Environmental Activists
Environmental activism became an apparent trend during the 1970s, particularly with the start of Earth Day on the 22nd of April 1970 in the US. Around 20 million people in the US demonstrated against environmental destruction, led by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. Nelson wanted to build an environmental agenda in Washington and so created the Environmental teach.in inc, which later became known as Earth Day. This demonstration caught attention globally and showcased the turn in attention to environmental issues, especially the decreasing amount of fossil fuels available in the world.
Over in the UK there were two different organisations that focused on environmental issues. First was the lesser-known Conservation Society, that was originally formed to tackle the problem of over population, which they believed would lead to poverty, overuse of resources, pollution, and damage to wildlife. It was founded by Dr Douglas MacEwan in 1966 and became most known for its coverage of the environmental crisis from 1970 to 1972, especially the Stockholm conference of 1972 which was the first world conference on the environment. The society went into decline after 1972 due to concerns about recession and inflation pushed environmental concerns to the background. In its place came the Friends of the Earth organisation, which originated in California in 1969. Since 1971 they have run multiple campaigns to bring attention to environmental issues, starting off with promoting re-use by returning thousands of empty bottles to the London HQ of Cadbury Schweppes to protest the recalling of recyclable bottles. The organisation registered themselves as a company to be able to work for political change, which they would have been unable to do if they registered as a charity. Friends of the Earth were central to the collapse of the UK’s nuclear programme, initiated a housewarming weekend to install insulation in pensioners homes, and created a paper chase to combat paper waste in the 70s. the organisation is still active today and has multiple branches globally to continue working on environmental issues.
Energy Independence Advocates
The idea of energy independence became quite sought after in the 1970s after the 1973 oil crisis due to the Yom-Kippur war where oil distribution was disrupted or stopped for the US and other countries that showed support for Israel. Again in 1979, the Iranian revolution caused an energy crisis because of the disruption of production which led to increased prices and widespread panic.
This realisation that reliance on fossil fuels was unstable and that there was a need to many countries to independently create their own energy allowed for more research into renewable energy, and for more energy independence advocates. In particular, Amory Lovins was well known in the 70s for his beliefs in soft energy. He was the American spokesperson for the UK branch of Friends of the Earth and wrote many papers around moving towards renewable energies and stopping the reliance of fossil fuels, pushing for a move into wind, water and solar energy. Lovins argued that the world relied too much on fossil fuels and that too much waste was being created because of it, which Hugh Sharman highlights as the simple mindedness of economists who only see good being produced from fuel and materials, but not the waste that is created. Unfortunately, by the 1980s, when the energy crisis had been sorted, the push for energy independence somewhat disappeared because of the temporary surplus in oil that led to a decrease in oil prices.
Technological Innovators
Technological innovation, which was driven by the 1973 oil crisis, pushed forwards new ways to harness wind and solar power as forms of renewable energy. Publications of the ecologist highlighted new research into renewable energy, which had been motivated by the critique of capitalism and the reliance on fossil fuels. The UK created renewable energy programmes to put funding into research and development of new forms of energy. In 1977 £3.6 million was invested into solar energy, which was used to research solar energy for homes, transport, and agriculture. There was also a focus on wave power, which was discussed in the Heathrow wave energy conference, and highlighted as one of the best resources in Scotland. The WEP or wave energy programme, alongside the department of energy’s wave energy R&D from 1974, focused on developing new technologies to harness wave power to help create more energy. Unfortunately, like the interest in energy independence, development for wave power stopped development in the 1980s. On a smaller scale, the undercurrents magazine published many forms of DIY renewable energy that could be used and implemented in people’s homes or communities. Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper, who also worked on the Undercurrents magazine, published a book called radical technologies, which covered a range of new and old technologies that promoted sustainability and helped to reduce the use of fossil fuels. It has a wide range of projects that cover most aspects of day-today life and hold energy efficiency and climate change at the forefront of their goals.
Alternative Lifestyle and Back-to-Nature Movements
The push for renewable energy and alternative technologies in the 1970s led to an increased interest in alternative lifestyles that focused on sustainability and improving the environment. There was especially an increase in the creation of communes and co-ops where likeminded individuals came together to decrease their use of fossil fuels and become more involved with nature and environmental movements.
The Undercurrents magazine has covered multiple instances of alternative lifestyles, interviewed members and kept up to date with new communes. In 1974 they interviewed Gerard Morgan-Grenville, who was the chairman of the society for environmental improvement ltd. Grenville had the particular idea that environmental movements needed big business in order to make decent headway, as money was important to making an impact, and important people were useful in these societies as they tended to be more effective at getting things done. This differed to the approaches of the Crabapple commune from Wales, that the magazine covered in 1975 and 1979. Crabapple, which was based on the US’s Twin Oaks commune, were more small scale. They focused on being self-reliant, most of their income coming from a wholefood shop they ran and splitting work evenly to make everything fair. The Opus commune in Scotland was also featured in Undercurrents in 1977 because of their sustainability. In order to heat water for their members, Opus recycled green house glass to make solar panels, and also created a water pump from an old windmill to deliver hot water around their commune. The Findhorn commune, while less focused on renewable energy, were very focused on light nature and spirituality, and were most known for their gardening abilities, providing plenty of food from once unusable soil.
Overall Undercurrents showcased many different types of communes that rejected the “normal” way of life in favour of a more environmentally friendly lifestyle for differing reason, from a want to push the environmental movement to the want to escape from the city.
Policy Advocates
Throughout the 1970s, because of the focus on the environmental movement and renewable energy, more people were advocating for changes to policy to ensure the longevity of the movement. To start with, more people advocated for the creation of jobs within renewable energy, because it was a growing sector that could be utilised to combat unemployment issues. The Mid-Peninsular Conversion Project in the US highlighted how solar energy was useful for creating more jobs for those with a military background. Military workers had many skills that would easily transfer to solar energy, helping unemployment within the military, and also improving the economy. In the UK, Dave Elliot also brought into consideration how if the UK were to put more funding into renewable energy programmes instead of nuclear energy, more jobs could be made because of the lower costs of renewable energy. He also argues that these programmes would provide both long- and short-term employment opportunities, being much more beneficial to the UK job market than nuclear energy.
Friends of the Earth, because they were a company and not a charity, also worked a lot on creating new policies that benefitted the environment. They combatted many problems, including glass recycling, the importation of exotic animal programs, insulation programmes, and allotment projects. The organisation was at the forefront of policy changes for the UK in terms of renewable energy and climate change.
The problem that came for policy advocates in the UK was the lack of and mismanaged funding for renewable energy. Dave Elliot believed that the government was scaring away research into renewable energy because of the lack of funding compared to other sectors, as the risk involved with research and development within the sector was too high compared to the funding involved. This would mean that, in Elliot’s opinion, renewable energy would eventually become a forgotten sector, less favourable in comparison to the more favourable forms of energy within capitalism, which was a common problem for renewable energy in the 1970s.
