Environmentalism

• DEFINITION: Movement devoted to the protection of natural resources from harmful influences

The modern movement known as environmentalism has had many successes in a wide variety of areas of concern, including the protection and preservation of untouched natural areas, the conservation of finite natural resources, the development of alternative sources of fuels and other necessities, the promotion of the importance of biodiversity, and the reduction of pollution.

Environmentalism entails advocating for and taking part in activities aimed at preserving and protecting the natural environment. Environmentalists support many different ways of achieving their goals. Among the many concerns of environmentalists are the reduction of the pollution of air, soil, and water; the prevention of the introduction of species of plants and animals into ecosystems to which they are not native; and the prevention of the encroachment of human activities into natural areas.

American Environmentalism

When early European settlers arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they exploited every resource they found, including the Indigenous populations. Such exploitation continued in the American colonies during English control. After the Revolutionary War, most Americans were committed to environmental exploitation and westward expansion. They swiftly harvested forests and quickly exhausted arable land with nutrient-needy crops. The slaughter of wild animals for food and pelts and of whales for oil, ambergris, and other products was rampant. Discoveries of gold, silver, and other precious minerals were rapidly exploited.

In the nineteenth century, some Americans became concerned about this trend, and New England Transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson began to write about the value of the natural environment. Gradually, public opinion began to shift, and increasing numbers of Americans began to see the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources as less than admirable. Grassroots organizations began to form in response to local environmental concerns during the late nineteenth century. John Muir, one of the founders of the Sierra Club and an advocate of preservation of forests in the American West, was instrumental in influencing popular opinion for environmental preservation.

Another important figure during this period was Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot, son of a wealthy land speculator and lumberman, learned about sustainable forestry in Europe. He did not favor wilderness preservation for the sake of scenery or landscape; rather, he was concerned with the conservation of forest resources. Pinchot favored federal ownership and management of public lands. He advocated prudent exploitation of existing forest resources, including the replacement of cut trees with new seedlings. Utilitarian use of the became popular with President Theodore Roosevelt, who appointed Pinchot as the first chief of the US Forest Service.

Individual Audubon Society organizations formed in various states late in the nineteenth century, when commercial bird hunting was extensive (many birds were killed so that their feathers could be harvested for the fashion industry). Audubon advocacy was directed toward the preservation of game and wild birds and against the importation of nonnative birds. The various Audubon organizations advocated for passage of the Lacey Act, which would prohibit interstate commerce in illegally captured or protected birds. The act was signed into law on May 25, 1900, by President William McKinley. Many state Audubon groups united to form a national organization in 1905.

In 1933, as part of his New Deal programs during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This work relief program focused on environmental projects aimed at conserving and developing natural resources. Among their other accomplishments, CCC workers planted millions of trees in the Great Plains and the Midwest.

After the end of World War II in 1945, logging increased dramatically in the United States to meet demands for new construction. The widespread availability of cheap energy also promoted tremendous expansion in industry and mechanized agriculture during this period, and little public concern was expressed about pollution. In 1962, however, fears about the effects of toxic chemicals on human beings and the environment quickly followed publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, which discussed the of toxic and radioactive substances in the food chain, especially the effects of the on wildlife and on domesticated animals. The demands for change that followed the publication of Carson’s book were met with intense opposition by the US chemical industry, especially by large corporations that manufactured pesticides and herbicides. Corporate publicity unsuccessfully attempted to brand Carson as a fanatic. The publication of Silent Spring was an important factor leading to the formation of the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967 and ultimately to the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.

The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, was a seminal event. Some twenty million Americans participated in this “teach-in” suggested by Democratic US senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Increasing numbers of Americans began to see the pollution of air, water, and soil as a threat to human health, and politicians and industry leaders responded to their concerns.

The mantra “reduce, reuse, and recycle” became popular in the English-speaking world during the late twentieth century as environmentalists sought to encourage the conservation of resources and reduction of the amounts of materials that were being deposited in increasingly scarce landfill space. As the twenty-first century began, many environmentalists emphasized the excessive use of energy and consumption of goods in developed countries. They promoted the reduction of energy consumption, which would require individual lifestyle changes such as reductions in air travel and the use of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. These suggestions were unpopular with many Americans.

Environmental Advocacy

Prior to the 1960s, various American grassroots groups advocated on behalf of wildlife preservation and opposed such activities as lumbering, building, and mining in wilderness areas. After the publication of Silent Spring, such efforts expanded to include national campaigns aimed at reducing the pollution caused by toxic chemicals from agricultural and industrial sources. As increasing numbers of environmental groups formed on the national level, their repeated use of legal advocacy led to the establishment of the field of environmental law.

Greenpeace, an international environmental watchdog organization, was formed in 1971 in British Columbia and rapidly became known for its confrontational tactics, pitting environmental activists against corporate and government entities. Originally, Greenpeace focused primarily on protests against nuclear testing, whaling, and seal hunting, but over time its work evolved to address many other environmental issues as well. In the early years of the twenty-first century, Greenpeace stated that climate change and global warming presented the greatest environmental threat to the planet.

By the late twentieth century, Green political parties had become increasingly important carriers of the environmental message. In the United States, the Green Party gained attention with its nomination of Ralph Nader as candidate for US president in 1996; Nader was also the party’s candidate in 2000. Twenty-five state Green parties formed the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) in 1996; the ASGP was replaced by the Green Party of the United States (GPUS), a federation of forty-six state Green parties, in 2001. The GPUS promotes “ten key values” based on “ecological wisdom, social justice, cooperation, and nonviolence.” Among the issues the party considers important are “Frankenfoods” (that is, foods created using genetic engineering), corporate farming, inequities between rich and poor, and the problems caused by global warming.

In European countries, increasing numbers of elected local and national offices have been held by Greens, and several different Green parties have been represented in the European Parliament. The European Green parties generally stand for ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots participatory democracy, and nonviolence, principles similar but not identical to those of the GPUS.

Many environmentalists oppose the use of genetic engineering in plant and animal breeding and have raised objections to the introduction of genetically modified organisms in the production of food products. One controversial example is the use of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), an artificial produced by genetically modified bacteria, to boost milk production in cows. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that the milk of cows treated with rBST is safe for human consumption, but some critics assert that because such milk has a slightly elevated level of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), a hormone, it may have detrimental health effects in humans. The European Union, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have all deemed rBST to have unacceptable detrimental health effects on cows and have banned its use for humane reasons.

Many environmentalists contend that the claims made for some genetically modified foods are inflated. An example is “golden rice,” a genetically modified rice that biosynthesizes beta-carotene (a source of vitamin A) in the grain. This product was engineered to provide vitamin supplementation to the diets of consumers in Africa and Asia, but critics assert that few studies were done on how much vitamin A remains after the rice is cooked. They further argue that a better approach would be to make wider food choices available to people in need, rather than encouraging them to continue their dependence on a rice diet.

Radical environmentalists sometimes take part in criminal activities that are aimed at preventing what they view as harms to the environment; the term often applied to such activities is “ecoterrorism.” Some of the tactics used by ecoterrorists, including tree spiking (in which metal spikes are driven into trees to prevent logging with chain saws), are federal crimes in the United States. Among the groups that have been described as ecoterrorist organizations are Earth First!, the Environmental Liberation Front, and the Animal Liberation Front.

Antienvironmentalism

Environmentalism has had a number of well-known critics. Bjørn Lomborg, a Danish academic, was a Greenpeace advocate before he conducted a series of statistical studies of environmentalist claims. His published conclusions were that many claims of impending environmental disaster are grossly overstated.

Within the United States, some individuals and organizations view environmentalists as people opposed to continued technological progress. Author and filmmaker Michael Crichton alleged that environmentalism is a religion. He criticized environmentalists for not using “complexity theory” in environmental management. Crichton was also critical of the idea of global warming, asserting that environmentalists use statistical “tricks” to hide data that contradict the concept that emissions affect the environment.

A 2022 critique of the American environmentalism movement wrote that its historic shortfall has been its focus on conservationism. This type of action merely limits or places restrictions on land resources available for development. An example is the creation of national parks. Conservation still allows commercial enterprises to access natural resources. Critics contend that these businesses and corporations are the primary agents of environmental destruction. Another issue is that conservationist efforts are mainly based in rural sectors and provide nothing for the betterment of urban areas.

Various governments around the world have taken violent actions against environmental activists. An infamous example is the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in 1985 in a New Zealand port by operatives of the French General Directorate for External Security. The Rainbow Warrior had been shadowing French nuclear vessels to protest nuclear testing in French Polynesia. The French government paid compensation for sinking the ship.

Global Environmentalism and Sustainable Development

Two similar concepts emerged during the 1990s: green development and sustainable development. Green development puts environmental concerns above social and economic concerns. Those who advocate sustainable development call for meeting immediate social, economic, and environmental needs in a way that can be maintained for future generations. Some observers contend that the concept of environmentalism underwent a paradigm shift before the twenty-first century, during which it was replaced by the concept of sustainability.

The promotion of sustainable development is sometimes characterized as an attempt by developed countries to exert “protectionism/paternalism” on less developed regions of the world. Some critics of sustainable development believe that it requires limits to growth. Other critics argue that development of any kind conflicts with environmentalism.

Instead of funding large (and costly) infrastructure programs, such as building dams, in developing countries, governments and organizations that promote sustainability tend to focus on so-called appropriate technology to provide cheap solutions to everyday problems. Some of these inexpensive efforts, such as the introduction of solar cookers at refugee camps in Sudan’s Darfur region, have been relatively successful.

In 2022, the presidential administration of Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $60 billion for environmental efforts. The legislation supported efforts such as environmental justice, investment in clean energy, and green job creation. However, even with increased investment in clean energy sources such as wind and solar, legacy infrastructure remained a bottleneck to progress. For example, modern transmission lines were needed to distribute electricity generated in remote locations to urban coastal areas. Others argued that the US should rethink its environmental policies on nuclear generation and carbon capture. Carbon capture is a method for separating carbon emissions from industrial processes, such as coal-fired electrical plants. The captured carbon is then designated for storage. Supporters contend that nuclear power and carbon capture efforts can be implemented more quickly. In addition, less land is needed than for other renewable sources.

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