At this platform, we are trying to advocate sustainable development and environment conservation, but how it all got started? This article is about the history of environmental movement and some inspiring eco-activists.

 

Environmental movement, a term that includes conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.

 

The origins of the environmental movement lay in the response to increasing levels of smoke pollution in the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution. Under increasing political pressure from the urban middle-class, the first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of Britain's 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.

 

The modern conservation movement was first manifested in the forests of India, with the practical application of scientific conservation principles. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that the human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir James Ranald Martin was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in British India through the establishment of Forest Departments.

 

The Madras Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by Alexander Gibson, a professional botanist who systematically adopted a forest conservation program based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world. Eventually, the government under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie introduced the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to other colonies, as well the United States.

 

The late 19th century saw the formation of the first wildlife conservation societies. The zoologist Alfred Newton?s advocacy for legislation to protect animals from hunting during the mating season led to the formation of the Plumage League (later the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) in 1889. The society acted as a protest group campaigning against the use of great crested grebe and kittiwake skins and feathers in fur clothing. The Society attracted growing support from the suburban middle-classes, and influenced the passage of the Sea Birds Preservation Act in 1869 as the first nature protection law in the world.

 

For most of the century from 1850 to 1950, however, the primary environmental cause was the mitigation of air pollution. The Coal Smoke Abatement Society was formed in 1898 making it one of the oldest environmental NGOs. It was founded by artist Sir William Blake Richmond, frustrated with the pall cast by coal smoke.

 

Systematic and general efforts on behalf of the environment only began in the late 19th century it grew out of the amenity movement in Britain in the 1870s, which was a reaction to industrialization. Starting with the formation of the Commons Preservation Society in 1865, the movement championed rural preservation against the encroachments of industrialization.

 

In early "Back-to-Nature" movement, which anticipated the romantic ideal of modern environmentalism, John Ruskin argued that people should return to a small piece of English ground, beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful. We will have no steam engines upon it . . . we will have plenty of flowers and vegetables . . . we will have some music and poetry the children will learn to dance to it and sing it.

 

The U.S movement did not really take off until after World War II as people began to recognize the costs of environmental negligence, disease, and widespread air and water pollution through the occurrence of several environmental disasters that occurred post-World War II. 

 

An important book in the promotion of the environmental movement was Rachel Carson?s "Silent Spring" about declining bird populations due to DDT, an insecticide, pollution and man?s attempts to control nature through use of synthetic substances. The books helped bring the issues into the public.

 

The first Earth Day was celebrated on 22 April 1970. Its founder, former Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson was inspired to create this day of environmental education and awareness after seeing the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969. Greenpeace was created in 1971 as an organization that believed that political advocacy and legislation were ineffective or inefficient solutions and supported non-violent action.

 

At the same time, emerging scientific research drew new attention to existing and hypothetical threats to the environment and humanity. Meanwhile, technological accomplishments such as nuclear proliferation and photos of the Earth from outer space provided both new insights and new reasons for concern over Earth's seemingly small and unique place in the universe.

 

In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, and for the first time united the representatives of multiple governments in discussion relating to the state of the global environment. This conference led directly to the creation of government environmental agencies and the UN Environment Program.

 

By the mid-1970s anti-nuclear activism had moved beyond local protests and politics to gain a wider appeal and influence. Since the 1970s, public awareness, environmental sciences, ecology, and technology have advanced to include modern focus points like ozone depletion, global climate change, acid rain, and the potentially harmful genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

 

And then we are here, discussing the issues and providing this movement new and reinforced ideas and support.