The British Environmental Movement: the Development of an Environmental Consciousness and Environmental Activism, 1945-1975
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Citation: Wilson, Mark (2014) The British environmental movement: The development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism, 1945-1975. Doctoral thesis, University of Northumbria. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/21603/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html THE BRITISH ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM, 1945- 1975 M Wilson PhD 2014 THE BRITISH ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM, 1945- 1975 Mark Wilson A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences April 2014 1 ABSTRACT This work investigates the development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism in Britain, 1945-1975. The 1970s have been described as ‘the decade of the environment’ and was the period when the modern environmental movement emerged. In this thesis, the environmental movement is considered to be a broad network of individuals and pressure groups engaging in collective action with shared environmental beliefs. Much of the work on the movement has ignored or played down the importance of the post-war period on its development. This project challenges that, dealing less with the movement itself and more with the developments which led to its emergence: through analysing events like the great London smog of 1952 and the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967, as well as through television programmes, this thesis traces the post-war influences of the movement and the growth of environmental awareness. Environmental pressure groups form part of the movement and a number of them are studied here, such as the Newcastle-based group Save Our City from Environmental Mess and the London-based group Commitment, WWF, Friends of the Earth and the National Smoke Abatement Society. From analysing the resources of these groups and the political processes within which they appear (resource mobilisation theory and political process theory) a better understanding is made about their successes, failures and how they fed into a growing environmental awareness. Television programmes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s – notably natural history programmes such as Look, Zoo Quest, Doctor Who and Doomwatch – also helped an environmental consciousness develop. In marrying together these different issues, this work provides an original contribution to knowledge, and assesses some of the influences which led to the environmental movement emerging in 1970s Britain. 2 CONTENTS Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Author’s Declaration 5 List of Abbreviations 6 - 7 Chapter 1 – Introduction 8 - 44 Chapter 2 – Nature Conservation and Pollution in Britain, c.1945-1959: From the great London smog to the Council for Nature 45 - 112 Chapter 3 – The Council for Nature, ‘SOS Rhino,’ ‘the nun of nature,’ and NERC: the evolution of conservation issues in Britain, 1960-c.1965 113 - 169 Chapter 4 – Cow Green, the ‘Battle of the Holiday Coast’ and the Conservation Society: from conservationism to environmentalism, c.1965- 1969 170 - 231 Chapter 5 – From awareness to activism: the British Environmental Movement, 1970-1975 232 - 307 Chapter 6 – Conclusion 308 - 323 Appendix 324 Bibliography 325 - 349 3 Acknowledgements On every step of this journey through British environmental history, a number of people have been there, providing light in the darkness and offering inspiration and motivation in times of need. My parents have been extremely supportive throughout, offering their time and energy to read through my work. To them, I am eternally grateful, as I am to my siblings – Michael, Helen and Stephanie – who have also supported me in various ways. My dedicated network of friends came to my aid on various occasions, and desire recognition for their part in this completed work. Particularly, Rufia and Ben, who read through a full draft and offered their insight and wisdom, and Lee, Jen, Lesley, Maria, Peter, Ruth, Gavin, Azra, Laura, and all my other mates who supported me on countless occasions. It is very much appreciated. During the three years I have worked on this thesis, I have conversed with many students and academics in person, via email, Skype or Twitter. Whilst I express gratitude for all the assistance you provided, there are too many names to list here. Some mentionable ones include Professors Jane Carruthers, Maurice Whitehead, Christopher Rootes, and John Lewis Gaddis (for his morale-boosting email), and Drs John Clark, Miles Powell, Tina Adcock and Jim Clifford. Each of you has helped in your own way and all your advice and support have been extremely welcomed. Thank you. Library and archive staff are often overworked and underpaid, and yet you provided me with support and guidance on particular sources or collections. It is appreciated. As well as these, the Inter-Library Loans team at Northumbria University deserve some thanks for their patience and understanding with my many ILL requests and queries. LSE Library also allowed me to print the poster in Chapter 2. Thank you for that. Those interviewed for this project also merit some thanks; whilst I have not used all the interviews conducted, I am grateful for everything you all said, often helping in fill in gaps which otherwise would be left unfilled. I should finish by paraphrasing a quote from Pierce Hawthorne, a character from NBC’s Community – without you all ‘I wouldn’t even be here.’ Thank you. 4 Author’s Declaration I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award and that it is all my own work. I also confirm that this work fully acknowledges opinions, ideas and contributions from the work of others. Any ethical clearance for the research presented in this thesis has been approved. Approval has been sought and granted by the University Ethics Committee on 17 January 2012. I declare that the Word Count of this Thesis is 82,331 words Name: Signature: Date: 5 ABBREVIATIONS BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation CND – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CUL – Cambridge University Library DCL – Durham Clayport Library DDT – dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ECY – European Conservation Year FoE – Friends of the Earth ICI – Imperial Chemical Industries ITV – Independent Television IUCN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources LSE Library – London School of Economics and Political Science Library MP – Member of Parliament MRC – Modern Record Centre NC – the Nature Conservancy NERC – Natural Environment Research Council NHS – National Health Service NIMBY – Not In My Backyard NRIC – Nature Reserves Investigation Committee NSAS – National Smoke Abatement Society PPT – Political Process Theory RMT – Resource Mobilisation Theory RSPCA – Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals RTZ – Rio Tinto Zinc SCA – Sheffield City Archives SOC’EM – Save Our City from Environmental Mess SSSOCCC – Stop Spadina, Save Our City Co-ordinating Committee TA – Teesside Archives 6 TDC – Teesdale Defence Committee TEC – Tyneside Environmental Concern THC – The Herbert Centre TNA – the National Archives TWA – Tyne and Wear Archives UN – United Nations WAC – BBC Written Archive Centre WWF – World Wildlife Fund (today it is known as the World Wide Fund for Nature) 7 Chapter 1 – Introduction On 30 September 1969, Prime Minister Harold Wilson took to the stage and delivered a speech to the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. He set out the issues which were to be of concern to British society in the following decade: First, our environment. There is a two-fold task: to remove the scars of 19th century capitalism - the derelict mills, the spoil heaps, the back-to-back houses that still disfigure so large a part of our land. At the same time we have to make sure that the second industrial revolution through which we are now passing does not bequeath a similar legacy to future generations. We must deal with the problems of pollution - of the air, of the sea, of our rivers and beaches. We must also deal with the uniquely 20th century problems of noise and congestion which will increasingly disturb, unless checked, our urban life.1 This was the first time the environment had been mentioned in a conference speech and set the tone of the 1970s, the so-called ‘decade of the environment,’ when environmental concerns moved to the centre of British society.2 This project focuses not so much on that decade but on the years preceding it, assessing the development of an environmental consciousness in post-war Britain.3 By doing so, this work seeks to shed new light on the post-war development of the environmental movement in Britain – a movement which emerged in the 1970s but 1 Harold Wilson, Labour Party Conference Speech, Brighton, 1969 – http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/speech-archive.htm?speech=167 – accessed electronically 18 March 2014. Wilson mentioned the environment for the first time in this speech. See also John McCormick, The Global Environmental Movement: Reclaiming Paradise (London: Belhaven Press, 1989), p. 129. 2 See John Barr, ‘Environment Lobby’, New Society, 384 (5 February 1970), p.