Pollution in Paradise: KGW Oregon Archives (1962)

KGW-TV aired Tom McCall’s one-hour documentary Pollution in Paradise on November 21, 1962. An environmental classic, the program represented McCall’s investigative skills and pressed home the powerful idea that there should be no tension between jobs and livability—Oregonians could enjoy both a robust economy and a healthy environment. Pollution in Paradise leveraged a new political spirit in Oregon, placing environmental issues at the forefront of state politics as never before. - Description from the Oregon Encyclopedia

[fosbury]

4:05 The old Teledyne Wah Chang plant in Albany/Millersburg. For decades an obnoxious fixture along I-5. It was blessedly torn down about 10 years ago and is not missed.

[milesm.]

Tremendous documentary. Boy I wish we still had orchestral music for news docs.

[mackpines]

6:50 Wow Hwy 217 before the traffic! Amazing how in 50 years Oregon went from polluting rivers to one of the greenest places in the country.

[ivanoffw]

I often thought that environmentalism started with the hippies when they moved to this state. Obviously I was wrong, none of the people in this video look like hippies, and they were here before the hippies.

[mackpines]

18:55 Hey look! The Bomber Service Station.

[shadythereok]

Now they're going to burn it all down

[curtismcallister]

this doc goes a long way to justify the big pipe project and all the sewage management that's been built up over the decades. it's often too easy to take for granted the progress that's been made