Early attention to the environment was a feature of the early 19th-century romantic movement

Best Regards Hamed Moztarzadeh

http://kstart.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/47080199/Springer%20Environmental%20Movement.pdf

https://sites.ewu.edu/livinghistoryinstitute/files/2011/06/Environmental-Movement.pdf

https://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/roleplay/pdf/heat-env.pdf

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d8b8/4e8a9ea2346e91346b04b417545574838718.pdf

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/CB367/chap7.pdf

One of the earliest pioneers of the Environmental Movement was the Marine Biologist, Dr Rachel Carson. Her book, Silent Spring was published in 1962.

Carson

I thought William Stanley Jevons and Malthus were real sources of environmental movement...

Sustainabily was and is in the hearts and acts of millions of environmental heros. I took and take my leads from the indigenous people of the world.

The Brundtland Report, published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, coined the term "sustainable development" and defined it as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Gro Harlem Brundtland. 1987. Our Common Future. the World Commission on Environment and Development.

The following is from the web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future

The Brundtland Commission Report recognised that human resource development in the form of poverty reduction, gender equity, and wealth redistribution was crucial to formulating strategies for environmental conservation, and it also recognised that environmental-limits to economic growth in industrialised and industrialising societies existed. The Brundtland Report claimed that poverty reduces sustainability and accelerates environmental pressures – creating a need for the balancing between economy and ecology.[2] As such, the Report offered “[the] analysis, the broad remedies, and the recommendations for a sustainable course of development” within such societies (1987: 16). However, the Report was unable to identify the mode(s) of production that are responsible for degradation of the environment, and in the absence of analysing the principles governing market-led economic growth, the Report postulated that such growth could be reformed (and expanded); this lack of analysis resulted in an obfuscated-introduction of the term sustainable development.[3]

The publication of Our Common Future and the work of the World Commission on Environment and Development laid the groundwork for the convening of the 1992 Earth Summit and the adoption of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration and to the establishment of the Commission on Sustainable Development.

An oft-quoted definition of sustainable development is defined in the report as:

"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

In addition, key contributions of Our Common Future to the concept of sustainable development include the recognition that the many crises facing the planet are interlocking crises that are elements of a single crisis of the whole [4] and of the vital need for the active participation of all sectors of society in consultation and decisions relating to sustainable development.

John Muir

Many people, when they discussed the roots of the environmental crisis, referred to the publication of “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson in 1962. The publication of this book can be considered the start of the modern environmental movement. Before Ms. Carson, some people like Malthus (1766-1834) and William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) were given some warnings due to lack of resources and their exhaustion based on overpopulation (Malthus) as well as reduction of energy sources, such as coal (Jevons) (Baker , 2006: 18).

Please find my research “Formation of Sustainable Urban Development Paradigm” in my profile and send me your valuable feedbacks;

Thanks;

Seriously, I know many modern environmental "movements" and organizations (e.g. Sierra Club) date their inspiration back to John Muir. Worth investigating. Carson certainly played a pivotal role, but it goes back further. Thoreau was an important inspiration as well. If you're talking about "sustainability", then I would agree with Charles Kenny Jordan who mentioned indigenous cultures. Beyond that, there may have been individuals who played an important role at one point or another, e.g. Dennis Hayes and Earth Day, but I don't think anyone can take credit for these "movements," (depending on how you define that term).

Thanks all;

Wangari Muta Maathai was an internationally renowned Kenyan environmental political activist and Nobel laureate. In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 to be a convenient marker for the beginning of the modern American environmental movement.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/earth-and-environment/ecology-and-environmentalism/environmental-studies/environmental-movement

Regards

Among the writers

Rachel Carson (Western)

Ghani Khan (Eastern)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313722234_Review_of_Ghani_Khan%27s_poem_Poem_Chengi_Insects_and_Rachel_Carson%27s_Silent_Spring_An_eco-centric_academic_perspective

Wangari Maathai for reforestation in Kenya.

Berta Caceres for preservation of indigenous lands in Honduras.

Winona LeDoux for water conservation/protection in Minnesota, USA.

Masanobu Fukuoka for organic agriculture in Japan.

Bill Mollison for proposing permaculture design (Australia).

Aldo Leopold for writing the Land Ethic (Wisconsin), USA.

Wes Jackson for developing the idea of Natural Systems Agriculture (Kansas) USA.

Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson for conservation biology.

Rachel Carson for documenting the paths of potent chemicals in the environment (Silent Spring).

"....but I don't think anyone can take credit for these "movements," (Dr.Tracy). It's true. Regards

Aldo Leopoldo, “Sand County Almanac”, 1949

There are many of pioneer has records in environmental movements

-Le Corbusier in modern architecture, post the building on columns

to extend the naturl environment under the buildings, and the roof garden as well extend the green environment on the building.1920

-Frank Lloyd Wright in water falling house present an excellent example in building being part of the surrounding environment 1920

-Hassan fathi he is egyptian famous architect, he has environmental thought and worked with local building material, social involvement in constuction vaults and domes techniques .1940

The God

Interesting question.

History says many people have contributions on the environmental movements. Regards

Rachel Carson through her book Silent Spring.

This is a very challenging question as many assumptions are made. There are environmentally conscience socially and politically active individuals that can be identified from centuries or even millennia ago. Most of them generally were concerned about forestry issues, given the economic importance of that resource.

But if you mean one individual who motivated a cathartic change in environmental awareness and political activism that has continued uninterrupted...than I would put Rachel Carson and her book "Silent Spring" forward as that person and the "statement".

" ...........one individual who motivated a cathartic change in environmental awareness and political activism ....................... Rachel Carson and her book "Silent Spring" forward as that person and the "statement" (Dr. Ariel) - This seems true.

I have also mentioned earlier " Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 to be a convenient marker for the beginning of the modern American environmental movement" - Regards

Leviticus, as in Chapter 25 Verse 23?

David Orr at Oberlin College in Ohio. He has written several books and articles in sustainability.

E.F. Schumacker (author of the book: Small is Beautiful) if you are interested in the economic aspects of sustainability.

Gaylor Nelson (former Wisconsin governor who instituted the 1st. Earth Day celebration in 1970).

The American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) publishes on its website the names and affiliations of champions in campus sustainability, every year.

Dear Hamed, I agree with Tracy. I think it is not fair to pinpoint to one particular person. I believe thinking about sustainability is a social and networked construction which has happened in distinct communities.

Also, I do not disagree with so many scholars here like Kenneth, Asit, Nafees, Peter, Bruno and all. Of Course, Carson was a pioneer, but there were many and many more who have not been documented (especially indigenous and subaltern voices). If we look at the political layer, I would like to reiterate, "...with the Vietnam War and Silent Spring (Rachel Carson) as the unfortunate backdrops, Stockholm remains central to the current discourse of sustainability (as an afterthought). Thanks to people like Olof Palme, Maurice Strong, Indira Gandhi, Barry Commoner and so many activists, we witnessed the clear manifestation and emergence of 'environmental-politics' at the global level."

See a similar discussion https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_earliest_examples_of_sustainability_as_an_afterthought_in_various_socio-cultural-environmental_practices_academia2

Well said Saurabh! The sustainability movement has had (and continues to have) a community of "champions". It is impossible to celebrate one, without considering the contributions of everyone else.

In fact, it would be paradoxical to credit a single person or even find a protagonist, as "the source of environmental movement" when the whole discourse of sustainability is based on the premise of 'sharing' and 'continuity'. Both of them would require a dialogic context and exchange of innovative ideas.

"It is impossible to celebrate one, without considering the contributions of everyone else" (Dr.Bruno). I agree with this statement. But, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) is considered as a convenient marker for the beginning of the modern American environmental movement. Regards