grassroots movements, climate change movements

1. History of Environmental
Grassroots Movements
Mohammed Meharoof
FEC-MA6-02

2. Grassroots Movement
• The most basic level of an activity
• Collective action from the local level to effect
change at the local, regional, national, or
international level
• Associated with bottom-up

3. Grassroots Movements in India

4. 1.Bishnoi Movement
• Year: 1730
• Place: Khejarli, Rajasthan
• Aim: Save sacred trees from being cut down by the
king’s soldiers
• Leaders: Amrita Devi along with Bishnoi villagers
• 363 Bishnoi villagers were killed
• Maharajah designated the Bishnoi state as a
protected area, this legislation still exists today in
the region.

5. 2. Chipko (hug the tree) Movement
• Year: 1973
• Place: In Chamoli and Tehri-Garhwal district of
Uttarakhand
• Aim: protect the trees on the Himalayan slopes
from the axes of contractors of the forest.
• Leaders: Sundarlal Bahuguna, Gaura Devi,
Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt,
Govind Singh Rawat, Dhoom Singh Negi,
Shamsher Singh Bisht and Ghanasyam Raturi.
• Became a turning point in the history of eco-
development struggles in the region and around
the world

6. 3. Save Silent Valley Movement
• Year: 1978
• Place: Silent Valley, an evergreen tropical forest
in the Palakkad district of Kerala
• Aim: To protect the Silent Valley, being
destroyed by a hydroelectric project.
• Leaders: The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad
(KSSP) an NGO, and the poet activist
Sughathakumari

7. 4. Appiko Movement
• Year: 1983
• Place: Uttara Kannada and Shimoga districts of
Karnataka
• Aim: Against the felling and commercialization of
natural forest and the ruin of ancient livelihood.
• Leaders: Appiko’s greatest strengths lie in it being
neither driven by a personality nor having been
formally institutionalised. However, it does have a
facilitator in Pandurang Hegde.
• Southern version of the Chipko movement

8. 5. Narmada Bachao Andholan
• Year: 1985
• Place: Narmada River, flows through Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
• Aim: A social movement against a number of
large dams being built across the Narmada River
• Leaders: Medha Patker, Baba Amte, adivasis,
farmers, environmentalists and human rights
activists

9. History of Environmental Movements
in UK
1870s Amenity movement, which was a reaction to industrialization
1862-63: Campaign against alkali industry
1824: Formed Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1880’s formed several natural history societies with an effective membership of about
one lakh
Darwin's work stimulates the view protecting nature from deterioration

10. Cont..
1973: Green party formed
1950’s & 60’s: Protest against nuclear testing
1926: Council for Preservation of Rural England(CRPE) formed due to several
protests
1912: Society for Prevention of Natural Reserves was created

11. History of Environmental Movements
in America
• Environmental dangers of Industrialization,evident
in 19th century
• 1864: “Man & Nature”- George Marsh about the
effects of wastes on Earth, threatens the
extinction of man- results in establishment of
National Forestry Commission
• 1892: John Muir formed ”sierra club” promotes
preservation of nature
• Protested against damming of Hetchy valley, but
lost

12. Cont….
• Theodore Roosevelt administration was responsible for:
 Newlands Act of 1902-funded irrigation projects
 Appointment of the Inland Waterways Commission in
1907
 National Conservation Commission of 1909
• Aldo Leopold founded:
o Gila National Forest-New Mexico-1924
o Wilderness society-1935
• After Second World War-Environmetal movement
broadened
• 1970s & 80s grassroots environmental groups increased
progressively.

13. Climate Movements
• Subset of environmental movement
• Activism related to climate change began in the
1990s
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) is an International environmental
treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992
• Entered into force on 21 March 1994
• In the 2000s several climate-specific organizations
were founded, such as 350.org, Energy Action
Coalition, and the Global Call for Climate Action

14. History
2009 - Computer hackers downloaded data from East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and release on
internet, leading to the "ClimateGate" affair
1997 - Kyoto Protocol agreed. Developed nations pledge to reduce emissions by an average of 5%
1988 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formed by UNEP
1987 - Montreal Protocol agreed, restricting chemicals that damage the ozone layer
1938 - Using records from 147 weather stations around the world, British engineer Guy Callendar
shows that temperatures had risen over the previous century
1896 - Svante Arrhenius calculated the effect of a doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide to be an
increase in surface temperatures of 5-6 degrees Celsius.
1861 - Irish physicist John Tyndall shows that water vapour and certain other gases create the
greenhouse effect
1824 - French physicist Joseph Fourier describes the Earth's natural "greenhouse effect“

15. Kyoto Protocol (UNFCC)
• Signed-11 December 1997
• Location-Kyoto, Japan
• Effective-16 February 2005
• Objective- To fight global warming by reducing
greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere
• Approved by 55 States at the Convention
• There are currently 192 parties
• India- 26 August 2002

16. Mobilization for Copenhagen 2009
• First UNFCCC summit in which the climate
movement started showing its mobilization
power at a large scale.
• 70,000 people attended a march in
Copenhagen on December 12 calling for a
global agreement on climate issues.
• More than 5,400 rallies and demonstrations
took place around the world simultaneously

17. The 2014 People’s Climate March
• Movement convened its largest single event in
September 21, 2014, when it mobilized 4 lakh
activists in New York during the People’s
Climate March
• To demand climate action from the global
leaders gathered for the 2014 UN Climate
Summit

18. Fossil Fuel Divestment movement
• Calls for colleges and universities, as well as cities,
states, religious institutions, and pension funds to
withdraw their investments from fossil fuel
companies.
• 350.org launched their Go Fossil Free campaign in
2012
• The Fossil Fuel Divestment movement escalated
tactics in the spring of 2015, with 19 students
arrested at Yale University, a week-long blockade
of Harvard University's administrative buildings, a
70-student sit-in at Tulane University, and other
arrestable actions

19. Paris Agreement
• The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4
November 2016
• Agreement within the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)
• As of April 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have
signed the treaty
• Dealing with greenhouse gases emissions
mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in
the year 2020.

20. 350.org
• Founded by a group of university friends in the U.S in 2008
• Building a global climate movement
• Grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are
coordinated by a global network active in over 188
countries
1. International day of climate action- 2009
2. Global work party- 2010
3. Moving planet- 2011
4. Climate impacts- 2012
• Aim-reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its
current level of 400 ppm to below 350 ppm.
• Works in almost every country in the world on campaigns
like fighting coal power plants in India.