When Jimmy Carter ran for president, he wanted the color green to be used in his campaign instead of red, white and blue.
Green showed up on almost everything related to his campaign. It was meant to show the importance he placed on environmental policy.
Nearly 50 years later, environmental activists celebrate the legacy of Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100. They say he was concerned about protecting the environment and climate issues.
Manish Bapna leads the Natural Resources Defense Council. Bapna said Carter was ahead of his time because he was calling for cuts in gas emissions before anyone else was talking about "climate change."
Wearing sweaters and setting standards
Former Vice President Al Gore received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to put the climate crisis on the political agenda. Gore called Carter "a lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement."
President Carter approved the first U.S. efficiency standards for passenger vehicles and household appliances. He created the U.S. Department of Energy which supported energy research. He more than doubled the amount of wilderness area under National Park Service control.
Carter asked Americans to save energy through personal sacrifice, including driving less and turning down their heat in winter during worldwide fuel shortages. He reduced the temperature in the White House in the winter. He wore a sweater during his talks to the nation instead of a traditional suit. He pushed renewable energy aiming to reduce dependence on oil and gas.
Dealing with climate change
Carter left office in 1981 shortly after receiving a report linking the use of oil, coal and gas, called fossil fuels, to rising carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere. Carter's top environmental advisers urged "immediate" cuts to the burning of carbon fuels to reduce what scientists called "carbon dioxide pollution."
The report called for limiting worldwide average temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Thirty-five years later, the 2015 Paris climate agreement set a similar goal.
The goal of energy independence
Although Carter wanted to depend more on renewable energy, his push toward U.S. energy independence aided the oil industry.
Steven Nadel is head of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. He said Carter had the right idea to support research and development organized by the Energy Department.
Stewarding God's creation
Carter's environmental interests began in his boyhood when he hunted and fished and worked on his father's farmland.
Randall Balmer is a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Balmer has written about Carter's faith, saying Carter saw himself as a caretaker of the natural resources that God created.
Condemning consumerism
Carter won the presidency at a time of energy shortages, partly caused by unrest in the Middle East. Nadel wrote that national security and economic interests came together with Carter's religious beliefs and love of nature.
Carter called the energy crisis "the moral equivalent of war." As inflation increased and gasoline shortages spread, Carter called for individual sacrifice and action on renewable energy.
"Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns," Carter said in 1979. He also said: "But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning."
More than 100 million Americans watched Carter’s speech. Years later, Carter said it predicted future calls for strong, direct action on energy.
Jay Inslee is the governor of Washington state. Inslee said: "You can say the Carter presidency is still producing results today." Inslee ran a 2020 presidential campaign that pushed for climate action. "I've learned in politics that timing is everything,” he noted.
I’m Jill Robbins.
