POL S 384, Lecture 4 1

Environmentalism in Global Perspective

The First WaveEarly responses to Industrialization

POLS 384, Lecture 4 2

First Wave: 19th Century

• Response to industrialization– Arose in Britain first– Urban/rural relationship– Coal, deforestation, enclosure movement

• Imperialism and industrialization– Ecological debt of First World to Third World

• 3 strands– Back-to-the-land– Scientific conservation– Wilderness preservation

POLS 384, Lecture 4 3

Back-to-the-land

●Romantics: Rescralization of nature- Cities as ecological parasites- Agrarian self-sufficiency William Wordsworth John Ruskin, Edward Carpenter Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

• U.S.: Shakers, Amish, Quakers

• Gandhi– Voluntary simplicity, village life, crafts and cottage

industries– Practical, NOT romantic

POLS 384, Lecture 4 4

Scientific Conservation

• Finite resources should be rationally managed – “Maximum sustainable yield”

• Applied to forests, freshwater, fisheries, wildlife

• Ideological link between conservation & conservatism

• Depends upon state control of resources– Applied most extensively in colonies– Authoritarian state rule unconstrained by parliaments &

democracy

• George Perkins Marsh, Dietrich Brandis, Gifford Pinchot

• Opposition: anti-colonialist movements – Peasant & nationalist movements

POLS 384, Lecture 4 5

Wilderness Ideal

• Seems peculiar to U.S., but has old lineage – Sacred groves ubiquitous across history & culture

• Colonial application of “wilderness”– "Game reserves" in Africa excluded Africans from hunting– National parks excluded them altogether

• Yellowstone: first national park in the world (1872)– The U.S. at the forefront of the wilderness ideal

• John Muir founded Sierra Club (1892)– Now, over 1000 around world.

• Aldo Leopold– From scientific conservation to "land ethic"

• Deep ecology– Arne Naess: strong Gandhian influence– U.S. deep ecology movement: Earth First!

POLS 384, Lecture 4 6

Some who don’t fit

• Forerunners of social ecology– Socioeconomic critique– Interaction of society & nature– Intergenerational perspective– Regional perspective

Q: Was Gandhi an environmentalist?

Q: What, if anything, ties together these strands of environmentalism?