The History of the Environmental Movement — in 5 Cartoons!

Because that is all our frazzled brains can take right now

On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, a history of the environmental movement in 5 cartoons. (With 2 bonus cartoons for those blessed with unusual powers of concentration at this strange time!)

1. “Earthrise” (1960s)

2. “Profit Versus Planet” (c.1970–87)

3. “Environmentalism Became Sustainability” (c.1987–97)

4. “Market Environmentalism” (1998–2018)

5. 2019… First, Greta, then COVID

So, what next?

Where next for the environmental movement? Will a sixth phase achieve what the first five have not? We may have to dig deeper…

Postscript

“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.”

Gregory Bateson

“…for us as human beings there are two fundamentally opposed realities, two different modes of experience…rooted in the bihemispheric nature of the brain. It follows that the hemispheres need to co-operate, but I believe they are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and that this explains many aspects of Western culture… [T]he balance of power has shifted where it cannot afford to go — further and further towards the part-world created by the left hemisphere.”

Iain McGilchrist

In other words, both brains are required, not just the one we keep using.

Many thanks to Matt Tweed for illustrations.