Environmental movement in the United States
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History
In North America, early figures in the Conservation movement were Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman, Chief Seattle, and Henry David Thoreau in the U.S. and Grey Owl in Canada. By word and deed, they argued that man belonged in harmony with nature, as its keystone species - in the terms of modern ecology. They saw no contradiction in altering or inhabiting the natural environment, and living in harmony with it forever. They did not resist development or colonization of lands - indeed Seattle's Reply, 1854, was an agreement not to resist it.
Early environmentalists encouraged emulation of indigenous peoples and enriching the natural ecology with slow patient effort - Chapman alone planted millions of apple trees throughout the United States. The movement had little or no explicit political character. It was mostly aesthetic. It had no central doctrine. Most of its proponents did not know each other, but created a powerful discourse that influenced people strongly at the time.
Many historians point to the important philosophical and activist roles played by John Muir in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1892, Muir was the leader in the founding of the Sierra Club. As well, forester and ecologist Aldo Leopold both founded the Wilderness Society in 1935, and wrote a classic of nature observation and ethical philosophy, A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949.
Several books after the middle of the twentieth century contributed to the rise of American environmentalism (as distinct from the longer-established conservation movement), especially among college and university students and the more literate public. One was the publication of the first textbook on ecology, Fundamentals of Ecology, by Eugene Odum and Howard Odum, in 1953. Another was the appearance of the best-seller Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, in 1962. Her book brought about a whole new interpretation on pesticides by exposing their hamful effects in nature. From this book many began referring to Carson as the "mother of the environmental movement". The wide popularity of The Whole Earth Catalogs, starting in 1968, was quite influential among the younger, hands-on, activist generation of the 1960s and 1970s. Recently, in addition to opposing environmental degradation and protecting wilderness, an increased focus on coexisting with natural biodiversity has appeared, a strain that is apparent in the movement for sustainable agriculture and in the concept of Reconciliation Ecology.
Environmentalism and Politics
Environmentalists first became influential in American politics after Earth Day, April 22, 1970. Their activism directly led to the creation of numerous U.S. environmental laws, starting with the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA in 1970. These successes were followed by the enactment of a whole series of laws regulating waste (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), toxic substances (Toxic Substances Control Act), pesticides (FIFRA: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), clean-up of polluted sites (Superfund), protection of endangered species (Endangered Species Act), and more.
Fewer environmental laws have been passed in the last decade as corporations and other conservative interests have increased their influence over American politics. Corporate cooperation against environmental lobbyists has been organized by the Wise Use group. At the same time, many environmentalists have been turning toward other means of persuasion, such as working with business, community, and other partners to promote sustainable development.
Much environmental activism is directed towards conservation, as well as the prevention or elimination of pollution. However, conservation movements, ecology movements, peace movements, green parties, green- and eco-anarchists often subscribe to very different ideologies, while supporting the same goals as those who call themselves “environmentalists”. To outsiders, these groups or factions can appear to be indistinguishable.
As human population and industrial activity continue to increase, environmentalists often find themselves in serious conflict with those who believe that human and industrial activities should not be overly regulated or restricted, such as some libertarians.
Environmentalists often clash with others, particularly “corporate interests,” over issues of the management of natural resources, like in the case of the atmosphere as a “carbon dump”, the focus of climate change, and global warming controversy. They usually seek to protect commonly owned or unowned resources for future generations.
Those who take issue with new untested technologies are more precisely known, especially in Europe, as political ecologists. They usually seek, in contrast, to preserve the integrity of existing ecologies and ecoregions, and in general are more pessimistic about human “management”.
"Post-Environmentalism"
In 2004, with the presidency and both houses of congress of the United States government controlled by Republicans—generally seen by environmentalists as more friendly to big business than to environmentalism—some environmentalists started questioning whether "environmentalism" was even a useful political framework. According to a controversial essay titled "The Death of Environmentalism" (Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, 2004) American environmentalism has been remarkably successful in protecting the air, water, and large stretches of wilderness in North America and Europe, but these environmentalists have stagnated as a vital force for cultural and political change.
Shellenberger and Nordhaus wrote, "Today environmentalism is just another special interest. Evidence for this can be found in its concepts, its proposals, and its reasoning. What stands out is how arbitrary environmental leaders are about what gets counted and what doesn't as 'environmental.' Most of the movement's leading thinkers, funders, and advocates do not question their most basic assumptions about who we are, what we stand for, and what it is that we should be doing." Their essay was followed by a speech in San Francisco called "Is Environmentalism Dead?" by former Sierra Club President, Adam Werbach, who argued for the evolution of environmentalism into a more expansive, relevant and powerful progressive politics.
These "post-environmental movement" thinkers argue that the ecological crises the human species faces in the 21st century are qualitatively different from the problems the environmental movement was created to address in the 1960s and 1970s. Climate change and habitat destruction, they argue, are global, more complex, and demand far deeper transformations of the economy, the culture and political life. The consequence of environmentalism's outdated and arbitrary definition, they argue, is political irrelevancy.
Radical Environmentalism
While most environmentalists are mainstream and peaceful, a small minority are more radical in their approach. Various extreme ideologies of radical environmentalism, and several ecology-based theories of anarchy (known as (small-g) green anarchism, i.e. eco-terrorism) are cited to justify equipment sabotage, logging, fishing blockades, and arson, such as burning of houses impinging on a perceived "natural ecology." Environmentalists differ in their views of these ideologies and groups, but almost all condemn violent actions that can harm humans. Some tolerate the destruction of property not essential to sustaining or saving human life. The most extreme, sometimes called terrists, often claim to view themselves as part of nature, simply acting to protect itself from man.
See also
- Environmental movement
- Environmental skepticism
- Environmentalism (Critique of George W. Bush's politics)
- Forestry
- Free-market environmentalism
- Political ecology
- Pollution
- Radical environmentalism
- Rush Limbaugh/Environmental wacko
External links
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-13) Environment
- Friends of the Earth - International (http://www.foei.org) - a network of environmental organisations including Friends of the Earth - US (http://www.foe.org) and Friends of the Earth - England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (http://www.foe.org.uk)
- MoveLeft Media's environmental articles (http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_subject_submit_environment.html)
- State of the Planet 2004 Conference (http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sop2004/)
- ACTivist Magazine - a magazine for peace, ecology and human rights (http://www.activistmagazine.com)
- The philosophy and economics of environmentalism (http://samvak.tripod.com/nature.html)
- A website for endangered wildlife and environmental issues (http://www.takesomeaction.co.uk)
- Essays on environmental teachings of major religions (http://environment.harvard.edu/religion/main.html)
- Environment and Ecology - an Islamic perspective (http://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Ecology%20Environment%20and%20Islam.html)