A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories

Description

‘Think globally, act locally’ has become a call to environmentalist mobilization, proposing a closer connection between global concerns, local issues and individual responsibility. A History of Environmentalism explores this dialectic relationship, with ten contributors from a range of disciplines providing a history of environmentalism which frames global themes and narrates local stories. Each of the chapters in this volume addresses specific struggles in the history of environmental movements, for example over national parks, species protection, forests, waste, contamination, nuclear energy and expropriation. A diverse range of environments and environmental actors are covered, including the communities in the Amazonian Forest, the antelope in Tibet, atomic power plants in Europe and oil and politics in the Niger Delta. The chapters demonstrate how these conflicts make visible the intricate connections between local and global, the body and the environment, and power and nature. A History of Environmentalism tells us much about transformations of cultural perceptions and ways of production and consuming, as well as ecological and social changes. More than offering an exhaustive picture of the entire environmentalist movement, A History of Environmentalism highlights the importance of the experience of environmentalism within local communities. It offers a worldwide and polyphonic perspective, making it key reading for students and scholars of global and environmental history and political ecology. Cover Contents Contributors Introduction 1 Preservation, Parks and Place: Rethinking America’s ‘Best Idea’ 2 Biological Diversity as a Political Force in Australia 3 Oil, Ethnic Minority Groups and Environmental Struggles Against Multinational Oil Companies and the Federal Government in the Nigerian Niger Delta since the 1990s 4 Protecting the Tibetan Antelope: A Historical Narrative and Missing Stories 5 Blood on the Ice: The Greenpeace Campaign Against the Harp Seal Slaughter 6 The Struggle for Justice in Bhopal: A New/Old Breed of Transnational Social Movement 7 Rubber, Trees and Communities: Rubber Tappers in the Brazilian Amazon in the Twentieth Century 8 Garbage Under the Volcano: The Waste Crisis in Campania and the Struggles for Environmental Justice 9 The Great Fear: European Environmentalism in the Atomic Age Index