In Episode II, we continue our survey of a brief history of pollution, further illustrating the transformation of the U.S. industrial economy at the turn of the 20th century, and how that led into post-World War II economic growth in the years from 1945 to 1975—otherwise known as, The Glorious Thirty.

Arriving in the 1970s, society takes an unprecedented stance against industrial pollution in the wake of years of environmental crises and catastrophes. One of the more famous, known simply as Love Canal, marks a turning point in how the U.S. focused environmental legislation.

This new framework of federal environmental laws, headed by the EPA, set the stage for the last few decades of the 20th century, and where we are in the pollution debate today.