Environmentalism: A Global History

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Summary: Environtalism:a Global history
Review: This book covers first wave and second wave of envoronmentalism. First wave is the initial response to the industrialisation. IT is expressed first by poets and writers such as wordsworth,ruskin,morris and carpenter.They gave message of simple life.Saint Gandhi gave the best known aphorism 'the world has enough for everybody's need but not enough for everybody's greed'. It is expressed secondly by ideology of scientific conservation.Here George Perkins,Marsh and Dietrich Brandis were forefront for scientific movement.Thirdly there is wilderness idea.It is the conservation of wild species and wild animals. John Muir is of the opinon that 'nature had a right to be cared for regardless of anybody's bank balance and any counrries gposs national product.Aldo Lopold was in favour of maintaining diverse flora and fauna.There are three other envoronmentalist as Patrick Geddes who gave a ohrase 'carboniferous capitalism' for the dependence of industrial city on fossil fuels and tremendous pollution. Lewis Mumford,american historian wished that society would restore three disturbed equilibrium: equilibrium between city and village;the equilibrium in population by balancing birth and death rates;the equilibrium between humans and nature.Radhachand Mukherjee social scientist insisted that any social group must be considered in relation to the interwoven chain of biotic communities. Second wave of environmentalism was started from 1962.After world war II America wasknown as 'affluent society' the period was known as 'development decade' but here ecological constraint to economical growth was regarded irrevelent so the period was known as 'ecological innocence'. After this phase, there is actual mass movement took place.It was stimulated by the book'Silent Spring' by Rachael Carson . It explained that there are intimate and essential relations between planta and plants;between plants and other plants;between plants and animals,that nature was in sum, an intricate web of life whose interwoven strands lead from microbes to man. In America there is wilderness movement known as 'Deep Ecology',then there is German green movement,Narmada bachao andolan and chipko'hug a tree' movement in India.In Thailand,there is ordination ceremony to protest forests.In Nigeria, movement fof survival of ogoni people and territories.In Kenya,Green belt movement. In Brazil,AGAPAN environmental initiative and chico mendes labour organiser promoted ecolgy and justice. Lastly it gives about international organisation such as world wildlife fund [WWF] in assisi and UNCED held at stokholm in 1972 and at Rio de janero in 1992.