GREEN is Not New

By Patricia Belser

Though the modern environmental movement arose during the Industrial Revolution a concern for environmental protection has recurred in diverse forms, in different parts of the world, throughout history.

8th to 13th Century – Middle East, The Islamic Golden Age - the earliest known writings concerned with environmental pollution were Arabic medical treatises written during the “ Arab Agricultural Revolution”

1272 (13th Century England) – King Edward 1 of England banned the burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke had become a problem.

1739 – United States – In the United States, the beginnings of an environmental movement can be traced as far back as 1739, when Benjamin Franklin and other Philadelphia residents, citing “public rights,” petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from Philadelphia’s commercial district.

1800’s – The US movement expanded in the 1800s, 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. 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. The conservationist principles as well as the belief in an inherent right of nature were to become the bedrock of modern environmentalism.

Late 18th & early 19th century – Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, production, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human society; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way. In Europe, it was the Industrial Revolution that gave rise to modern environmental pollution as it is generally understood today. The emergence of great factories and consumption of immense quantities of coal and other fossil fuels gave rise to unprecedented air pollution and the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste.

1863 – The first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of the British Alkali Acts, passed in 1863, to regulate the deleterious air pollution (gaseous hydrochloric acid) given off by the Leblanc process, used to produce soda ash. Environmentalism grew out of the amenity movement, which was a reaction to industrialization, the growth of cities, and worsening air and water pollution.

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 popularize their concerns.

1916 – The National Park Service was founded by President Woodrow Wilson.

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.

1952 – Europe/ England - Air pollution would continue to be a problem, especially later during the industrial revolution, and extending into the recent past with the Great Smog of 1952

1962 – Silent Spring: by American biologist Rachel Carson. 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 ecology or human health.
1970’s

1970 – United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created

In the 1970s, the Chipko movement was formed in India; influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, 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.

By the mid-1970s, many felt that people were on the edge of environmental catastrophe. The Back-to-the-Land 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.

New pressure groups formed, notably Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

1973 – 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 in1975.

1979 – James Lovelock, a former NASA 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.

Environmentalism has also changed to deal with new issues such as global warming and genetic engineering.

The Environmental movement (a term that sometimes includes the conservation and green movements) is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement. In general terms, environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources, and the protection (and restoration, when necessary) of the natural environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior.