![Usstamp-save-our](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Usstamp-save-our.jpg)
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
, and
social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
regarding concerns for
environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...
and improvement of the health of the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the impact of changes to the environment on humans, animals, plants and non-living matter. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of
green ideology and politics, ecologism combines the ideology of
social ecology Social ecology may refer to:
* Social ecology (academic field), the study of relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions
* Social ecology (Bookchin), a theory about the relat ...
and environmentalism. ''Ecologism'' is more commonly used in continental European languages, while ''environmentalism'' is more commonly used in English but the words have slightly different connotations.
Environmentalism advocates the preservation, restoration and improvement of the
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, living and non-living things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not Artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. Th ...
and critical
earth system
Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"— atmo ...
elements or processes such as the
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
, and may be referred to as a movement to control
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
or protect plant and animal
diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
. For this reason, concepts such as a
land ethic
A land ethic is a philosophy or theoretical framework about how, ethically, humans should regard the land. The term was coined by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) in his ''A Sand County Almanac'' (1949), a classic text of the environmental movement. The ...
,
environmental ethics
In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...
,
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
,
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
, and the
biophilia hypothesis
The biophilia hypothesis (also called BET) suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, ''Biophilia'' (1984). He de ...
figure predominantly.
At its crux, environmentalism is an attempt to balance relations between humans and the various natural systems on which they depend in such a way that all the components are accorded a proper degree of
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
. The exact measures and outcomes of this balance is controversial and there are many different ways for environmental concerns to be expressed in practice. Environmentalism and environmental concerns are often represented by the colour
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
,
but this association has been appropriated by the marketing industries for the tactic known as
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...
.
Environmentalism is opposed by
anti-environmentalism
Anti-environmentalism is a movement that favors loose environmental regulation in favor of economic benefits and opposes strict environmental regulation aimed at preserving nature and the planet. Anti-environmentalists seek to persuade the public ...
, which says that the Earth is less fragile than some environmentalists maintain, and portrays environmentalism as overreacting to the human contribution to
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
or opposing human advancement.
Definitions
''Environmentalism'' denotes a
social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
that seeks to influence the political process by lobbying, activism, and education in order to protect natural resources and
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s.
An ''
environmentalist
An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...
'' is a person who may speak out about our natural environment and the sustainable management of its resources through changes in public policy or individual behaviour. This may include supporting practices such as informed consumption, conservation initiatives, investment in
renewable resources
A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...
, improved efficiencies in the materials economy, transitioning to new accounting paradigms such as
ecological economics, renewing and revitalizing our connections with non-human life or even opting to have one less child to reduce consumption and pressure on resources.
In various ways (for example, grassroots activism and protests), environmentalists and
environmental organisation
An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements
that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces.
In this sense the environment ...
s seek to give the natural world a stronger voice in human affairs.
In general terms, environmentalists advocate the
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
management of resources, and the protection (and restoration, when necessary) of the
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, living and non-living things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not Artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. Th ...
through changes in public policy and individual behaviour. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in ecosystems, the movement is centered around
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
,
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
, and
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
.
History
![Mahaveer swami](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Mahaveer_swami.jpg)
A concern for environmental protection has recurred in diverse forms, in different parts of the world, throughout history.
The earliest ideas of environmental protectionism can be found in
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...
, a religion from ancient India revived by
Mahavira
Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6t ...
in the 6th century BC. Jainism offers a view that is in many ways compatible with core values associated with environmental activism, such as the protection of life by
nonviolence
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
, which could form a strong ecological ethos for global protection of the environment. Mahavira's teachings on the symbiosis between all living beings—as well as the five elements of earth, water, air, fire, and space—are core to environmental thought today.
In the Middle East, the
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...
in the 630s AD commanded his army to "Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire," and to "Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food."
Various
Arabic medical treatises during the 9th to 13th centuries dealt with environmentalism and
environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...
, including the issue of pollution. The authors of such treatises included
Al-Kindi
Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...
,
Qusta ibn Luqa
Qusta ibn Luqa (820–912) (Costa ben Luca, Constabulus) was a Syrian Melkite Christian physician, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and translator. He was born in Baalbek. Travelling to parts of the Byzantine Empire, he brought back Greek te ...
,
Al-Razi Razi ( fa, رازی) or al-Razi ( ar, الرازی) is a name that was historically used to indicate a person coming from Ray, Iran.
People
It most commonly refers to:
* Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925), influential physician, alchemist ...
,
Ibn Al-Jazzar
Ahmed Bin Jaafar Bin Brahim Ibn Al Jazzar Al-Qayrawani (895–979) ( ar, أبو جعفر أحمد بن أبي خالد بن الجزار القيرواني), was an influential 10th-century Muslim Arab physician who became famous for his writings o ...
,
al-Tamimi,
al-Masihi
Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi al-Jurjani ( fa, ابو سهل عيسى بن يحيى مسيحی گرگانی) was a Christian Persian physician,Firoozeh Papan-Matin, ''Beyond death: the mystical teachings of ʻAyn al-Quḍāt al-Hamadhā ...
,
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
,
Ali ibn Ridwan
Abu'l Hassan Ali ibn Ridwan Al-Misri () (c. 988 - c. 1061) was an Arab of Egyptian origin who was a physician, astrologer and astronomer, born in Giza.
He was a commentator on ancient Greek medicine, and in particular on Galen; his commentary ...
,
Ibn Jumay,
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon (Hebrew: יצחק בן שלמה הישראלי, ''Yitzhak ben Shlomo ha-Yisraeli''; Arabic: أبو يعقوب إسحاق بن سليمان الإسرائيلي, ''Abu Ya'qub Ishaq ibn Suleiman al-Isra'ili'') ( 832 &ndas ...
,
Abd-el-latif Abdul Latif ( ar, عبد اللطيف, translit=ʻAbd al-Laṭīf) is a Muslim male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Laṭīf'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which gave rise to ...
, Ibn al-Quff, and
Ibn al-Nafis. Their works covered a number of subjects related to pollution, such as air pollution,
water pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...
,
soil contamination
Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity ...
, and the mishandling of
municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...
. They also included
asessments of certain localities' environmental impact.
In Europe, King
Edward I of England
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
banned the burning and sale of "
sea-coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when de ...
" in 1272 by proclamation in London, after its smoke had become a prevalent annoyance throughout the city.
This fuel, common in London due to the local scarcity of wood, was given this early name because it could be found washed up on some shores, from where it was carted away on a wheelbarrow.
Early environmental legislation
![StRolloxChemical 1831](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/StRolloxChemical_1831.jpg)
The origins of the environmental movement lay in the response to increasing levels of
smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product ...
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
in the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
during the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. The emergence of great factories and the concomitant immense growth in
coal consumption
Peak coal is the peak consumption or production of coal by a human community. Global coal consumption peaked in 2013, and had dropped slightly by the end of the 2010s.
The peak of coal's share in the global energy mix was in 2008, when coal acco ...
gave rise to an unprecedented level of
air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
in industrial centers; after 1900 the large volume of industrial
chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...
discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste.
The first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of Britain's
Alkali Acts
The Alkali Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict c 124) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Under the Alkali Act 1863, an alkali inspector and four subinspectors were appointed to curb discharge into the air of muriatic acid gas (gaseous hyd ...
, passed in 1863, to regulate the deleterious air pollution (
gaseous
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid
Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...
) given off by the
Leblanc process
The Leblanc process (pronounced leh-blaank) was an early industrial process for making ''soda ash'' (sodium carbonate) used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc. It involved two stages: making sodium sulfate from ...
, used to produce
soda ash
Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...
. An Alkali inspector and four sub-inspectors were appointed to curb this pollution. The inspectorate's responsibilities were gradually expanded, culminating in the Alkali Order 1958 which placed all major heavy industries that emitted
smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product ...
, grit, dust and fumes under supervision.
In industrial cities, local experts and reformers, especially after 1890, took the lead in identifying
environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...
and pollution, and initiating grass-roots movements to demand and achieve reforms. Typically the highest priority went to water and air pollution. The
Coal Smoke Abatement Society was formed in 1898 making it one of the oldest environmental NGOs. It was founded by artist Sir
William Blake Richmond
Sir William Blake Richmond KCB, , PPRBSA (29 November 184211 February 1921) was a British painter, sculptor and a designer of stained glass and mosaic. He is best known for his portrait work and decorative mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral in ...
, frustrated with the pall cast by coal smoke. Although there were earlier pieces of legislation, the
Public Health Act 1875
The Public Health Act 1875c 55 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the Public Health Acts, and a significant step in the advancement of public health in England.
Its purpose was to codify previous measures aimed at combatin ...
required all furnaces and fireplaces to consume their own smoke. It also provided for sanctions against factories that emitted large amounts of black smoke. This law's provisions were extended in 1926 with the Smoke Abatement Act to include other emissions, such as soot, ash, and gritty particles, and to empower local authorities to impose their own regulations.
During the
Spanish Revolution, anarchist-controlled territories undertook several environmental reforms, which were possibly the largest in the world at the time.
Daniel Guerin notes that
anarchist territories would diversify crops, extend
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...
, initiate
reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A debate ...
, start tree nurseries and help to establish
naturist communities. Once there was a link discovered between air pollution and tuberculosis, the
CNT shut down several metal factories.
It was only under the impetus of the
Great Smog
The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne poll ...
of 1952 in London, which almost brought the city to a standstill and may have caused upward of 6,000 deaths, that the
Clean Air Act 1956
The Clean Air Act 1956 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted principally in response to London's Great Smog of 1952. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in England and the Department of Health ...
was passed and airborne pollution in the city was first tackled. Financial incentives were offered to householders to replace open coal fires with alternatives (such as installing gas fires) or those who preferred, to burn coke instead (a byproduct of town gas production) which produces minimal smoke. 'Smoke control areas' were introduced in some towns and cities where only smokeless fuels could be burnt and power stations were relocated away from cities. The act formed an important impetus to modern environmentalism and caused a rethinking of the dangers of environmental degradation to people's quality of life.
The late 19th century also saw the passage of the first wildlife conservation laws.
The zoologist
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoology, zoologist and ornithology, ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Amo ...
published a series of investigations into the ''Desirability of establishing a 'Close-time' for the preservation of indigenous animals'' between 1872 and 1903. His advocacy for legislation to protect animals from hunting during the mating season led to the formation of the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
and influenced the passage of the
Sea Birds Preservation Act in 1869 as the first nature protection law in the world.
First environmental movements
Early interest in the environment was a feature of the
Romantic movement
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in the early 19th century. One of the earliest modern pronouncements on thinking about human industrial advancement and its influence on the environment was written by Japanese geographer, educator, philosopher and author
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi in his 1903 publication ''Jinsei Chirigaku'' (''A Geography of Human Life'').
In Britain the poet
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
travelled extensively in the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
and wrote that it is a "sort of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy".
![John Ruskin - Portrait - Project Gutenberg eText 17774](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/John_Ruskin_-_Portrait_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_17774.jpg)
Systematic efforts on behalf of the environment only began in the late 19th century; it grew out of the amenity movement in Britain in the 1870s, which was a reaction to
industrialisation
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
, the growth of cities, and worsening air and
water pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...
. Starting with the formation of the
Commons Preservation Society The Open Spaces Society is a campaign group that works to protect public rights of way and open spaces in the United Kingdom, such as common land and village greens. It is Britain's oldest national conservation body and a registered charity.
Found ...
in 1865, the movement championed rural preservation against the encroachments of industrialisation.
Robert Hunter, solicitor for the society, worked with
Hardwicke Rawnsley
Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (29 September 1851 – 28 May 1920) was an Anglican priest, poet, local politician and conservationist. He became nationally and internationally known as one of the three founders of the National Trust for Places of H ...
,
Octavia Hill
Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a fa ...
, and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...
to lead a successful campaign to prevent the construction of railways to carry slate from the quarries, which would have ruined the unspoiled valleys of
Newlands
Newlands may refer to:
Places Australia
* Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region
New Zealand
* Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington
South Africa
* Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town
* Newlands, Johannesbur ...
and
Ennerdale. This success led to the formation of the Lake District Defence Society (later to become The Friends of the Lake District).
["Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley"]
, Visitcumbria.com, accessed 17 May 2009
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
wrote about ecology in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
,
agricultural science
Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Profession ...
,
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
,
ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...
, criminology, urban planning, geography, geology and biology. He observed in Swiss and Siberian glaciers that they had been slowly melting since the dawn of the industrial revolution, possibly making him one of the first predictors for climate change. He also observed the damage done from deforestation and hunting. Kropotkin's writings would become influential in the 1970s and became a major inspiration for the
intentional community
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...
movement as well as his ideas becoming the basis for the theory of
social ecology Social ecology may refer to:
* Social ecology (academic field), the study of relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions
* Social ecology (Bookchin), a theory about the relat ...
.
In 1893 Hill, Hunter and Rawnsley agreed to set up a national body to coordinate environmental conservation efforts across the country; the "National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty" was formally inaugurated in 1894.
["A Proposed National Trust", ''The Times'', 17 July 1894, p. 12] The organisation obtained secure footing through the 1907 National Trust Bill, which gave the trust the status of a statutory corporation. and the bill was passed in August 1907.
["An Act to incorporate and confer powers upon the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty"]
, The National Trust, accessed 4 June 2012
An early "Back-to-Nature" movement, which anticipated the romantic ideal of modern environmentalism, was advocated by intellectuals such as
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...
,
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
and
Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rightsWarren Allen Smith: ''Who's Who in Hell, A Handbook and International Directory for Human ...
, who were all against
consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
,
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
and other activities that were harmful to the natural world. The movement was a reaction to the urban conditions of the industrial towns, where sanitation was awful, pollution levels intolerable and housing terribly cramped. Idealists championed the rural life as a mythical
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
and advocated a return to it. John Ruskin argued that people should return to a "small piece of English ground, beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful. We will have no steam engines upon it ... we will have plenty of flowers and vegetables ... we will have some music and poetry; the children will learn to dance to it and sing it."
Practical ventures in the establishment of small cooperative farms were even attempted and old rural traditions, without the "taint of manufacture or the canker of artificiality", were enthusiastically revived, including the
Morris dance
Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...
and the
maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place.
The festivals may occur on 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at ...
.
These ideas also inspired various environmental groups in the UK, such as the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment throug ...
, established in 1889 by
Emily Williamson
Emily Williamson (''née'' Bateson; 17 April 1855 – 12 January 1936), was an English philanthropist. She was co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) with Eliza Phillips in 1891. The society started as the Plumage L ...
as a
protest group
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
to campaign for greater protection for the indigenous birds of the
island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
. The Society attracted growing support from the suburban middle-classes as well as support from many other influential figures, such as the
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
Professor
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoology, zoologist and ornithology, ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Amo ...
. By 1900, public support for the organisation had grown, and it had over 25,000 members. The
garden city movement
The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...
incorporated many environmental concerns into its
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
manifesto; the Socialist League (UK, 1885), Socialist League and The Clarion (British newspaper), The Clarion movement also began to advocate measures of nature conservation.
![Walden Thoreau](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Walden_Thoreau.jpg)
Environmental movement in the United States, The movement in the United States began in the late 19th century, out of concerns for protecting the natural resources of the West, with individuals such as John Muir and Henry David Thoreau making key philosophical contributions. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book ''Walden'', which argues that people should become intimately close with nature. Muir came to believe in nature's inherent right, especially after spending time hiking in Yosemite Valley and studying both the ecology and geology. He successfully lobbied congress to form Yosemite National Park and went on to set up the Sierra Club in 1892. The conservationist principles as well as the belief in an inherent right of nature were to become the bedrock of modern environmentalism.
In the 20th century, environmental ideas continued to grow in popularity and recognition. Efforts were starting to be made to save some wildlife, particularly the American bison. The death of the last passenger pigeon as well as the endangerment of the American bison helped to focus the minds of conservationists and to popularise their concerns. In 1916, the National Park Service was founded by US President Woodrow Wilson.
The Forestry Commission was set up in 1919 in Britain to increase the amount of woodland in Britain by buying land for afforestation and
reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A debate ...
. The commission was also tasked with promoting forestry and the production of timber for trade.
During the 1920s the Commission focused on acquiring land to begin planting out new forests; much of the land was previously used for agricultural purposes. By 1939 the Forestry Commission was the largest landowner in Britain.
During the 1930s the Nazis had elements that were supportive of animal rights, zoos and wildlife,
and took several measures to ensure their protection.
In 1933 the government created a stringent animal-protection law and in 1934, ''Das Reichsjagdgesetz'' (The Reich Hunting Law) was enacted which limited hunting.
Environmentalism in Nazi Germany, Several Nazis were environmentalists (notably Rudolf Hess), and species protection and animal welfare were significant issues in the regime.
In 1935, the regime enacted the "Reich Nature Protection Act" (''Reichsnaturschutzgesetz''). The concept of the ''Dauerwald'' (best translated as the "perpetual forest") which included concepts such as forest management and protection was promoted and efforts were also made to curb
air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
.
In 1949, ''A Sand County Almanac'' by Aldo Leopold was published. It explained Leopold's belief that humankind should have moral respect for the environment and that it is unethical to harm it. The book is sometimes called the most influential book on conservation.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and beyond, photography was used to enhance public awareness of the need for protecting land and recruiting members to environmental organisations. David Brower, Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall created the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series, which helped raise public environmental awareness and brought a rapidly increasing flood of new members to the Sierra Club and to the environmental movement in general. ''This Is Dinosaur'', edited by Wallace Stegner with photographs by Martin Litton (environmentalist), Martin Litton and Philip Hyde (photographer), Philip Hyde, prevented the building of dams within Dinosaur National Monument by becoming part of a new kind of activism called environmentalism that combined the conservationist ideals of Thoreau, Leopold and Muir with hard-hitting advertising, lobbying, book distribution, letter writing campaigns, and more. The powerful use of photography in addition to the written word for conservation dated back to the creation of Yosemite National Park, when photographs persuaded Abraham Lincoln to preserve the beautiful glacier carved landscape for all time. The Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series galvanised public opposition to building dams in the Grand Canyon and protected many other national treasures. The Sierra Club often led a coalition of many environmental groups including the The Wilderness Society (United States), Wilderness Society and many others.
After a focus on preserving wilderness in the 1950s and 1960s, the Sierra Club and other groups broadened their focus to include such issues as air and water pollution, population concern, and curbing the exploitation of natural resources.
Post-war expansion
![Suburbia by David Shankbone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Suburbia_by_David_Shankbone.jpg)
In 1962, ''Silent Spring'' by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book cataloged the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on human health and ecology. The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds.
The resulting public concern led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 which subsequently banned the agricultural use of DDT in the US in 1972. The limited use of DDT in Vector (epidemiology), disease vector control continues to this day in certain parts of the world and remains controversial. The book's legacy was to produce a far greater awareness of environmental issues and interest into how people affect the environment. With this new interest in environment came interest in problems such as air pollution and petroleum spills, and environmental interest grew. New pressure groups formed, notably Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (US), as well as notable local organisations such as the Wyoming Outdoor Council, which was founded in 1967.
In the 1970s, the environmental movement gained rapid speed around the world as a productive outgrowth of the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movement.
The world's first political parties to campaign on a predominantly environmental platform were the United Tasmania Group of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia, and the Values Party of New Zealand.
[Bevan, RA (2001), Petra Kelly: The Other Green, New Political Science, vol. 23, no. 2, November, pp. 181–202] The first green party in Europe was the Popular Movement for the Environment, founded in 1972 in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. The first national green party in Europe was PEOPLE, founded in Britain in February 1973, which eventually turned into the Ecology Party, and then the Green Party (UK), Green Party.
Protection of the environment also became important in the developing world; the Chipko movement was formed in India under the influence of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mhatmas Gandhi and they set up peaceful resistance to deforestation by literally hugging trees (leading to the term "tree huggers"). Their peaceful methods of protest and slogan "ecology is permanent economy" were very influential.
Another milestone in the movement was the creation of Earth Day. Earth Day was first observed in San Francisco and other cities on 21 March 1970, the first day of spring. It was created to give awareness to environmental issues. On 21 March 1971, United Nations Secretary-General U Thant spoke of a spaceship Earth on Earth Day, hereby referring to the ecosystem services the earth supplies to us, and hence our obligation to protect it (and with it, ourselves). Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year.
The UN's first major conference on international environmental issues, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference), was held on 5–16 June 1972. It marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics.
[John Baylis, Steve Smith. 2005. The Globalization of World Politics (3rd ed). Oxford. Oxford University Press. pp. 454–55]
By the mid-1970s, many felt that people were on the edge of environmental catastrophe. The back-to-the-land movement started to form and ideas of environmental ethics joined with anti-Vietnam War sentiments and other political issues. These individuals lived outside normal society and started to take on some of the more radical environmental theories such as deep ecology. Around this time more mainstream environmentalism was starting to show force with the signing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and the formation of CITES in 1975. Significant amendments were also enacted to the United States Clean Air Act (United States), Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
In 1979, James Lovelock, a British scientist, published ''Gaia: A new look at life on Earth'', which put forth the Gaia hypothesis; it proposes that life on earth can be understood as a single organism. This became an important part of the Deep Green Resistance, Deep Green ideology. Throughout the rest of the history of environmentalism there has been debate and argument between more radical followers of this Deep Green ideology and more mainstream environmentalists.
21st century and beyond
Environmentalism continues to evolve to face up to new issues such as global warming, Human overpopulation, overpopulation, genetic engineering, and plastic pollution.
Research demonstrates a precipitous decline in the US public's interest in 19 different areas of environmental concern. Americans are less likely to be actively participating in an environmental movement or organisation and more likely to identify as "unsympathetic" to an environmental movement than in 2000.
This is likely a lingering factor of the Great Recession in 2008. Since 2005, the percentage of Americans agreeing that the environment should be given priority over economic growth has dropped 10 points; in contrast, those feeling that growth should be given priority "even if the environment suffers to some extent" has risen 12 percent.
Nevertheless, a recent ''National Geographic'' survey indicated strong desire for commitment across a dozen countries, indicating a majority were in favour of more than half of the Earth's land surface being protected.
New forms of ecoactivism
![Berkeley Tree Sitters - UC Berkeley Memorial Oak Grove](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Berkeley_Tree_Sitters_-_UC_Berkeley_Memorial_Oak_Grove.jpg)
Tree sitting is a form of activism in which the protester sits in a tree in an attempt to stop the removal of a tree or to impede the demolition of an area with the longest and most famous tree-sitter being Julia Butterfly Hill, who spent 738 days in a California Redwood, saving a three-acre tract of forest. Also notable is the Yellow Finch tree sit, which was a 932-day blockade of the Mountain Valley Pipeline from 2018 to 2021.
Sit-ins can be used to encourage social change, such as the Greensboro sit-ins, a series of protests in 1960 to stop racial segregation, but can also be used in ecoactivism, as in the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest.
Before the Syrian Civil War, Rojava had been ecologically damaged by monoculture, oil extraction, damming of rivers, deforestation, drought, Erosion, topsoil loss and general pollution. The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, DFNS launched a campaign titled 'Make Rojava Green Again' (a parody of Make America Great Again) which is attempting to provide renewable energy to communities (especially Solar Energy Generating Systems, solar energy),
reforestation
Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting.
Management
A debate ...
, protecting water sources, planting gardens, promoting urban agriculture, creating Nature reserve, wildlife reserves, Reclaimed water, water recycling, beekeeping, expanding Public Transportation, public transportation and promoting environmental awareness within their communities.
The Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities are firmly environmentalist and have stopped the extraction of oil, uranium, timber and metal from the Lacandon Jungle and stopped the use of pesticides and Fertilizer, chemical fertilisers in farming.
The CIPO-RFM has engaged in sabotage and direct action against wind farms, shrimp farms, Eucalyptus, eucalyptus plantations and the timber industry. They have also set up corn and coffee worker cooperatives and built schools and hospitals to help the local populations. They have also created a network of autonomous community radio stations to educate people about dangers to the environment and inform the surrounding communities about new industrial projects that would destroy more land. In 2001, the CIPO-RFM defeated the construction of a highway that was part of Plan Puebla Panama.
Environmental movement
![Air pollution by industrial chimneys](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Air_pollution_by_industrial_chimneys.jpg)
The ''environmental movement'' (a term that sometimes includes the conservation movement, conservation and Green politics, green movements) is a diverse scientific, Social movement, social, and political movement. Though the movement is represented by a range of organisations, because of the inclusion of environmentalism in the classroom curriculum,
[
][
] the environmental movement has a younger demographic than is common in other social movements (see green seniors).
Environmentalism as a movement covers broad areas of institutional oppression, including for example: consumption of ecosystems and natural resources into waste, dumping waste into disadvantaged communities, air pollution, water pollution, weak infrastructure, exposure of organic life to toxins, mono-culture, anti-polythene drive (jhola movement) and various other focuses. Because of these divisions, the environmental movement can be categorized into these primary focuses:
environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...
, environmental activism, environmental advocacy, and environmental justice.
Free market environmentalism
Free market environmentalism is a theory that argues that the free market, property rights, and tort law provide the best tools to preserve the health and
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
of the environment. It considers environmental stewardship to be natural, as well as the expulsion of polluters and other aggressors through individual and class action.
Evangelical environmentalism
Evangelical environmentalism is an environmental movement in the United States in which some Evangelicalism, Evangelicals have emphasized Bible, biblical mandates concerning humanity's role as steward and subsequent responsibility for the care taking of Creation. While the movement has focused on different environmental issues, it is best known for its focus of addressing climate action from a biblically grounded theology, theological perspective. This movement is controversial among some non-Christian environmentalists due to its rooting in a specific religion.
Preservation and conservation
![An example of US Federal Environmental Regulations, 1987](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/An_example_of_US_Federal_Environmental_Regulations%2C_1987.jpg)
Environmental preservation in the United States and other parts of the world, including Australia, is viewed as the setting aside of natural resources to prevent damage caused by contact with humans or by certain human activities, such as logging, mining, hunting, and fishing, often to replace them with new human activities such as tourism and recreation. Regulations and laws may be enacted for the preservation of natural resources.
Organisations and conferences
![ReefDoctor work station in Ifaty, Madagascar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/ReefDoctor_work_station_in_Ifaty%2C_Madagascar.jpg)
Environmental organisations can be global, regional, national or local; they can be government-run or private (NGO). Environmentalist activity exists in almost every country. Moreover, groups dedicated to community development and social justice also focus on environmental concerns.
Some US environmental organisations, among them the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, specialise in bringing lawsuits (a tactic seen as particularly useful in that country). Other groups, such as the US-based National Wildlife Federation, Earth Day, National Cleanup Day, the Nature Conservancy, and The Wilderness Society (United States), The Wilderness Society, and global groups like the World Wide Fund for Nature and Friends of the Earth, disseminate information, participate in Hearing (law), public hearings, Lobbying, lobby, Demonstration (people), stage demonstrations, and may purchase land for Nature reserve, preservation. Statewide nonprofit organisations such as the Wyoming Outdoor Council often collaborate with these national organisations and employ similar strategies. Smaller groups, including Wildlife Conservation International, conduct research on endangered species and ecosystems. More radical organisations, such as Greenpeace, Earth First!, and the Earth Liberation Front, have more directly opposed actions they regard as environmentally harmful. While Greenpeace is devoted to nonviolent confrontation as a means of bearing witness to environmental wrongs and bringing issues into the public realm for debate, the underground ''Earth Liberation Front'' engages in the clandestine destruction of property, the release of caged or penned animals, and other criminal acts. Such tactics are regarded as unusual within the movement, however.
On an international level, concern for the environment was the subject of a United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, attended by 114 nations. Out of this meeting developed the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the follow-up Earth Summit, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. Other international organisations in support of environmental policies development include the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (as part of NAFTA), the European Environment Agency (EEA), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Environmental protests
Notable environmental protests and campaigns include:
* 2010 Xinfa aluminum plant protest
* Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival
* Car-Free Days
* Camp for Climate Action
* Campaign against Climate Change
* Climate Rush
* Cofán people#Oil drilling, Cofán people oil drilling protest (Ecuador)
* Earth Day
* Earth First!
* Earthlife Africa
* Global Climate Strike (disambiguation), Global Climate Strikes
* Global Day of Action
* Gurindji Strike
* Hands off our Forest
* Homes before Roads
* Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta
* Love Canal protests
* March Against Monsanto
* Nevada Desert Experience
* Plane Mad
* Plane Stupid
* Qidong protest
* Save Manapouri Campaign
* Say Yes demonstrations
* Shifang protest
* Stop Climate Chaos
Environmentalists
Notable advocates for
environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...
and
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
include:
* Edward Abbey (author)
* David Attenborough (broadcaster, naturalist)
* John James Audubon (naturalist)
* Judi Bari (environmentalist)
* Frances Beinecke (environmentalist and former president of the Natural Resources Defense Council)
* David Bellamy (botanist)
* Wendell Berry (farmer, philosopher)
* Murray Bookchin (anarchist, philosopher, social ecologist)
* Erin Brockovich (environmental lawyer and activist)
* David Brower (writer, activist)
* Lester Brown (environmental analyst, author)
* Carol Browner (lawyer and activist)
* Kevin Buzzacott (Aboriginal activist)
* Berta Caceres (environmental and indigenous rights activist)
* Helen Caldicott (medical doctor)
* Rachel Carson (biologist, writer)
* Majora Carter (urban revitalization strategist)
* Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Charles (British Royal Family member)
* Barry Commoner (biologist, politician)
* Jacques-Yves Cousteau (explorer, ecologist)
* Herman Daly (Ecological economics, ecological economist and Steady-state economy#Herman Daly's concept of a steady-state economy, steady-state theorist)
* Peter Dauvergne (political scientist)
* Laurie David (activist and producer)
* Marina DeBris (environmental artist)
* Leonardo DiCaprio (actor and environmentalist)
* Sylvia Earle (marine biologist)
* Paul R. Ehrlich (population biologist)
* Hans-Josef Fell (German Alliance '90/The Greens, Green Party member)
* Jane Fonda (actor)
* Josh Fox (filmmaker, environmental activist)
* Mizuho Fukushima (politician, activist)
* Peter Garrett (musician, politician)
* Jane Goodall (primatologist, anthropologist, and United Nations Messengers of Peace, UN Messenger of Peace)
* Lois Gibbs (Founder of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice)
* Al Gore (former Vice President of the United States)
* Daryl Hannah (activist)
* James Hansen (scientist)
* Garrett Hardin (ecologist, ecophilosopher)
* Denis Hayes (environmentalist and solar power advocate)
* Julia Butterfly Hill (activist)
* Robert Hunter (journalist), Robert Hunter (journalist, co-founder and first president of Greenpeace)
* Tetsunari Iida (sustainable energy advocate)
* Lisa P. Jackson (chemical engineer and former administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency)
* Naomi Klein (writer, activist)
* Winona LaDuke (environmentalist)
* Aldo Leopold (ecologist)
* A. Carl Leopold (plant physiologist)
* James Lovelock (scientist)
* Amory Lovins (energy policy analyst)
* Hunter Lovins (environmentalist)
* Caroline Lucas (politician)
* Wangari Maathai (activist and Nobel laureate)
* Jarid Manos (CEO of the Great Plains Restoration Council)
* Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (environmental activist, hip-hop artist)
* Bill McKibben (writer, activist)
* David McTaggart (activist)
* Chico Mendes (activist)
* Joni Mitchell (musician, environmental activist)
* George Monbiot (journalist)
* John Muir (naturalist, activist)
* Ralph Nader (activist)
* Gaylord Nelson (politician)
* Alan Pears (environmental consultant and Efficient energy use, energy efficiency pioneer)
* Gifford Pinchot (first chief of the United States Forest Service, USFS)
* Jonathon Porritt (politician)
* John Wesley Powell (second director of the United States Geological Survey, USGS)
* Barbara Pyle (documentarian and executive producer of ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'')
* Phil Radford (environmental, clean energy and democracy advocate, Greenpeace Executive Director)
* Bonnie Raitt (musician)
* Theodore Roosevelt (former President of the United States)
* Habiba Sarobi (politician and activist)
* E. F. Schumacher (author of ''Small Is Beautiful'')
* Vandana Shiva (ecofeminist and activist)
* Marina Silva (politician and activist)
* Alicia Silverstone (activist and author of ''The Kind Diet'')
* Lauren Singer (activist and entrepreneur)
* Swami Sundaranand (Yogi, photographer, and mountaineer)
* Cass Sunstein (environmental lawyer)
* David Suzuki (scientist, broadcaster)
* Henry David Thoreau (writer, philosopher)
* Greta Thunberg (environmentalist)
* Stewart Udall (former United States Secretary of the Interior)
* Jo Valentine, Baroness Valentine, Jo Valentine (politician and activist)
* Dominique Voynet (politician and environmentalist)
* Christopher O. Ward (water infrastructure expert)
* Alice Waters (activist and restaurateur)
* Gabriel Willow (environmental educator, naturalist)
* Howard Zahniser (author of the 1964 Wilderness Act)
Assassinations
![GuyBradley1905](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/GuyBradley1905.jpg)
Every year, more than 100 environmental activists are murdered throughout the world.
Most recent deaths are in Brazil, where activists combat logging in the Amazon rainforest.
116 environmental activists were assassinated in 2014, and 185 in 2015.
[ This represents more than two environmentalists assassinated every week in 2014 and three every week in 2015. More than 200 environmental activists were assassinated worldwide between 2016 and early 2018. A 2020 incident saw several rangers murdered in the Congo Rainforest by poaching squads. Occurrences like this are relatively common, and account for a large number of deaths.
]
In popular culture
* The U.S. Forest Service created Smokey the Bear in 1944; he appeared in countless posters, radio and television programs, movies, press releases, and other guises to warn about forest fires.
* The comic strip ''Mark Trail'', by environmentalist Ed Dodd, began in 1946; it still appears weekly in 175 newspapers.
* The children's animated show ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'', created by Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle in 1989 to inform children about environmental issues. The show aired for six seasons and 113 episodes, in 100 countries worldwide from 1990 to 1996.
* In 1974, Spokane, Washington, Spokane, State of Washington, Washington, became the smallest city ever to host a World's Fair. From Saturday, 4 May, to Sunday, 3 November 1974, Spokane hosted Expo 74, the first world's fair to focus on the environment. The theme of Expo 74 was "Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment".
* ''FernGully: The Last Rainforest'' is an animated motion picture released in 1992, which focuses exclusively on the environment. The movie is based on a book under the same title by Diana Young. In 1998, a sequel, ''FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue'', was introduced.
* Miss Earth is one of the Big Four international beauty pageants. (The other three are Miss Universe, Miss International, and Miss World.) Out of these four beauty pageants, Miss Earth is the only international beauty pageant that promotes "environmental awareness". The reigning titleholders dedicate their year to promote specific projects and often address issues concerning the environment and other global issues through school tours, tree planting activities, street campaigns, coastal clean ups, speaking engagements, shopping mall tours, media guesting, environmental fair, storytelling programs, eco-fashion shows, and other environmental activities. The Miss Earth winner is the spokesperson for the Miss Earth Foundation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other environmental organizations. The Miss Earth Foundation also works with the environmental departments and ministries of participating countries, various private sectors and corporations, as well as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).
* Another area of environmentalism is to use art to raise awareness about misuse of the environment. One example is trashion, using trash to create clothes, jewelry, and other objects for the home. Marina DeBris is one trashion artist, who focuses on ocean and beach trash to design clothes and for fund raising, education.
Criticism and alternative views
When environmentalism first became popular during the early 20th century, the focus was wilderness protection and wildlife preservation. These goals reflected the interests of the movement's initial, primarily white middle and upper class supporters, including through viewing preservation and protection via a lens that failed to appreciate the centuries-long work of indigenous communities who had lived without ushering in the types of environmental devastation these settler colonial "environmentalists" now sought to mitigate. The actions of many mainstream environmental organizations still reflect these early principles.[Sandler, R., & Phaedra, P. (2007). Environmental justice and environmentalism. (pp. 27-55).] Numerous low-income minorities felt isolated or negatively impacted by the movement, exemplified by the Southwest Organizing Project's (SWOP) Letter to the Group of 10, a letter sent to major environmental organizations by several local environmental justice activists. The letter argued that the environmental movement was so concerned about cleaning up and preserving nature that it ignored the negative side-effects that doing so caused communities nearby, namely less job growth. In addition, the NIMBY movement has transferred locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) from middle-class neighborhoods to poor communities with large minority populations. Therefore, vulnerable communities with fewer political opportunities are more often exposed to hazardous waste and toxins.[
] This has resulted in the PIBBY principle, or at least the PIMBY (Place-in-minorities'-backyard), as supported by the United Church of Christ's study in 1987.[
]
As a result, some minorities have viewed the environmental movement as elitist. Environmental elitism manifested itself in three different forms:
# ''Compositional'' – Environmentalists are from the middle and upper class.
# ''Ideological'' – The reforms benefit the movement's supporters but impose costs on nonparticipants.
# ''Impact'' – The reforms have "regressive social impacts". They disproportionately benefit environmentalists and harm underrepresented populations.[
]
Many environmentalists believe that human interference with 'nature' should be restricted or minimised as a matter of urgency (for the sake of life, or the planet, or just for the benefit of the human species), whereas environmental skeptics and anti-environmentalists do not believe that there is such a need. One can also regard oneself as an environmentalist and believe that human 'interference' with 'nature' should be ''increased''. Nevertheless, there is a risk that the shift from emotional environmentalism into the technical management of natural resources and hazards could decrease the touch of humans with nature, leading to less concern with environment preservation. Increasingly, typical conservation rhetoric is being replaced with restoration approaches and larger landscape initiatives that seek to create more holistic impacts.
In the 2000s, American author, film director, medical graduate and intellect Michael Crichton criticized environmentalism as being religiously motivated rather than grounded in empirical evidence, arguing that climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
was a natural part of Earth's history and had been occurring long before humans dominated the planet. Also claiming to argue from his minor education in anthropology, he stated that religion was a part of human social make-up and that if it was suppressed, it would simply re-emerge in another form. With the decline of Christianity and Church attendance in the Western world, environmentalism has become more popular according to him, which he termed as "the religion of urban atheists".
Others seek a balance that involves both caring deeply for the environment while letting science guide human actions affecting it. Such an approach would avoid the emotionalism which, for example, anti-genetically modified organism, GMO activism has been criticized for, and protect the integrity of science. Planting trees, for another example, can be emotionally satisfying but should also involve being conscious of ecological concerns such as the effect on water cycles and the use of nonnative, potentially invasive species.
See also
* Outline of environmentalism
* Anti-environmentalism
* Climate movement
* Conservation movement
* Ecomodernism
* Human ecology
* Human impact on the environment
* Nature conservation
* Radical environmentalism
* Religion and environmentalism
* Sustainability
* List of climate scientists
* List of women climate scientists and activists
References
Further reading
* Borowy, Iris. "Before UNEP: who was in charge of the global environment? The struggle for institutional responsibility 1968–72." ''Journal of Global History'' 14.1 (2019): 87-106.
* Daynes, Byron W., and Glen Sussman, eds. ''White House Politics and the Environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush'' (Texas A&M University Press; 2010) 300 pages; evaluates how 12 presidents helped or hindered the cause of environmental protection.
* Johnson, Erik W., and Scott Frickel, (2011). "Ecological Threat and the Founding of U.S. National Environmental Movement Organizations, 1962–1998," ''Social Problems'' 58 (Aug. 2011), 305–29.
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* John McCormick (political scientist), John McCormick. 1995. The Global Environmental Movement. John Wiley. London. 312 pp.
* de Steiguer, J. Edward. 2006. ''The Origins of Modern Environmental Thought.'' University of Arizona Press. Tucson. 246 pp.
* Adam Tooze, Tooze, Adam, "Democracy and Its Discontents", ''The New York Review of Books'', vol. LXVI, no. 10 (6 June 2019), pp. 52–53, 56–57. "Democracy has no clear answer for the mindless operation of bureaucracy, bureaucratic and technology, technological power. We may indeed be witnessing its extension in the form of artificial intelligence and robotics. Likewise, after decades of dire warning, the environmental problem remains fundamentally unaddressed.... Bureaucratic overreach and environmental catastrophe are precisely the kinds of slow-moving existential challenges that democracies deal with very badly.... Finally, there is the threat du jour: corporations and the technologies they promote." (pp. 56–57.)
* Verweij, Marco; Thompson, Michael (eds), 2006, ''Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: Governance, Politics and Plural Perceptions'', Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,
* Vogel, David. ''California Greenin': How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader'' (2018) 280 pp
online review
* Woodhouse, Keith M. "The Politics of Ecology: Environmentalism and Liberalism in the 1960s," ''Journal for the Study of Radicalism,'' Volume 2, Number 2, 2009, pp. 53–84
* World Bank Group, World Bank, 2003
"Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World: Transforming Institutions, Growth, and Quality of Life"
World Development Report 2003, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Oxford University Press.
External links
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''Westland''
– A Canadian television series (1984–2007) on a broad range of environmental issues, from the UBC Library Digital Collections
''The Directory of Environmental Websites''
{{Authority control
Environmentalism,
Green politics
Habitat
Environmental social science concepts
1920s neologisms