An Inspiration for All!

There are many environmentalists around the world today that are willing to stand up against those who wish to harm the environment for personal gain.

Most environmentalists today were inspired by people who came before them, ready to stand up for the very thing that provides us with life – the Earth.

This summer, actress and environmentalist Rosario Dawson joined Sodastream to kick off the inaugural ‘Unbottle the World Day‘ on July 16, 2012.

As part of this movement, Sodastream have placed exhibits across 20 major cities worldwide to highlight the amount of plastic bottles and cans an average family throws away.

An interesting component to this campaign is The Cage Challenge ’Message in a Bottle’ Facebook app. This app allows users to join the petition and send a virtual message to Coca-Cola, leading the beverage industry which throws away more 1 billion bottles and cans each day, telling them to clean up their garbage. When a user sends a virtual ‘Message in a Bottle’, Sodastream will send an actual bottle, from a landfill, straight to Coca-Cola!

Here are just a few of the movements that have inspired many to take up the banner and protect the planet.

Earth Day

One of the biggest and most important environmental movements that occurred in the United States was the beginning of the holiday known as Earth Day.

The first Earth day took place in 1970, and brought with it many environmental laws that would shape the environmental protection and preservation front, and the world, for years to come.

Some of the big changes that it brought about were laws that protected forests, air, water and wildlife of all kinds.

Every year this movement inspires many to get out, plant trees, pick up trash, and do many things to help the environment and keep in clean for future generations.

Australian Environmental Movement

The environmental movement in Australia began in the late 19th century, with a handful of naturalists that were devoted to protecting the environment.

In the early 20th century, others began to fight in small numbers to protect mammals in this country that were getting hunted to extinction. However, this did not bring about a large amount of change.

Major changes began to take place in the 1960s, when several anti-litter movements took place across the country. This generation became more environmentally aware, and started doing things to protect the environment. As time wore on, and new kinds of energy, such as oil and nuclear power, became more common, more people were willing to take up the cause.

This movement reached its height in the 1980s, as bands, such as Midnight Oil, environmental agencies, and other independent environmentalists banded together to change the way Australians treated their environment.

Because of the movement’s momentum, many changes took place in Australia’s environmental laws. To this day, many people in several countries are inspired by this movement because of the adversity many environmentalists in that country faced.

Chipko Movement

This was an environmental movement in India that took place in 1973.

This movement began because the government gave a plot of forest land to a sports company to use, that was initially denied to the country’s own citizens so that they could make tools they needed to survive.

This angered many villagers, and caused them to take action. Under the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt, she and other women went to the plot of land and formed a circle around it, not allowing the men to go in and cut the trees down.

Over the next five years, this environmental movement gained steam throughout the country. Since it had begun, this movement has kept several forests in tact and preserved many species of Indian Wildlife.

Silent Spring

Many people believe that the “green movement” in the United States began with the book Silent Spring, a novel written by environmentally conscious author Rachel Carson.

Many claim that this book was a movement within itself! This novel sparked many people into action to protect the environment.

Many of these movements led to the founding of Earth Day, and the environmental legislation that this brought about.

A Hole in the Ozone

In 1985, a team of British scientists led by Dr. Joe Farman, reported that there was a hole in the Ozone layer, the zone that protects us from the sun’s radiation.

Upon hearing this, many environmental groups fought to keep this hole from getting bigger.

Not only this, but Dr. Farman and many others who followed him began a movement to protect the ozone for future generations. Even people who are not scientists are inspired by Dr. Farman and his colleagues for standing up against the very people they worked for to stop Ozone depletion.

Krissy is an eco conscious globe-trotting blogger who writes about her travels, the environment and occasionally the latest technological feats.

Related articles

• Why the global environmental movement is failing (theconversation.edu.au)
• Patrick Moore on the facts and fiction of climate change. (communities.washingtontimes.com)
• From the Archives: AAUW and the Environmental Movement (blog-aauw.org)