oil speculation, it still contains the U.S.’s largest wilderness area.
An early climate change awakening
When Carter became president in 1977, the U.S. was already engulfed in an energy crisis. The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 had thrown a wrench in the gears of the economy, sending oil and gas prices skyrocketing.
In response, Carter made energy independence and conservation central policies of his administration. He wore a sweater — preserved at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum — during a speech encouraging Americans to turn down their thermostats and later, installed a primitive set of solar panels on the roof of the West Wing.
His affinity for solar continued after his presidency ended, too. In 2017, Carter leased 10 acres of his land to a company to install solar panels. The electricity it produces helps meet much of Plains’ electricity needs to this day.
As president, he also created the Department of Energy, promoted vehicle fuel economy and helped lay the groundwork for the appliance efficiency standards that still exist today.
Though his domestic energy strategy was influenced by global events, those who worked in the Carter White House say it was also shaped by the president’s awakening to the threats posed by another crisis: climate change.
Gus Speth came to work for Carter in Washington in 1978, eventually rising to chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
At the time, Speth said the scientific community had already concluded that rising greenhouse gas concentrations would pose enormous challenges for society. Many in the federal government were also well aware of the problem, he said, but public understanding of the issue was still in its infancy.
Credit: Steve Jackson
Credit: Steve Jackson
Speth said Carter was briefed by advisers on climate change early in his presidency and later, Speth himself spoke to him about the problem.
In a 1980 speech, Carter listed the “buildup of carbon dioxide” — the primary heat-trapping gas produced by human activity — as one of the planet’s greatest long-term threats. Carter also said the nation must get “on a path to a sustainable energy future, one based increasingly on renewable resources and on energy conservation.”
As part of his quest to boost domestic energy independence, Carter did push the country away from oil and natural gas and toward coal, an even dirtier fossil fuel. Still, Speth said he believed Carter understood the gravity of the problem.
“I personally don’t have any doubt he would have taken this issue up with great seriousness in a second term,” Speth said.
Carter, of course, lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, a defeat driven in part by his unpopular energy policies. In Speth’s view, his loss forever altered the trajectory of the government’s response to climate change. But despite serving only one term, he thinks Carter should still be recognized as one of the country’s greatest environmentalist presidents.
“I think he’s the only president in my life who, in his soul, understood and felt the imperative of environmental protection and sustainability,” he said.
— Economy and environment editor J. Scott Trubey contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the amount of wildland acreage protected in Alaska under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at ajc.com/donate/climate/
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