International Politics- Environmental Issues. Ideologies of Environmentalism. UN Conferences on Environment. Global Warming. Greenhouse Effect. Climate Change.

Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on 27 September 1962 and it documented the adverse effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

In the mid-1940s, Carson became concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides

The United States Department of Agriculture launched in 1957 fire ant eradication program,

It involved aerial spraying of DDT and other pesticides mixed with fuel oil

It included the spraying of private land, prompted Carson to devote her research, and her next book, to pesticides and environmental poisons

Impetus for Silent Spring was a letter written in January 1958 by Carson's friend, Olga Owens Huckins, to The Boston Herald

It is describing the death of birds around her property resulting from the aerial spraying of DDT to kill mosquitoes, a copy of which Huckins sent to Carson

The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to the American public

The overriding theme of Silent Spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world

Carson's main argument is that pesticides have detrimental effects on the environment; she says these are more properly termed "biocides

Book was translated into many other languages

It had an international impact

Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement

Silent Spring became a rallying point for the new social movement in the 1960s

No one since would be able to sell pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or uncritically

's work and the activism it inspired are partly responsible for the deep ecology movement and the strength of the grassroots environmental movement since the 1960s

It was also influential on the rise of ecofeminism and on many feminist scientists

It was not until the early 1970’s that environmentalism became a respectable political issue with widespread support.

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 was a second turning point.

Huge demonstrations in favor of environmental protection were echoed in Washington by positive oratory from President Nixon and other political leaders.

Soon major legislation was passed and environmentalism became a fact of political life in the U.S.

Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 best seller, The Population Bomb, predicted mass starvation in the coming decades.

This Malthusian trend was soon joined by advocates of limited economic growth.

 The Club of Rome published its famous study, The Limits to Growth, in 1972.

Industrial civilization, it argued, would soon devour its own natural basis and collapse.

These commentators focused on scarcities of food and resources

An environmental intellectual movement started by 1970s

Ideologies of Environmentalism

Apocalyptic environmentalism

The vision of the environmental movement of the 1960s and early ’70s was generally pessimistic, reflecting a pervasive sense of “civilization malaise” and a conviction that Earth’s long-term prospects were bleak. Works such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons” (1968), Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968), Donella H. Meadows’ The Limits to Growth (1972), and Edward Goldsmith’s Blueprint for Survival (1972) suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. This so-called apocalyptic, or survivalist, literature encouraged reluctant calls from some environmentalists for increasing the powers of centralized governments over human activities deemed environmentally harmful, a viewpoint expressed most vividly in Robert Heilbroner’s An Inquiry into the Human Prospect (1974), which argued that human survival ultimately required the sacrifice of human freedom.

Social ecology

Social ecologists trace the causes of environmental degradation to the existence of unjust, hierarchical relationships in human society, which they see as endemic to the large-scale social structures of modern capitalist states. Accordingly, they argue, the most environmentally sympathetic form of political and social organization is one based on decentralized small-scale communities and systems of production.

Deep ecology

A more radical doctrine, known as deep ecology, builds on preservationist themes from the early environmental movement. Its main originators, the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, the American sociologist Bill Devall, and the American philosopher George Sessions, share with social ecologists a distrust of capitalism and industrial technology and favour decentralized forms of social organization. Deep ecologists also claim that humans need to regain a “spiritual” relationship with nonhuman nature. By understanding the interconnectedness of all organisms—including humans—in the ecosphere and empathizing with nonhuman nature, they argue, humans would develop an ecological consciousness and a sense of ecological solidarity. The biocentric principle of interconnectedness was extensively developed by British environmentalist James Lovelock, who postulated in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) that the planet is a single living, self-regulating entity capable of reestablishing an ecological equilibrium, even without the existence of human life.

Animal rights

The emphasis on intrinsic value and the interconnectedness of nature was fundamental to the development of the animal-rights movement, whose activism was influenced by works such as Animal Liberation (1975), by the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, and The Case for Animal Rights (1983), by the American philosopher Tom Regan. Animal rights approaches go beyond a concern with ill-treatment and cruelty to animals, demanding an end to all forms of animal exploitation, including the use of animals in scientific and medical experiments and as sources of entertainment (e.g., in circuses, rodeos, and races) and food.

Ecofeminism

Oppression, hierarchy, and spiritual relationships with nature also have been central concerns of ecofeminism. Ecofeminists assert that there is a connection between the destruction of nature by humans and the oppression of women by men that arises from political theories and social practices in which both women and nature are treated as objects to be owned or controlled. Ecofeminists aim to establish a central role for women in the pursuit of an environmentally sound and socially just society.

Conferences and Reports on the Environment

UN activity in the field of environment has been driven by major conferences and reports. 

• UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972)
• World Commission on Environment and Development (1987)
• United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)
• General Assembly Special Session on the Environment (1997)
• World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002)
• UN Conference on Sustainable Development (2012)
• UN Sustainable Development Summit (2015)

UN Conference on the Human Environment (1972)

• Economic and Social Council resolution 1346 (XLV) of 30 July 1968 recommended the General Assembly consider convening a UN conference on problems of the human environment.
• Conference convened by General Assembly resolution 2398 (XXIII) of 3 December 1968
• Held in Stockholm, 5-16 June 1972
• Led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987)

• Established by General Assembly resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983
• Prepared a report for General Assembly in 1987
• Based on a four-year study
• Transmitted by A/42/427
• Entitled Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland report
• Developed the theme of sustainable development

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992)

• Convened by General Assembly resolution 44/228 of 20 December 1988
• Held in Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992
• Known at the time as the Earth Summit
• Later came to be called the Rio Conference
• Led to the establishment of the Commission on Sustainable Development
• Outcome document in 3 volumes: A/CONF.151/26/Rev.1
• Vol.I + Corr.1: Resolutions adopted by the Conference
• Vol.II: Proceedings of the Conference
• Vol.III + Corr.1: Statements made by Heads of State or Government at the summit segment of the Conference
• Three major agreements adopted (found in Vol.I + Corr.1):
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, a series of principles defining the rights and responsibilities of States
• Agenda 21, a global plan of action to promote sustainable development
• Statement of Forest Principles, a set of principles to underpin the sustainable management of forests worldwide
• Two multilateral treaties were opened for signature:
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Called for several major initiatives in other key areas of sustainable development, such as, a global conference on Small Island Developing States; negotiations began for a Convention to Combat Desertification, and for an agreement on highly migratory and straddling fish stocks.

General Assembly Special Session on the Environment (1997)

• Called for by General Assembly resolutions 47/190 and 51/181
• Known as the Earth Summit +5
• 19th special session of the General Assembly
• Held in New York, 23-27 June 1997
• Review of the implementation of Agenda 21
• Outcome document: General Assembly resolution S-19/2 of 27 June 1997, Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21.

World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002)

• Convened by General Assembly resolution 55/199 of 20 December 2000
• Also known as Rio +10
• Held in Johannesburg, 26 August - 4 September 2002
• Reviewed progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 since its adoption in 1992
• WSSD website still available
• Outcome document: A/CONF.199/20 + Corr.1, includes:
• Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development
• Plan of Implementation

UN Conference on Sustainable Development (2012)

• Called for by General Assembly resolution 66/197
• Known as Rio+20
• Held in Rio de Janeiro, 20-22 June 2012
• Rio +20 website
• Outcome document A/CONF.216/16, includes "The future we want"

UN Sustainable Development Summit (2015)

• Convened as a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly
• New York, 25 - 27 September 2015
• Summit website
• Outcome document: A/RES/70/1, includes "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"

Global warming

Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. There is great debate among many people, and sometimes in the news, on whether global warming is real (some call it a hoax). But climate scientists looking at the data and facts agree the planet is warming. While many view the effects of global warming to be more substantial and more rapidly occurring than others do, the scientific consensus on climatic changes related to global warming is that the average temperature of the Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the past 100 years. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate carrying out global warming research have recently predicted that average global temperatures could increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by the year 2100. Changes resulting from global warming may include rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps, as well as an increase in occurrence and severity of storms and other severe weather events.

Climate Change 

Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.
We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon. [Watch Polar Bears 101].
What will we do to slow this warming? How will we cope with the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the face of the Earth as we know it—coasts, forests, farms and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance.

Greenhouse effect

The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse. First, sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiates back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, “greenhouse” gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escapes into space. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped.
Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is what keeps the Earth's climate livable. Without it, the Earth's surface would be an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler.
In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. He kicked off 100 years of climate research that has given us a sophisticated understanding of global warming.
Levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have gone up and down over the Earth's history, but they have been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures have stayed fairly constant over that time as well, until recently. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other GHG emissions, humans are enhancing the greenhouse effect and warming Earth.
Scientists often use the term "climate change" instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth's average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas.