Birth of the Environmental Movement
Early Attempts to Protect Nature from Human Activity
Aug 27, 2009
Environmentalism grew slowly from a developing sense that human activity was degrading nature. That’s as far as the Western world is concerned. There is evidence that in non-Western cultures ideas about sustainable resource use, respect for the land and sea as providers, and consumption on an as-needed basis existed long ago among Aboriginal peoples: just as they continue to exist today.
Industrial Revolution Triggers Environmental Awareness
In England, Thomas Malthus, as far back as the late 18th century, had an awareness of the dangers of growth. The start of the Industrial Revolution led to forest clearing and mining. By the early 19th century, it was hard not to notice the factories belching smoke into the air and spewing filth into rivers and streams.
There were isolated complaints about pollution such as that of an official in Pittsburgh named Presley Neville. According to the Environmental History Timeline, Neville wrote in 1804 about “the general dissatisfaction which prevails and the frequent complaints which are exhibited, in consequence of the Coal Smoke from many buildings in the Borough, particularly from smithies and blacksmith shops...” He said the smoke affected the “comfort, health and... peace and harmony.”
In the 1994 book, The Environmental History of Britain Since the Industrial Revolution B.W. Clapp says that scientific concerns about damage to the environment began to emerge in the 1860’s.
First Environmental Writers
James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Pioneers (1823) in which he contended that humans should “govern the resources of nature by certain principles in order to conserve them.”
In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson anonymously published an essay entitled Nature. In the essay he set out his belief that all elements in nature are interrelated and interdependent. The essay was read and taken to heart by Henry David Thoreau.
In 1864, Thoreau published The Maine Woods, in which he called for the establishment of “national preserves” of old-growth forest. The book was based on his observations of changes taking place in woodlands.
Twenty years later, George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, invited readers to write in and sign a pledge against harming any bird. An amazing 40,000 responded and they became the first members of the Audubon Society for the Protection of Birds. Mr. Grinnell named the society after the American naturalist and bird artist John James Audubon (1785-1851).
John Muir and the Sierra Club
Throughout his life, John Muir (1838-1914) was concerned with the protection of nature both for the spiritual advancement of humans and, as he said so often, for nature itself. In 1892, he contacted the editor of Century Magazine. He wrote: “Let us do something to make the mountains glad.” His letter sparked interest that led to the foundation of the Sierra Club.
However, both the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club tended to focus on preserving wilderness and wildlife for the enjoyment of the social elite. They still viewed nature as somehow separate from the human existence; humans were not part of nature, they were superior to it. Environmentalists then were less concerned with the broader issues of pollution and resource depletion that are central to today’s environmental movement.
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