With sustainability topics flooding the news cycle, and at a time when people are more conscious of their ecological footprint than ever before, you鈥檇 think there would be ample documentation of the environmental movement鈥檚 local history.
That鈥檚 not necessarily the case.
鈥淰ery little has been written about Nova Scotian environmentalism,鈥� says Mark Leeming, a Dal history PhD student who is amending that oversight with his doctoral research, which he defended earlier this month. In particular, he鈥檚 interested in adding a historian鈥檚 perspective. 鈥淚 have always had the tendency to observe, rather than join,鈥� he says.
A 鈥渦seful鈥� history
Born in Pictou County, Leeming feels that the environmental movement more broadly could learn a lot from his home province. As Nova Scotia is a relatively poor area of a relatively wealthy country and is rife with environmental activism, its history is a showcase of variety that Leeming hopes will be 鈥渦seful to others."
Going by our history, Leeming certainly is not wrong. His survey of Nova Scotia鈥檚 environmental history focuses on the era between 1970 and 1985, as it鈥檚 during those years, he says, that Nova Scotia saw citizens鈥� environmental concerns take shape into organizations and some semblance of a movement. Over the course of 1970s, activists repeatedly prevented aerial insecticide spraying in Cape Breton. In the same decade, citizens from all three Maritime provinces banded together to try and prevent the introduction of nuclear power into Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Then there鈥檚 the Ecology Action Centre (EAC), which started at AV俱乐部 in 1970/71 academic year out of a course called "Living Ecology" 鈥� an explicit example of the work that was done in the early days of the movement that has still has huge effect today. (The EAC, pictured left, stayed on campus until 1986)
The old saying, 鈥渉istory repeats itself,鈥� is certainly relevant in Leeming鈥檚 work. 鈥淭oday, wind energy provokes the exact same kind of bitter debate as nuclear energy did,鈥� he says
One schism Leeming highlights in the Nova Scotia environmental movement that between modernists and non-modernists. 鈥淣on-modernists are those willing to question those basic assumptions like capitalism, economic growth... the basic underpinnings of our society,鈥� he explains. A modernist, in contrast, supports finding ways to maintain these systems.
He doesn鈥檛 see these divisions as inherently negative. In fact, it鈥檚 thanks to these divisions that Nova Scotia has seen a lot of positive advancements in the field. His work suggests that mainstream environmentalists鈥� arguments have been more successful when more radical activists have been there to shake up governments with their demands. He points to the debate over uranium mining as one area where this sort of dynamic took place.
Addressing big questions
Leeming, whose project is supervised by Associate Professor Claire Campbell, says he considers himself more on the non-modernist side of the equation, but his goal was to document the broader dynamics as a historian, rather than coming down on any particular side of the debate.
When asked how his work is specifically relevant to the campus and the lives of students, Leeming highlights the fact that the EAC鈥檚 Dal origins. 鈥淯niversities have been so central to the creation of the movement,鈥� he says.
Leeming also encourages students to ask themselves what we are sustaining when we talk about sustainability. 鈥淒o we sustain a way of life that allows us to drive cars and have cell phones or another that would allow our species to live maybe 10 times longer? It鈥檚 not a new debate, but it is what I hope students would take away if they read [my work].鈥�