The environmental movement appears to have gone through 5 distinct phases. What will the sixth phase look like? Will it make more of a difference than the first five?

1. “Earthrise” (1960s)

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2. “Profit versus Planet” (c.1970-87)

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3. “Environmentalism became Sustainability” (c.1987-97)

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4. “Market Environmentalism” (1998-2018)

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5. 2019… First, Greta, then COVID-19

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What next for the environmental movement?

Where next for the environmental movement? Will a sixth, post-COVID phase achieve what the first five have not? We may have to dig deeper…

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Postscript

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“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.”

Gregory Bateson

“…for us as human beings there are two fundamentally opposed realities, two different modes of experience…rooted in the bihemispheric nature of the brain. It follows that the hemispheres need to co-operate, but I believe they are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and that this explains many aspects of Western culture… The balance of power has shifted where it cannot afford to go — further and further towards the part-world created by the left hemisphere.”

IAIN MCGILCHRIST

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To be continued…

Many thanks to Matt Tweed for illustrations