← Unit 2: Movements in the modern world
How have environmental movements changed politics?
The development of environmental movements from the 1960s, including Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), the first Earth Day (1970), the Australian campaigns over Lake Pedder (1972) and the Franklin Dam (1983), the formation of green parties, and contemporary climate activism
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 dot point on environmental movements. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), first Earth Day (1970), Greenpeace (1971), the Australian campaigns over Lake Pedder (1972) and the Franklin Dam (Tasmania, 1983), the rise of green parties, and the development of contemporary climate activism through IPCC, Kyoto, Paris and Greta Thunberg.
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What this dot point is asking
QCAA wants Year 11 students to trace environmental movements from the early 1960s through Australia's defining campaigns (Lake Pedder, Franklin) to contemporary climate activism, and to assess the political consequences of environmental mobilisation.
Origins (1960s)
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" (1962). Documented the ecological damage caused by DDT and other persistent pesticides. Launched modern environmentalism. DDT banned in the US (1972), in many countries thereafter, except for limited use against malarial mosquitoes.
Population concerns. Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" (1968) warned of overpopulation. The Club of Rome's "The Limits to Growth" (1972) modelled resource depletion.
Earth Day (22 April 1970). First Earth Day; about million Americans participated. Senator Gaylord Nelson's initiative. Established environmentalism as a mass political force.
Institutional response
United States Environmental Protection Agency (1970). Created under Nixon. Clean Air Act (1970, expanded 1990). Clean Water Act (1972).
UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972). First major UN conference on the environment. Led to creation of UN Environment Programme.
Greenpeace (1971). Founded in Vancouver to protest US nuclear testing in Alaska. Became the most prominent international environmental NGO.
Australia. Whitlam government established the Department of the Environment and Conservation (1972).
Australian campaigns
Lake Pedder (1972). Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commission flooded the unique pink quartzite-beach lake to create a reservoir. The campaign to save Lake Pedder lost, but it produced the United Tasmania Group (1972), the world's first green party. Pedder became the lost touchstone of the Australian movement; campaigns to restore it continue.
Franklin Dam (1981-1983). Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commission proposed damming the Franklin River. The Tasmanian Wilderness Society (Bob Brown) organised a mass blockade from December 1982. arrests. Hawke promised to stop the dam at the 1983 election. The High Court (Commonwealth v Tasmania 1983, the "Dams Case") upheld Commonwealth power to override state legislation under the external affairs power, citing the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. The dam was stopped. Bob Brown later founded the Australian Greens (federally registered 1992) and was elected to the Senate (1996).
Daintree, Kakadu. Subsequent campaigns over the Daintree rainforest (Queensland) and Kakadu uranium mining (Northern Territory) used similar tactics with mixed success.
Climate science and politics
IPCC (1988). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established by the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP. First assessment report (1990).
Rio Earth Summit (1992). UN Framework Convention on Climate Change signed.
Kyoto Protocol (1997). First international agreement with binding emissions targets for developed countries. Took effect 2005. The US never ratified.
Paris Agreement (2015). Universal agreement on national emissions reductions; aim to limit warming to well below 2°C. The United States withdrew in 2017 (Trump) and rejoined in 2021 (Biden).
Australian climate politics. Howard government refused to ratify Kyoto. Rudd government ratified Kyoto (December 2007); Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme blocked in 2009-2010. Gillard government's Clean Energy Act 2011 (carbon tax) was repealed by Abbott in 2014. Subsequent governments have set successive emissions reduction targets.
Contemporary climate activism
Bill McKibben and 350.org (founded 2008). Targeted fossil-fuel divestment and the Keystone XL pipeline.
Greta Thunberg (Swedish, born 2003). School strike for climate began August 2018. Global school strike on 15 March 2019 involved approximately million students.
Extinction Rebellion (UK, founded 2018). Direct-action tactics, including blocking traffic in central London (April 2019).
Australia. School Strike 4 Climate from 2018. The 2019-2020 bushfires raised public concern; the 2022 election saw a swing on climate (Labor government commitment to a 43% emissions reduction by 2030).
Significance
Environmental movements moved from a marginal concern in 1962 to a central political question. They produced:
- Major regulatory and institutional change (EPA, Department of Environment, UNFCCC, IPCC).
- New political parties (green parties in Australia, Germany, France, the UK).
- Legal innovation (external affairs power in the Tasmanian Dam Case; standing for environmental cases in many jurisdictions).
- Cultural change (recycling, organic food, electric vehicles, renewable energy investment).
Historiography
Ramachandra Guha (Environmentalism: A Global History, 2000). Standard global account.
Drew Hutton and Libby Connors (A History of the Australian Environment Movement, 1999). Australian history.
Mike Hulme (Why We Disagree About Climate Change, 2009). The political and cultural framings of climate.
In one sentence
Environmental movements developed from Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" (1962) through Earth Day (1970), Australian campaigns to save Lake Pedder (lost, 1972) and the Franklin River (won via the 1983 Tasmanian Dam Case High Court ruling), the rise of green parties, and contemporary climate activism (IPCC from 1988, Paris Agreement 2015, school strikes from 2018) to become a central political force in modern democracies.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past QCAA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Year 11 class taskEvaluate the significance of the Franklin Dam campaign (1981-1983) for Australian environmental and federal politics.Show worked answer →
A Year 11 response.
Thesis. The Franklin Dam campaign (1981-1983) was the most consequential single environmental campaign in Australian history. It saved a wild river of global heritage value, transferred environmental authority from the states to the Commonwealth, and produced the political and legal framework that would protect Australia's natural heritage for the next forty years.
Body 1: The campaign. The Tasmanian Wilderness Society, led by Bob Brown, opposed the Hydro Electric Commission's plan to dam the Franklin River. Mass blockade at the construction site from December 1982 saw arrests including Bob Brown's; sustained national media coverage made the dam an issue in the March 1983 federal election.
Body 2: The Hawke election (5 March 1983). Labor leader Bob Hawke promised to stop the dam. Hawke's election (with a -seat swing) put the dam on the new government's agenda.
Body 3: The Tasmanian Dam Case (Commonwealth v Tasmania, 1983). High Court ruled that the Commonwealth could use its external affairs power (UNESCO World Heritage Convention) to override state legislation. Dam construction stopped. The Franklin saved.
Conclusion. The Franklin campaign created the constitutional and political foundation for federal environmental authority, demonstrated that mass nonviolent action could deliver national policy change, and launched the Australian Greens (Bob Brown's federal political career began with this campaign).
Markers reward dated events (December 1982 blockade, March 1983 election, 1983 High Court ruling), named figures (Bob Brown, Bob Hawke), and the legal-constitutional point about the external affairs power.
Related dot points
- The development of feminism and environmentalism as 19th and 20th century political ideas, including suffrage movements, second-wave and third-wave feminism, and the emergence of environmentalism from conservation to climate politics
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 1 dot point on feminism and environmentalism. First-wave feminism (Wollstonecraft, suffrage), second-wave (Friedan, de Beauvoir), third-wave intersectionality (Crenshaw); environmentalism from 19th-century conservation (Muir, Pinchot) through Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) to modern climate politics.
- The Australian Indigenous rights movement from the 1930s, including the Day of Mourning (1938), the 1967 referendum, the Wave Hill walk-off (1966), the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (1972), the Mabo decision (1992), and the development of the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017)
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 dot point on Australian Indigenous rights. Day of Mourning (1938), FCAATSI, the 1967 referendum, Wave Hill walk-off (1966-1975), Tent Embassy (1972), the Mabo decision (1992), Native Title Act (1993), Bringing Them Home (1997), national apology (2008), and the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017).
- Movements for civil and political rights in the 20th century, including the US Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), second-wave feminism, anti-apartheid movement, and Indigenous rights movements
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 2 subject-matter point on rights movements. US Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968), second-wave feminism (1960s-1970s), anti-apartheid movement (1948-1994), and Indigenous rights movements in Australia (1967 referendum, Mabo 1992).