IB Environmental systems and societies 1.1C Environmental Movements Notes

The Environmental Movement: How Society's Values Shifted

1. The environmental movement is the collective effort to raise awareness, influence policy and change behaviour to reduce human harm to nature.
2. It promotes sustainable development, biodiversity conservation, responsible resource use and renewable energy.
3. It grew through activism, literature, media, disasters, international agreements, technology and scientific discovery.
4. Together these shaped public perception, political action and global cooperation.

Individuals: Activists Who Changed Public Opinion

1. Individuals have shaped opinion, inspired activism and driven environmental justice.
2. Their influence often grows through grassroots campaigns, community mobilisation and policy advocacy.

Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement

1. Founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977, focused on tree planting, soil conservation and women's empowerment.
2. The movement planted over 30 million trees across Africa, improving biodiversity and reducing soil erosion.
3. Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for linking environmental protection with social and economic justice.
4. Her work showed that local action can drive global awareness.

Other Influential Individuals

1. Greta Thunberg (Sweden): sparked the global Fridays for Future youth climate strikes.
2. Jane Goodall (UK): linked animal welfare to habitat conservation and community education.
3. Robert D. Bullard (USA): pioneered the environmental justice movement, showing pollution hits marginalised communities hardest.
4. Tengku Zainal Adlin (Malaysia): co-initiated the Heart of Borneo project uniting Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Literature: Books That Triggered Awareness and Policy

1. Books and reports have triggered mass awareness and policy change by exposing the consequences of industrial activity.
2. They connect scientific findings with public emotion and ethics for long-term influence.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962)

1. Documented the ecological and health impacts of pesticides, especially DDT.
2. Showed how chemical pollution entered food chains and harmed top predators.
3. Sparked concern about chemical use and inspired the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
4. It is seen as the turning point that launched the modern environmental movement.

Other Influential Works

1. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949): promoted the land ethic and our moral duty toward nature.
2. The Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth (1972): used computer models to warn of resource depletion and population growth.
3. James Lovelock, Gaia (1979): proposed the Gaia hypothesis of Earth as a self-regulating system.
4. Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything (2014): argued that capitalism is incompatible with climate solutions.
5. Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics (2017): reframed sustainability as a safe and just space between social and planetary boundaries.

Media: Reaching Audiences Science Cannot

1. Media communicates environmental science, mobilises action and shapes cultural narratives about sustainability.
2. Documentaries and campaigns reach audiences that scientific papers cannot.