What is Environmentalism?
Environmentalism is a movement with many branches rather than one fixed doctrine. What unites its supporters is concern for clean air and water, healthy ecosystems, wildlife and a stable climate. People on the left, center and right can all call themselves environmentalists, though they argue over the best tools. Some stress saving wild places. Others care most about pollution, public health or global warming. Because the movement is so wide, no single party owns it.
Core beliefs
- Nature has worth, whether or not humans can use it.
- Pollution and waste must be cut to protect health and ecosystems.
- We owe future generations a livable planet.
- Rules, public investment and personal choices all have a part to play.
- Problems like climate change cross borders and need joint action.
History
Worry about the harm of industry goes back to the 1800s. Henry David Thoreau praised life close to nature in Walden (1854). John Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892 and fought for national parks. In 1949 Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac argued for a land ethic, in which people are members of the natural community rather than its owners. The modern movement took off with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), which warned of pesticide damage. The first Earth Day followed in 1970 and the first UN environment conference in Stockholm in 1972. In Kenya, Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, planting trees with rural women. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
Variants
Conservationists favor careful use of natural resources, while preservationists want some places left alone. Deep ecology, a phrase from the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, says living things have value in themselves. Environmental justice looks at who suffers most from pollution, and finds that poor and minority areas often do. Free-market environmentalists prefer property rights and carbon pricing to commands. Ecomodernists say nuclear power, dense cities and high-yield farming can spare land for nature. Ecofeminists link the domination of nature to the domination of women.
Criticisms
Critics on the right say that environmental rules can raise costs, slow growth and weaken property rights, and some doubt the size of particular threats. Market-minded economists say that innovation and wealth have fixed many pollution problems in the past. Critics on the left say that mainstream environmentalism ignores class, and that carbon markets let rich polluters buy their way out. Leaders in poorer countries have also argued that wealthy nations grew rich by burning fuel and should not ask others to hold back.
In practice
The movement has changed law across the world. The United States set up its Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and passed clean air and water acts. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased out most chemicals that harm the ozone layer, and is often called a rare big success. The Paris Agreement of 2015 set a shared framework for cutting emissions. National parks, emission limits and impact assessments are now common. On the 12 axes, it scores toward Cooperation on Foreign policy and toward Planned on Markets, with a moderate lean toward caution on Technology.