The Origins of the British Environmental Movement

By Georgia Cavanagh
October 2020

Environmental stewardship, or human care for the environment, can be traced back to the origins of civilisation.  However, it wasn’t until the early twentieth century, at least in Britain, that action was sufficiently widespread or coordinated to constitute a ‘movement’. 

Most early activism focused on mustering fundamental support for environmental principles, such as the basic notion that the environment was an important entity to protect, rather than radical change. Christianity’s cultural significance in Victorian Britain was an important motivator for activism, due to its advocacy of environmental stewardship. The Open Space Movement was founded upon such principles, and encouraged widespread and governmental concern for the preservation of natural spaces.

The Open Space Movement

Unfortunately, the Movement had a solely middle-class membership and an outspoken branch of activists that asserted that nature only belonged to ‘the enlightened middle class’.  The founding of the National Trust by activists in the Open Space Movement meant that the Trust followed similar principles and actions. In the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century, the activism of these large organisations constituted lobbying the wealthy and the government to donate land and purchase new parks, and neighbourhood subscription campaigns, which elicited support to further engage governments and institutions.  When the lower classes were involved in activism, it was often for distinctly different purposes, such as ‘land nationalisation, taxation of unearned increment, and land tenure reform’, as opposed to the more cerebral concept of ‘preservationism’.  

Nevertheless, this early activism was successful, as legislation extended the acquisition of public space, which led to a shift such that by 1920, public parks became ‘icons of a more dynamic and democratic public culture’.  Therefore, by the time the National Trust was established as effectively the first mainstream national environmental organisation (having been founded in 1895 and growing steadily in popularity into the early twentieth century), there was significant support for the cause, albeit largely from the middle and upper classes. The Trust increasingly sought further support by staying away from asserting political leanings and through continuously shifting its priorities according to current events. 

The First World War and Its Aftermath

The influence of wider events on the environmental movement was evident following the First World War. The nation sought unity to overcome the traumatic struggles of recovery, which was translated into government-led environmental initiatives by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.  The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act designated significant swathes of the countryside as national parks and protected areas of natural beauty. Baldwin’s support of organisations like the National Trust brought them media attention, and the Trust’s higher profile led to an unprecedented rate of expansion, such that from 1920 to 1940, membership rose from 713 to 6,800 people.   However, environmentalists’ work was not yet done, as at this time, political intervention merely reflected popular opinion rather than acting as a progenitor of reform.

Individual Vs Collective Action

The predominantly nationally-organised environmentalism of the early movement was another key component of its popularity, as it espoused clear ideology and courses of action, and a conventional hierarchical structure. However, organisations such as the Council for Nature instigated a Conservation Corps for young environmental volunteers in 1959, which encouraged more individual action.  The mobilisation of youth was consistently important in the movement, which is evident in the importance of young activists through to today, with individuals such as Greta Thunberg gaining such agency that they can drive international change. This is partly due to the intrinsically long-term nature of climate challenges, which require each generation to pass on environmental imperatives to the next. The Conservation Corps indicate an early awareness of the reluctance of those in power to take action, and faith in the younger generation to take on the environmentalist mantle.

The character of early British environmentalism was therefore largely focused on preservation and on human benefit, motivated by Christian Socialist ethics. Apocalyptic outlooks, such as the fears of overpopulation hounded by Thomas Malthus since the 1700s, were not yet embedded in the movement, which had yet to become a resoundingly popular concern or political prerogative. Activism was parochial and focused on maintaining mainstream support rather than radical action. This tendency towards palatable action would not last into the late twentieth century, which will be explored in the second part of this series.

How to Get Involved

The scope of environmental activism has grown substantially since its inception, so nowadays it is considerably more inclusive. However, there is still a long way to go, especially given the varying perceptions of the importance of the environment around the world, along with longstanding racial, gendered, religious and economic barriers to involvement.

Nevertheless, at least in the UK, there are many well-known groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace that you could join, along with countless other groups that may suit you. These may have a more local or specific focus, such as groups that centre around wildlife, those which protest, those which organise community activities, or those which focus on lifestyle and consumer choices. There are also more and more online communities to join, such as The Climate Just Collective, where you can engage with like-minded people and learn about what role you can play in the environmental movement, either as an individual or part of a wider group. 

We would love to hear about the opportunities for engagement that are available in your country and how the early British environmental movement differs from your history! What changes would you like to see?

Return to The Collective.


References:
Baigent, E., “God’s Earth Will Be Sacred’: Religion, Theology, and the Open Space Movement in Victorian England’, Rural History, 22/2 (2011)
Bailey, P., Leisure and Class in Victorian Britain: Rational Recreation and the Contest for Control, 1830-1885 (London, 1978)
Cannadine, D., ‘The First Hundred Years’, in H. Newby (ed.), The National Trust: The Next Hundred Years (London, 1995).
Deher, N., ‘Public Parks in Urban Britain, 1870-1920: Creating a New Public Culture’, Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations (1993),
Kealhofer, L., ‘Human-Environmental Relationships in Prehistory: An Introduction to Current Research in South and Southeast Asia’, Asian Perspectives, 35/2 (1996).
No Author Given, ‘Conservation Corps for Young Volunteers’, Nature Magazine, 183 (1959).

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