The history of the environmental movement is a long and interesting one. In recent times it has taken on a more organised structure and by recent times we are still talking about 140 years or so. For example the Yellowstone National Park, which spans Wyoming, Idaho and Montana in the United States, was the world’s first such area. It was designated as an area in which the resources and landscape needed preserving by early conservationists such as George Perkins Marsh and John Muir.
In the early and mid 20th century, two global conflicts ensured that the environmental movement took a back seat by necessity and it wasn’t until the end of the Second World War and in fact well into the 1950s that well-organised and adequately funded organisations began to emerge, particularly in Europe and in the United States.
However the ‘modern’ environmental movement was preceded by several thousand years of complex civilisations in places such as South America, North America, Africa and Europe. To follow the argument to it’s logical conclusion, each of these regions contained sustainable early groups of people who, by necessity, had to be environmentally aware. Here’s an example which we expand upon elsewhere on this website:
Easter Island is a great example of how a group can hasten it’s own downfall be not being environmentally aware and not conserving resources. The reasons are actually many and diverse but one of the well documented causes of disaster was the destruction of the tree cover; among other symptoms it meant the soil was washed away and it removed the means of building any escape craft (canoes). A lack of resources meant inter-tribal violence soon consumed the island.
Compare this with the Maya or Anasazi civilisations of South and North America which, especially in the case of the Anasazi, lasted in relatively hostile environments for far longer than should have been possible.
The point is that resource conservation was and is vital, two thousand years ago or right now. Please check back regularly for our latest articles.
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