Perspectives do not only vary between people — they move across whole societies. Something that was ordinary in 1950 can be unthinkable by 1990. This note is about how that happens, and about the handful of books, disasters and agreements that did most of the moving.
A society’s environmental outlook is not static. In the 1970s, and to some extent from the 1950s onwards, there was a marked rise in environmental awareness across many industrialised countries, largely driven by campaigns against pollution.
Three kinds of pressure do most of the work:
The term describes humanity’s increasing awareness of the damage being done to the environment, and of how much the health of the planet matters. It is not one organisation. It is a very diverse collection of individuals, organisations and initiatives held together by a common goal: addressing urgent problems such as climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and species extinction.
What it promotes is fairly consistent — sustainable development, responsible resource management, conservation of biodiversity, and a shift to cleaner renewable energy. It pursues those through two routes at once:
| Person | Field | Why they mattered |
|---|---|---|
| Wangari Maathai | Conservation | Founded the Green Belt Movement, linking tree planting to community development and women’s rights, and building grassroots environmental action at national and international scale |
| Greta Thunberg | Climate action | Led global youth climate strikes, putting direct public pressure on political leaders and pulling millions of young people into climate activism |
| Vandana Shiva | Environmentalism | Campaigned for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity, challenging corporate control of seeds and promoting community-based alternatives |
| David Attenborough | Broadcasting | Reached enormous global audiences through documentaries, building appreciation for the natural world and, later, explicit concern for its loss |
| Jane Goodall | Primatology | Transformed understanding of animal behaviour and used that authority to argue for wildlife conservation and ethical treatment of animals |
| Year | Work | What it argued, and what changed |
|---|---|---|
| 1949 | A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold | Set out a “land ethic” — the idea that people belong to the land community rather than owning it. Shaped modern conservation ethics |
| 1962 | Silent Spring, Rachel Carson | Traced the pesticide DDT along food chains to top predators. Triggered widespread public alarm about pesticide use and pollution generally |
| 1972 | The Limits to Growth | A report for the Club of Rome modelling a rapidly growing population against finite resources. Became the best-selling environmental publication ever written |
| 1975 | The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey | A novel about sabotage and resistance to environmental destruction, which influenced the more radical wing of activism |
| 1979 | Gaia, James Lovelock | Proposed Earth as a self-regulating system maintaining its own climate and biology — and showed how human activity could upset that balance |
| 1992 | Beyond the Limits | Followed up the 1972 report, shifting the focus towards strategies for achieving sustainable development |
| Year | Film or series | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | An Inconvenient Truth | Took a lecture on climate change to a mass audience and shifted public opinion in the United States sharply |
| 2009 | No Impact Man | Followed one family attempting a zero-waste year, making individual carbon footprints feel concrete |
| 2016 | Before the Flood | Examined climate impacts and argued for renewable energy and conservation |
| 2019 | Our Planet | Paired spectacular natural history with an explicit account of human damage to it |
| 2021 | Breaking Boundaries | Presented the planetary boundaries framework to a general audience and argued for global cooperation |
| Year | Disaster | What happened, and what followed |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Minamata, Japan | Methyl mercury discharged into coastal water accumulated in fish and shellfish, causing severe mercury poisoning in local people. Forced attention onto industrial regulation and monitoring |
| 1984 | Bhopal, India | An explosion at a pesticide plant released around 42 tonnes of toxic gas, killing thousands within days. Highlighted industrial risk and corporate accountability |
| 1986 | Chernobyl, Soviet Ukraine | A reactor explosion spread radioactive fallout across large areas of Europe and forced mass evacuation. Hardened public fear of nuclear power and tightened regulation |
| 2011 | Fukushima, Japan | A tsunami triggered meltdowns at a coastal nuclear plant. Intensified concern about nuclear safety, though Japan’s temporary shutdown increased its fossil fuel use in the short term |
| Year | Agreement | What it committed countries to |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Stockholm Declaration | The first major UN conference on international environmental issues; set early environmental targets and shaped action at national and international level |
| 1992 | Rio Earth Summit | Attended by 172 nations; produced Agenda 21, a comprehensive action plan for sustainable development adopted by over 178 parties |
| 1997 | Kyoto Protocol | Built on the UN climate convention and committed state parties to reducing greenhouse gas emissions |
| 2012 | Rio+20 | Marked twenty years since Rio; assessed progress against agreed targets and identified emerging challenges |
| 2015 | Paris Agreement | Agreed by 195 parties; aimed to hold global average warming below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, with every country setting targets and reporting on them |
| 2021 | Glasgow Climate Pact | Reaffirmed the Paris temperature goal and became the first climate deal to name coal explicitly, though the final wording was weakened to “phasing down” |
| 2023 | COP28 | Committed signatories to move away from carbon-based energy sources |
| Development | Effect on the movement |
|---|---|
| The Green Revolution | Raised crop yields dramatically in the mid-20th century, improving food security and easing pressure on habitats — while raising new concerns about intensive farming |
| Reducing enteric fermentation | Changing livestock feed to cut the methane produced during digestion, lowering agriculture’s contribution to warming |
| Plant-based meat substitutes | Reduce demand for animal agriculture, and with it deforestation, habitat loss and emissions |
| Electric vehicles | Cut tailpipe emissions and urban air pollution, pushing transport and energy systems towards decarbonisation |
| Scientific discovery | What it changed |
|---|---|
| Pesticide and biocide toxicity | Evidence of harm to ecosystems and human health led to regulation, specific bans, and a search for alternative pest control |
| Documented species loss | Research showing rapid global decline in species diversity raised the alarm about an extinction crisis and drove conservation policy |
| Habitat degradation | Work on the destruction and fragmentation of habitats worldwide led directly to protected areas and restoration programmes |
| Ocean acidification | Falling ocean pH, driven by rising carbon dioxide, raised concern for marine ecosystems and drove new research and policy |
| Climate change impacts | Documenting effects on ecosystems, economies and societies motivated both mitigation and adaptation efforts |
These graphs show how a specific behaviour changes over time, and they are the standard way of seeing a perspective shift in the data. A graph of smoking rates, for example, shows decades of decline driven by campaigns and rising health awareness, with visible dips during specific quit-smoking campaigns.
The same approach tracks littering, water use, recycling, uptake of renewable energy, public transport use and meat consumption. Long-term studies also use them to record shifts from traditional Indigenous lifestyles towards globalised ones — changes in clothing, housing, possessions and diet over time.
Explaining the influence of one event
Explain how one named publication contributed to the development of the environmental movement. (4 marks)
Comparing two kinds of influence
Compare the role of environmental disasters with the role of international agreements in shifting environmental perspectives. (4 marks)
Interpreting a shift in a graph
A behaviour-time graph shows household recycling rising steadily for fifteen years and then levelling off. Suggest two reasons for the change in gradient. (3 marks)
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