Environmentalism: A Global History

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Very interesting!

As advertised

Ramachandra Guha’s Environmentalism: A Global History provides an overview of the history of environmentalism from the dawn of the Industrial Revolution to movements in the modern era. What makes this book so unique is that Guha focuses not only on Western environmental movements, but also discusses various strands of environmentalism across the globe. Influential figures such as John Muir, Mahatma Gandhi, Chico Mendes, Aldo Leopold, Radhakamal Mukerjee and Rachel Carlson are all discussed in the book. Guha divides the text into two parts. Part one focuses on environmentalism’s first wave, which “proceeded step-by-step with the Industrial Revolution.” The second wave of environmentalism is the modern movement, which often traces its roots back to Rachel Carlson’s 1962 publication of Silent Spring. In part one, Guha focuses on three early strands of environmentalism: the back-to-the land-movement, the ideology of scientific conservation and the promotion of the wilderness idea. The back-to-the-land movement was in a sense a response to urbanization and industrialization. Guha finds back-to-the land thinking present in the poems of William Wordsworth, whose work was “a defense of the organic union with nature of the peasant and shepherd” as well as the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who was highly critical of the urban lifestyle. Guha traces the ideology of scientific conservation’s development of scientific forestry, which has its roots in medieval Europe. The concept of the wilderness idea became most popular in the United States and was epitomized by the nature writing of John Muir and the creation of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park. Guha begins part two discussing the significance of Silent Spring, the environmental debate it triggered and the rise of the modern environmental movement. He follows this with a section on how the Global South helped shape the modern environmental movement and a discussion on socialism, democracy and environmentalism. Guha concludes the text discussing the different strands of environmentalism and the “common future” of the environmental movement. Environmentalism: A Global History attempts to provide an overview of the two waves of environmentalism while documenting “the flow of ideas across cultures.” Guha does an excellent job of showing that environmentalism is not strictly a Western movement, demonstrating the significance that people across the world have had on the environmental movement. Guha also examines the United States, Brazil, India, Germany, China, Australia and many other nations and their connections with the two waves of environmentalism. There are definitely aspects of the environmental movement Guha left out in the text. The author omits some of the most significant environmental disasters in the United States that triggered strong public outcry, such as the Cuyahoga River catching on fire in Cleveland, Ohio in 1969 or the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989. In addition, little is mentioned of Wendell Berry’s writings and their relevance to the back-to-the-land ideology. Furthermore, there is very little written on Spanish-speaking Latin America in the text. For example, there is no discussion of the Via Campesina organization, which has a strong Latin American base, although the significance of the organization has grown steadily since the publication of Environmentalism: A Global History. Despite these omissions, Guha does a commendable job presenting a concise history of environmentalism in only 145 pages.

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.

Guha's book is a short, but very well written book about the history of the Environmentalism movement. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England, soon brought writers and intellectuals to speak out against what they saw as the destruction of the world around them and the abuse of the natural resources of the land.Guha writes about the beginnings of American environmentalism and the need for national parks and even argues that American parks were built more for nationalistic reasons than for really wanting to preserve the lands in the United States.The book also takes on the growing problems of "South" nations who want to grow economically and technologically while "North" nations (typically very industrialized nations) fear this since it will mean more pollution and more problems in the world.The book is a good primer on the history of Environmentalism and the difficulty that nations face as the populations continue to increase while the earth's resources continue to be depleted.

Guha sets the basic premise of environmentalism and traces it back in time with sources from various countries. Its a good knowledgeable book to read. Why 3 stars then ? The book fails to detail on the global climate movement of the late 20th century - the actions of the UN and the UNFCCC and other protocols which I found very surprising to not include if we are talking about the history of environmentalism.

This book is more about the philosophical movement called environmentalism and not specifically about individual global and domestic politics on environment and climate change related issues. A book for who are interested in understanding the kernel of the whole context.

A must read for everyone who cares about the planet. You will learn a lot about some of the initial environmental movements outside India and under what circumstances and can easily draw similarities with our own country.

Nice book... history of environmental movements and other related stuff. If you want to get how this debate started then this is the right book to get.

It is an introduction to environmentalism around the globe given by none other than a scholar par excellence in the field, Ramachandra Guha. However, that is what it is - an introduction, albeit a good one.