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The 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 environmental movement is an international movement, represented by a range of organizations, from the large to grassroots and varies from country to country. Due to its large membership, varying and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always united in its goals. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals, religious devotees, politicians, scientists, nonprofit organizations and individual advocates.

=American Environmental Movement= The American Environmental movement has its origins in the twentieth century with grassroots movements concerned with the wilderness, pollution and human health. The conservationist movement began in the first half of the twentieth century. Pioneers of the movement called for more efficient and professional management of natural resources. They fought for reform because they believed the destruction of forests, fertile soil, minerals, wildlife and water resources would be the downfall of our society. The 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.

The early environmental movement developed with two key sides; the preservationists like John Muir and Aldo Leopold who wanted land and nature set aside for its own sake; and the conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot who wanted to manage natural resources for human use. Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He was the first Chief of the US Forest Service from 1905-1910 the first director of the Forest Services and a conservationist. John Muir founded the Sierra Club, a preservationist society, in 1892 which is now one of the largest conservation organizations in the United States. . The early environmental movement developed with two key sides; the preservationists like John Muir and Aldo Leopold who wanted land and nature set aside for its own sake; and the conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot who wanted to manage natural resources for human use. Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He was the first Chief of the US Forest Service from 1905-1910 the first director of the Forest Services and a conservationist. John Muir founded the Sierra Club, a preservationist society, in 1892 which is now one of the largest conservation organizations in the United States. He was crucial in the formation of Yosemite National Park in 1890 and personally involved in the creation of Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon National Parks. He is often referred to as the “Father of Our National Park System”. Henry David Thoreau was an early preservationist, writing about wildlife in Massachusetts. Aldo Leopold wrote “A Sand County Almanac” in the 1940s. He believed in a land ethics that stated “The greatest good for the greatest number of people”; he believed in ecological awareness and preservation of ecosystems. Another 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. Both of these books helped bring the issues into the public eye Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" sold over two million copies.

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 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. 1980 saw the creation of Earth First!, a group with an ecocentric view of the world believing in the preservation of every living thing being put on the same plane as human survival.

=South/Latin America=

After the International Environmental Conference in Stockholm in 1972 Latin American officials returned with a high hope of growth and protection of the fairly untouched natural resources. Governments spent millions of dollars, created departments, and pollution standards were created. But the outcomes have not been what officials had hoped. Activists are blaming it on growing urban populations and industrial growth. Many Latin American countries have had a large inflow of immigrants that are living in substandard housing. Enforcement of the pollution standards is lax and penalties are minimal; in Venezuela, the largest penalty for violating an environmental law is 50,000 bolivar fine (3,400$) and 3 days in jail. In the 1970s or 1980s many Latin American countries were transitioning from military dictatorships to democratic governments. In 1992, Brazil came under scrutiny with the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has a history of little environmental awareness. It has the highest biodiversity in the world and also the highest amount of habitat destruction. One-third of the world’s forests lie in Brazil, and they have the largest river, the Amazon, and the largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest. The middle class has raised funds to create state parks and increase the consciousness of people who have destroyed forests and polluted waterways. They have several organizations that have fronted the environmental movement. The Blue Wave Foundation was created in 1989 and has partnered with advertising companies to promote national education campaigns to keep Brazil’s beaches clean. Funatura was created in 1986 and is a wildlife sanctuary program. Pro-Nature is a private environmental organization created in 1986.

=Middle Eastern Environmental Movement=

The environmental movement is reaching the less developed world with different degrees of success. The Arab world, including the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa, has different adaptations of the environmental movement. Countries on the Gulf have high incomes and rely heavily on the large amount of energy resources in the area. Each country in the Arab world has varying combinations of low or high amounts of natural resources and low or high amounts of labor.

The League of Arab States has one specialized sub-committee, of 12 standing specialized subcommittee in the Foreign Affairs Ministerial Committees, which deals with Environmental Issues. Countries in the League of Arab States have demonstrated an interest in environmental issue, on paper, but some environmental activists have doubts about the level of commitment to environmental issues;; being a part of the world community may have obliged these countries to portray concern for the environment. Initial level of environmental awareness may be the creation of a ministry of the environment. The year of establishment of a ministry is also indicative of level of engagement. Saudi Arabia was the first to establish environmental law in 1992 followed by Egypt in 1994. Somalia is the only country without environmental law. In 2010 the Environmental Performance Index listed Algeria as the top Arab country at 42 of 163; Morocco was at 52 and Syria at 56. The Environmental Performance Index measures the ability of a country to actively manage and protect their environment and the health of their citizens. A weighted index is created by giving 50% weight for environmental health objective (health) and 50% for ecosystem vitality (ecosystem); values range from 0-100. No Arab countries were in the top quartile, and 7 countries were in the lowest quartile.

=Asian Environmental Movement=

Korea & Taiwan
Korea and Taiwan experienced similar growth in industrialization from 1965-1990 with few environmental controls. Korea’s Han River and Nakdong River were so polluted by unchecked dumping of industrial waste that they were close to being classified as biologically deadly. Taiwan’s formula for balanced growth was to prevent industrial concentration and encourage manufacturers to set up in the countryside. This led to 20% of the farmland being polluted by industrial waste and 30% of the race grown on the island was contaminated with heavy metals. Both countries had spontaneous environmental movements drawing participants from different classes. Their demands were linked with issues of employment, occupational health, and agricultural crisis. They were also quite militant; the people learned that protesting can bring results. The polluting factories were forced to make immediate improvements of the conditions or pay compensation to victims. Some were even forced to shut down or move locations. The people were able to force the government to come out with new restrictive rules on toxics, industrial waste, and air pollution. All of these new regulations caused the migration of those polluting industries from Taiwan and Korea to China and other countries in Southeast Asia with more relaxed environmental laws.

Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia, environmental movements existed, during the seventies and eighties, before their period of rapid industrialization in the mid-eighties and mid-nineties. In the Philippines they were protesting against nuclear power. In Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines people were against hydroelectric dams. In Thailand and the Philippines the protesting was about deforestation and marine pollution. Dams were a big issue in southeast Asia. Chico River Dam in the northern Philippines, and the Narmada Dam in India were the two that were most discussed. These dams were impacting the lives of small farmers and fisherfolk. The anti-dam movement was a way for the anti-dictator movement of the time to organize and reach new people. It also provided a way for anti-dictator movement to show the irresponsibility of the regimes.

China
China’s environmental movement is characterized by spontaneous alliances that often only occur at the local level. The Chinese have realized the ability of riots and protests to have success and had led to an increase in disputes in China by 30% since 2005 to more than 50,000 events. Protests cover topics such as environmental issues, land-loss, income, and political issues. They have also grown in size from about 10 people or fewer in the mid-1990s to 52 people per incident in 2004. China has more relaxed environmental laws than other countries in Asia, so many polluting factories have relocated to China causing pollution in China. Water pollution, water scarcity, soil pollution, soil degradation, and desertification are issues currently in discussion in China. The groundwater table of the North China Plain is dropping by 1.5m (5ft) per year. This groundwater table occurs in the region of China that produces 40% of the country’s grain.

India
Environmental and public health have been struggles in India. The environmental movement in India began in 1980s. The biggest event that developed the movement was the Bhopal gas leakage on December 3, 1984. It released 40 tons of methyl isocynate, killing 3,000 people and ultimately caused 15,000-20,000 deaths. India has a national campaign against Coca Cola and [Pepsi Cola] plants due to their practices of drawing ground water and contaminating fields with sludge. The movement is characterized by local struggles against intensive aquaculture farms. The most influential part of the environmental movement in India is the anti-dam movement. Dam creation has been thought of as a way for India to catch up with the West by connecting to the [power grid] with giant dams, coal or oil-powered plants, or nuclear plants. Activists in the Indian environmental movement consider global warming, sea levels rising, and glaciers retreating decreasing the amount of water flowing into streams to be the biggest challenges for them to face in the early twenty first century.

=Europe= The first major environmental disasters began occurring in the 1950s and 1960s which sparked the breakthrough of the Environmental Movement in the 1970s. In 1952 the [Great London Smog] episode killed thousands of people and led the UK to create the first Clean Air Act in 1956. In 1957 the first major nuclear accident occurred in Windscale in northern England. The supertanker “Torrey Canyon” ran aground off the coast of England in 1967 causing the first major oil leak that killed marine life along the coast. In 1972, in Stockholm, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment created the UN Environment Programme. The EU’s environmental policy was formally founded by a European Council declaration and the first five-year environment programme was adopted. The main idea of the declaration was that prevention is better than the cure and the polluter should pay. 1979 saw the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island in the USA.

In the 1980s the green parties that were created a decade before began to have some political success.. In 1986, there was a nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s saw the fall of communism across central and Eastern Europe, the fall of the [Berlin Wall], and the Union of East and West Germany. In 1992 there was a UN summit held in Rio de Janeiro where Agenda 21 was adopted. The Kyoto Protocol was created in 1997 which set specific targets and deadlines to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In the early 2000s activists believe that environmental policy concerns were overshadowed by energy security, globalism, and terrorism.

=Timeline=
 * 1892-Sierra Club
 * 1916-National Park Service
 * 1916- National Audubon Society
 * 1961- World Wildlife Foundation
 * 1964- Land and Water Conservation Act
 * 1964- National Wilderness Preservation System
 * 1968- National Trails System Act
 * 1968- National Wild and Scenic Rivers System/Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
 * 1960- Environmental Protection Agency
 * 1970- National Environmental Policy Act
 * 1970- Clean Air Act
 * 1970-First Earth Day- April 22
 * 1971-Greenpeace
 * 1972- Clean Water Act
 * 1973- Endangered Species Act
 * 1980- Earth First!
 * 1992- UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro

=Criticisms of the Movement= Critics of the American environmental movement characterize it as radical and misguided. Especially critics of the Endangered Species Act, which has come under scrutiny lately, and the Clean Air Act, which they said conflict with private property rights, industry and the nation’s overall economic growth. Critics also challenge scientific evidence like ozone depletion and global warming. They argue that the Environmental Movement has diverted attention from more pressing issues.