In this 5-week class, students learn about the history of the environmental movement.

We begin with the forerunners John Muir (the founder of the national park movement) to Henry David Thoreau (an author who awoke a love of wild nature throughout the world).  We then move on to the pioneers in conservation, including Aldo Leopold (soil conservation scientist who wrote A Sand County Almanac), Garrett Hardin (author of The Tragedy of the Commons), and Gifford Pinchot (scientific forestry).  

Then we look at the pivotal change in public awareness of ecological destruction in the writings of Lynn White Jr (The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis) and Rachel Carson (Silent Spring).  Lastly, we examine their continuing influence today, particularly with respect to sustainable development.  

This course aims to give students a solid and comprehensive understanding of the origins and aims of the movement environmental movement.  

No prior knowledge is required for this class, only an interest in history, ecology, and conservation.  

Course Structure

The class will be an interactive lecture, complete with slides that students may keep (as a PDF) for future reference.  Student discussion (with myself and other students) will be encouraged, but not required -- listening is learning too !  

Course Schedule

Week 1 – Muir and Thoreau

The first week begins with the concepts of preservation, conservation, and exploitation of nature, and the range of consequences associated with each.  John Muir (1838 – 1914) not only called for the preservation of wild nature through the creation of the National Park System, but also advocated for sustainable conservation of national forests.  Informing this discussion is Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), whose novel Walden inspired countless generations to value wild nature.

Week 2 – Leopold 

Aldo Leopold (1886-1949) was a wildlife ecologist who helped the USA counter the effects of the "dust bowl" (1930-1940) through the soil conservation service, but then realized that more fundamental change was required for true sustainability.  This change, he believed, must come through philosophical values.  It inspired him to write A Sand County Almanac, a classic of environmental literature where he presents his "Land Ethic" as the answer to unconstrained exploitation.

Week 3 – Pinchot and Hardin 

Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) is the founder of scientific forest management, where he hoped that sustainable harvests could be provided indefinitely.  However, this has not come to pass, as revealed by the present-day environmental historian, Nancy Langston, author of Forest Dreams / Forest Nightmares.  The key problematic, she reveals, is the dynamic identified by Garrett Hardin (1915-2003), The Tragedy of the Commons.  Students will learn of this history, as well as the theories of what went wrong, and what needs to be done instead.  

Week 4 – White Jr and Carson

The two figures most responsible for the modern response to ecological destruction are Lynn White Jr (1907-1987) and Rachel Carson (1907-1964).  White Jr's essay "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" awoke the need to redress how the environment is valued, and Carson's Silent Spring brought the alarming consequences of unthinking science on the natural world.  Student will leaning of their contributions, as well as their continuing legacy today.  


Week 5 – Environmentalism Today 

The hope and reality of Sustainable Development will de discussed in relation to the history of this proposal.  Having its origin in the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, the movement gathered momentum following the 1987 Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, and the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit.  Continuing through the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and the 2012 Rio+20 Summit, and the hopes for the upcoming 2030 Summit.  This history has shown hopes, as well as delay.  Students will critically examine this history for insights what needs to be done.