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14 JUDIT FARKAS two highly influential and emblematic photos have, in the view of Hubbell and Ryan, also contributed to the emergence of EH: Earthrise, taken of the Earth from space by the Apollo 8 Mission (1968) and Blue Marble taken by Apollo 17 (1972). These photos are said by many to have changed humankind’s attitude to the Earth, making it clear that our planet is not only beautiful but also fragile. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise#/media/File:AS8-13-2329.jpg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble#/media/File: The_Earth_seen_from_ Apollo_17.jpg. Among the natural sciences, it was ecology, specifically the study of traditional ecological knowledge, as well as landscape research, that occasioned the turn towards EH. (This is the topic of the chapters The Conservation of Nature and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and The Significance of the Landscape in Humanities Research and Local History). The emergence of EH is tightly linked to the first great wave of environmental anxiety in the 1960s, triggered by a few grave environmental disasters (the first oil tanker accidents) and the freshly published scientific findings about the degradation of the environment. That was when the first widely influential works expressing concern over the state of the environment appeared (e.g., Carson’s above-mentioned book), and when the environmentalist movement gathered momentum (see Guha 2000, Glied 2016).” EH’s interaction with the ecological movements served as a starting point for environmental activism and the scholarly approach exercising influence on each other even today.’ Environment historians, including Ramachandra Guha, point out that anxieties about the environment emerged far earlier. The Industrial Revolution marked a turning point when several scholars, poets, artists, and thinkers began to express concern about the exploitation and ruination of nature. But they were relatively few, a thin layer of intellectuals, and their means (essays, studies, art works, exodus) reached only few people. This is what Guha calls the first wave of the environmental movement. The second wave, in the 1970s, reached far larger numbers and broader social strata. Its tools were also new, ranging from grass-roots environmental protests to radical movements and lobbying, as can be seen today as well. (Guha 2000) “Reflecting its historical roots, EH is a dynamic cross-disciplinary field that combines academic scholarship with environmental activism.” (Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 10).
