Environmentalism Since 1945 by Gary Haq & Alistair Paul

Environmentalism Since 1945 by Gary Haq & Alistair Paul

Author:Gary Haq & Alistair Paul [Haq, Gary & Paul, Alistair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, World, Modern, 20th Century, 21st Century, Nature, Environmental Conservation & Protection, Political Science, Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Technology & Engineering, Environmental
ISBN: 9781136636554
Google: LMCoAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-03-15T01:40:27+00:00


Economic growth and production

The post-war period saw many nations equating economic growth with progress driven by technological innovation. In 1944, against the backdrop of the Second World War, forty-four countries gathered together at Bretton Woods in the US state of New Hampshire. The aim of the conference was to ensure post-war peace and prosperity through economic cooperation. The meeting led to the establishment of the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now the World Bank). In the aftermath of the Second World War, the focus of the international community was on creating a stronger economic foundation for the rebuilding of European countries. The US European Recovery Program, also known as the Marshall Plan, ran from 1947 to 1951 and provided aid to repair the devastation of major war areas and begin economic reconstruction. The aim of the Plan was also to prevent the spread of communism in Western Europe and to stabilise the international order to favour the development of political democracy and free-market economies. Meanwhile, the USA experienced an economic boom on the back of increased production and exports during the Second World War.

By the late 1950s, the standard of living of a large proportion of American society was without historical parallel. In The Affluent Society (1958), the American economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006), reflecting on the continued focus on production as a measure of progress, observed:

More die in the United States of too much food than too little […] Yet production remains central to our thoughts. There is no tendency to take it, like sun and water, for granted; on the contrary, it continues to measure the quality and progress of our civilisation.8

This drive for economic growth raised concerns about resource availability. The rapid growth of the USA meant that it was quickly becoming a net importer of oil and other raw materials. As early as 1951, President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) established a presidential commission to examine the future supply of minerals, energy and agricultural resources. The following year the Paley Commission, chaired by William Paley (1901–90), produced a five-volume report: Resources for Freedom: Foundations for Growth and Security. The study revealed that there had been an unprecedented increase in natural resource usage since the First World War, and highlighted the importance of natural resources to the development of the US economy.9

Whereas the Paley Report argued for a measured approach to resource planning, a number of controversial doomsday prophecies had already been published. In the Malthusian tradition, many of these books focused on overpopulation. These included Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr’s (1887–1969) Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt’s (1902–68) Road to Survival, both published in 1948.10 Over a decade later, David Brower (1912–2000), Executive Director of the Sierra Club, suggested to biologist Paul R. Ehrlich (b. 1932) that he summarise in book form the argument that the population issue should be addressed by the environmental movement. Ehrlich published The Population Bomb in 1968, and directly linked population growth to the Earth’s capacity to sustain humankind.11



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