Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A brief history of environmentalism
The world's first environmental group could be said to be the Commons,
Footpaths and Open Spaces Preservation Society, founded in Britain in 1865.
The Sierra Club, the most influential US environmental group, was established
in 1892. But the environmental movement has many disparate offshoots.
Probably the most radical approach to easing the strain on the earth's envi-
ronmental and energy resources cannot be called environmental at all - it is
the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (pronounced “vehement”, from its
website vhemt.org) which believes the best thing that human beings can do
for the planet is to stop breeding. Environmentalism is certainly not monolithic,
and has many strands to it - anti-capitalism, anti-globalization, eco-feminism
(which blames the rape of the environment on masculine vices of greed and
aggression) and conservation (represented by organizations such as the Sierra
Club in the US or the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the National Trust
in the UK).
Different environmentalists adopt different tactics. Some lobby governments,
while others stage spectacular protests. Almost all environmental groups are
non-violent, though a few - Earth First and Earth Liberation Front indulge in
deliberate sabotage (or “eco-tage”) of tree-cutting or road-making equipment.
If the worst prognoses about climate change are correct, we will probably wit-
ness an increasing radicalization of the green movement: eco-terrorism could
well become a regular feature of the headlines of the future. Others carry out
direct action with a sense of humour, such as the members of Greenpeace in
Australia who put solar panels on the house of John Howard, the country's
climate-sceptical former prime minister.
For all the complaints of some environmentalists about globalization, envi-
ronmentalism as we know it today is undoubtedly a global movement that
has its roots in North America. Many environmental organizations started
there and spread their offshoots to Europe. Greenpeace began as a Canadian-
based organization protesting against US nuclear testing off Alaska. It now
has branches in 46 countries affiliated to Greenpeace International, based in
Amsterdam. Friends of the Earth started as a splinter from the Sierra Club in the
US, but now has branches in 77 countries. Earth First began in the US, and was
established later in the UK.
The focus naturally differed on either side of the Atlantic. Tree-sitting started
in California as a means of stopping the felling of giant redwoods, in protest at
which Julia “Butterfly” Hill spent a record 738 days up a tree. Tree-sitting, as well
as tunnelling, was a tactic used in the UK, only there it was in order to attempt
to prevent the practice of putting town by passes through local beauty spots,
a smaller-scale despoliation of landscape that mattered less in the bigger US.
However, some US green groups remain uncertain about what stand
to take on newer technologies (carbon capture and storage, or CCS)
designed to clean up coal-fired power generation. The Environmental
