History of Environmentalism Flashcards
What is environmentalism?
Concern with the preservation of the natural environment, esp. from damage caused by human influence; the politics or policies associated with this.
(OED, 2017)
Environmentalism takes many different forms and has a wide range of advocates. They are contested and there may not be consensus about which problems are the most pressing and how they should be solved.
What are the roots of modern environmentalism?
Religion
Resource management
Public health
Recreation and romanticism
Describe First Wave Environmentalism.
Focused on the designation and management of National Parks e.g. Peak District and the Lake District in 1951.
Aimed to conserve species and protect wild places.
Involved setting aside (and sometime clearing land) for hunting, observation and other leisure practices (highly anthropocentric).
Undertaken by national and colonial governments, initially in the interests of a political and economic elite.
Describe Second Wave Environmentalism.
Ambivalence about modern science, rise of ecology, and concerns about pollution.
Rachel Carson (1962) Silent Spring, DDT (pesticide) poisoning.
Urban and industrial pollution (e.g. Bhopal)
New perspectives which see the earth as a finite, limited resource (Blue Planet).
Popular, countercultural protests against: Nuclear power and nuclear weapons
Oil Pollution
Deforestation
Rise of campaigning NGOs e.g. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (both in 1969).
Growth in the creation of national and international bodies to deal specifically with the protection of the environment:
First International meeting on the Environment (Stockholm, 1972). UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) founded
Extensive environmental legislation in US and Europe, strong role for top down regulation at national scale.
Growing concern about population growth as environmental issue.
Describe Third Wave Environmentalism.
Rightwards shift in Western political economy from late 1980s mirrored by the ‘neoliberalisation’ of environmentalism:
Growth of market instruments: banking, offsetting, ecosystem services
Rise of the green consumer and the green corporation
Power of NGOs, voluntary standards
Sustainable development becomes mainstream
Focus on climate change
What does environmentalism today look like?
Shift from local/regional issues to global focus.
Marketisation of green movement.
Environmental justice
Anti-environment backlash e.g. Trump withdrawal from Paris Agreement
Anthropocene narratives
Rise of bright green environmentalism
