Editing Environmental movement (section)

=== Americas ===

==== Latin America ====
After the [[International Environmental Conference in Stockholm]] in 1972 Latin American officials returned with a high hope of growth and protection of the fairly untouched natural resources. Governments spent millions of dollars, and created departments and pollution standards. However, the outcomes have not always been what officials had initially hoped. Activists blame this on growing urban populations and industrial growth. Many Latin American countries have had a large inflow of immigrants that are living in substandard housing. Enforcement of the pollution standards is lax and penalties are minimal; in Venezuela, the largest penalty for violating an environmental law is 50,000 [[Venezuelan bolívar|bolivar]] fine ($3,400) and three days in jail. In the 1970s or 1980s, many Latin American countries were transitioning from military dictatorships to democratic governments.<ref name="Latin America">{{cite news |last=Figdor |first=Carrie |date=24 July 1988 |title=Latin America's Environmental Movement Seen as Well-Meaning but Inadequate |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-24-mn-10121-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195102/http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-24/news/mn-10121_1_latin-america |archive-date=29 October 2013 |access-date=20 February 2013 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

===== Brazil =====
{{see also|Environmental issues in Brazil#Solutions and policies}}

In 1992, Brazil came under scrutiny with the [[United Nations Conference on Environment and Development]] in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has a history of little environmental awareness. It has the highest [[biodiversity]] in the world and also the highest amount of [[habitat destruction]]. One-third of the world's forests lie in Brazil. It is home to the largest river, [[Amazon River|The Amazon]], and the largest rainforest, the [[Amazon Rainforest]]. People have raised funds to create state parks and increase the consciousness of people who have destroyed forests and polluted waterways. From 1973 to the 1990s, and then in the 2000s, indigenous communities and rubber tappers also carried out blockades that protected much rainforest.<ref name=":0" />  It is home to several organizations that have fronted the environmental movement. The Blue Wave Foundation was created in 1989 and has partnered with advertising companies to promote national education campaigns to keep Brazil's beaches clean. Funatura was created in 1986 and is a wildlife sanctuary program. [[Pro-Natura International]] is a private environmental organization created in 1986.<ref name="Brazil">{{cite news |last=Brooke |first=Elizabeth Heilman |date=2 June 1992 |title=As Forests Fall, Environmental Movement Rises in Brazil |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/02/news/as-forests-fall-environmental-movement-rises-in-brazil.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508214413/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/02/news/as-forests-fall-environmental-movement-rises-in-brazil.html |archive-date=8 May 2013 |access-date=20 February 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

From the late 2000s onwards community resistance saw the formerly pro-mining southeastern state of Minas Gerais cancel a number of projects that threatened to destroy forests. In northern Brazil’s Pará state the  Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement) and others campaigned and took part in occupations and blockades against the environmentally harmful Carajás iron ore mine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smit |first=Jan Paul |date=2022-11-21 |title=Mining Resistance in Brazil |url=https://commonslibrary.org/mining-resistance-in-brazil/ |access-date=2024-07-08 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>

==== United States ====
{{Main|Environmental movement in the United States}}
[[File:Walden Thoreau.jpg|thumb|upright|Original title page of ''[[Walden]]'' by [[Henry David Thoreau]]]]

The movement in the [[United States]] began in the late 19th century, out of concerns for protecting the natural resources of the West, with individuals such as [[John Muir]] and [[Henry David Thoreau]] making key philosophical contributions. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the 1854 book ''[[Walden]]'', which argues that people should become intimately close with nature. Muir came to believe in nature's inherent right, especially after spending time hiking in [[Yosemite Valley]] and studying both the ecology and geology. He successfully lobbied congress to form [[Yosemite National Park]] and went on to set up the [[Sierra Club]] in 1892.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wulf |first=Andrea |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yPXYCwAAQBAJ&dq=He+published+his+experiences+in+the+book+Walden%2C+which+argues+that+people+should+become+intimately+close+with+nature.+Muir+came+to+believe+in+nature%27s+inherent+right%2C+especially+after+spending+time+hiking+in+Yosemite+Valley+and+studying+both+the+ecology+an&pg=PR11 |title=The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World |date=2015 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-385-35066-2 |language=en |access-date=26 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408163014/https://books.google.com/books?id=yPXYCwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PR11&dq=He+published+his+experiences+in+the+book+Walden%2C+which+argues+that+people+should+become+intimately+close+with+nature.+Muir+came+to+believe+in+nature%27s+inherent+right%2C+especially+after+spending+time+hiking+in+Yosemite+Valley+and+studying+both+the+ecology+an&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=8 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The conservationist principles as well as the belief in an inherent right of nature became the bedrock of modern environmentalism.

Beginning in the conservation movement at the beginning of the 20th century, the contemporary environmental movement's roots can be traced back to [[Rachel Carson]]'s 1962 book ''[[Silent Spring]]'', [[Murray Bookchin]]'s 1962 book ''Our Synthetic Environment'', and [[Paul R. Ehrlich]]'s 1968 ''[[The Population Bomb]]''. American environmentalists have campaigned against [[nuclear weapon]]s and [[nuclear power]] in the 1960s and 1970s, [[acid rain]] in the 1980s, [[ozone depletion]] and [[deforestation]] in the 1990s, and most recently [[climate change]] and [[global warming]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=McIntyre |first=Iain |date=8 July 2024 |title=Environmental blockading timeline, 1974-1997 |url=https://commonslibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/ENVIRONMENTAL-BLOCKADING-TIMELINE-1974-1997-2.pdf |access-date=8 July 2024 |website=Commons Social Change Library}}</ref>

The United States passed many pieces of environmental legislation in the 1970s, such as the [[Clean Water Act]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=HALL |first=RIDGWAY M. |date=1978 |title=The Clean Water Act of 1977 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40912265 |journal=Natural Resources Lawyer |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=343–372 |jstor=40912265 |issn=0028-0747 |access-date=8 April 2023 |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306020258/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40912265 |url-status=live }}</ref> the [[Clean Air Act (United States)|Clean Air Act]], the [[Endangered Species Act]], and the [[National Environmental Policy Act]]. These remain as the foundations for current environmental standards.

In the 1990s, the [[Anti-environmentalism|anti-environmental]] 'Wise Use' movement emerged in the United States.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Helvarg |first=David |date=2007-12-04 |title=The war on the greens |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10402659508425907 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=7 |issue=3–4 |pages=393–397 |doi=10.1080/10402659508425907 |issn=1040-2659}}</ref>