308
T
he roots of the modern
“green movement”
developed in organizations
established in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, such as the
Sierra Club. Faced with the threat
of increasing urbanization and
industrialization, the Sierra Club
sought to protect the natural
environment for people’s enjoyment.
A greater awareness of humans’
relationship with the environment
led to the emergence of a more
politically active environmental
movement in the second half of the
20th century. This took off in the
1960s, when the Cold War was atIN CONTEXT
KEY FIGURES
David Brower (1912–2000),
Petra Kelly (1947–92)BEFORE
1892 The Sierra Club is
founded in San Francisco,
California, by the Scottish–
American conservationist
John Muir.1958 Environmentalists
protest against proposals
for a nuclear power plant
at Bodega Bay, California.AFTER
1970 On April 22, the first
Earth Day is held across the US.1972 Environmentalist
candidates stand for election
in Tasmania, New Zealand,
and Switzerland.1996 Ralph Nader stands as
candidate for President of the
US on the Green Party ticket.its height and the Cuban Missile
Crisis of 1962 brought the US and
the Soviet Union to the brink of
nuclear war, galvanizing calls for
nuclear disarmament among
many campaigners.
In this atmosphere, the idea
of conserving particular natural
sites, as in the national parks
system in the US and the UK,
gave way to a much broader
concept of environmentalism.
Several organizations emerged with
a strong activist agenda involving
mass protests and direct action.Organized protest
One of the first of the activist
organizations was Friends of
the Earth. It was founded in the US
in 1969 by a group that included
conservationist David Brower,
a former leader of the Sierra Club,
with the aim of preventing the
building of nuclear power plants.
Politically active from the outset,
Friends of the Earth continues to
lobby governments across the world
and campaigns on a broad range of
environmental issues, emphasizing
the importance of sustainable
economic development. In 1971,
a small group of activists in North
America formed the Don’t Make aTHINK GLOBALLY,
ACT LOCALLY
THE GREEN MOVEMENT
Only through care
for the environment can
the livelihoods of those
most dependent on it
be sustained.
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