A representative global chronology from conservation and public access to climate justice, direct action and the contested category of eco-terrorism
Scope: Major named environmental organisations and movement networks from 1865 to 28 July 2026, selected for historical influence, geographic range, mobilisation scale, tactical innovation or relevance to The Sunshine Find. The list is representative rather than exhaustive. Earlier Indigenous, customary, religious and anti-colonial forms of environmental defence are acknowledged as essential prehistories but are not forced into a modern organisational chronology where no single founding date, termination date or official website exists. “Termination” refers to an organisation or defined campaign phase, not to the disappearance of its ideas or successor networks.
Abstract
Modern environmental movements developed through overlapping rather than linear traditions: public-access and conservation societies, anti-pollution and anti-nuclear campaigns, environmental-justice and Indigenous networks, agrarian and anti-extraction movements, climate mobilisation, and decentralised direct action. This report presents 35 representative movements established between 1865 and 2022 and follows their activity to 28 July 2026. It does not treat “people activated” as one uniform statistic. Each entry identifies whether a number represents members, supporters, event participants, represented communities, organisational affiliates or an organiser’s cumulative claim. Where no defensible figure exists – especially for decentralised networks such as Earth First!, the Earth Liberation Front and the Tyre Extinguishers – the gap is stated rather than filled by speculation. The chronology shows a widening field: from protecting landscapes and species, through mass public mobilisation and environmental justice, to climate-era disruption and institutional disputes over criminalisation and “eco-terrorism”. Within The Sunshine Find, these shifts provide historical background for the archive’s movement from the organised consumption and protection of landscapes towards direct action, sabotage, the Green Scare and contested narratives of legitimate ecological resistance.
Method and source policy
Scholarly books and peer-reviewed articles provide the historical and interpretive framework and appear in the numbered Academic Reference List. Official movement histories, annual reports, institutional archives and organisational websites are used as primary evidence for founding dates, current status, self-described reach and recent activity. Counts are dated and labelled by type wherever possible. Membership, represented constituency, event turnout, local-group count and arrest count are not treated as interchangeable measures. Organiser claims are attributed as such. Where a movement has no formal membership or central register, the report states that no defensible total is available. Current websites and status were checked to 28 July 2026. External-link new-tab behaviour is enforced on the published website by the project’s link-only WordPress plugin, because Elementor does not reliably preserve target metadata from RTF paste.
Contents
1. How to read participation and termination data
2. Chronological list, 1865-2026
3. Historical and project synthesis
4. Numbered academic reference list
Appendix: User prompts related to this report
1. How to read participation and termination data
The user-requested field “number of people it activated” is retained, but interpreted source-critically. The chronology uses five distinct forms of evidence: (1) current members or supporters; (2) participation in a specific demonstration or campaign; (3) a constituency represented by a federation; (4) the number of affiliated organisations or local groups; and (5) no defensible figure. These categories are identified inside each entry and should not be ranked as though they measured the same phenomenon.
“Present” means that the organisation, network or campaign identity remained active on 28 July 2026. A terminating date is given only when a named organisation or a clearly bounded campaign phase ended, dissolved or reorganised. Successor organisations and continuing legal, cultural or ideological legacies are noted. The absence of a membership total is not evidence of weakness: several influential movements deliberately used informal, federated or anonymous structures.
2. Chronological list, 1865-2026
The entries are ordered by establishment date. Where two movements began in the same year, the order follows the best-documented founding month or the sequence most useful for reading the historical transition.
1. 1865-present – Open Spaces Society (originally Commons Preservation Society)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Open Spaces Society (originally Commons Preservation Society) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom (principally England and Wales) |
c) Establishment-termination | 1865-present |
d) People activated | About 2,000 members, including individuals, organisations and local authorities (current official website figure; not a protest-turnout measure). |
e) Main events organised | Campaigns that helped protect Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Epping Forest from enclosure or development; defence of commons, village greens and public rights of way; institutional contribution to the creation of the National Trust in 1895. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Age of Ecology
References: [1], chaps. 1-2; [3], parts I-II.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Official history and governance | Official membership statement
2. 1889-present – Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom |
c) Establishment-termination | 1889-present |
d) People activated | More than 1.1 million members (RSPB statement dated 2 October 2025). |
e) Main events organised | Campaign against the commercial plumage trade; advocacy preceding the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act 1921; expansion of nature reserves and species-recovery programmes; annual Big Garden Birdwatch as a mass citizen-science event. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Age of Ecology
References: [1], chaps. 1-2; [3], parts I-II.
Primary / institutional evidence links: RSPB membership and history statement
3. 1892-present – Sierra Club
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Sierra Club |
b) Country / geographic base | United States; later international campaigning networks |
c) Establishment-termination | 28 May 1892-present |
d) People activated | Approximately 3.5 million members and supporters in the organisation’s standard public description; membership and supporter categories are combined, so this is not equivalent to active participation. |
e) Main events organised | Early campaigns for Yosemite and against the Hetch Hetchy dam; support for the Wilderness Act 1964; later national campaigns on coal retirement, clean energy, public lands and environmental justice. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | Agency, Democracy, and Nature
References: [1], chaps. 1-4; [10], chaps. 3-5.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Sierra Club history
4. 1895-present – National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) |
c) Establishment-termination | 12 January 1895-present |
d) People activated | More than five million members according to recent annual reporting; this is membership, not a measure of campaign turnout. |
e) Main events organised | Acquisition and protection of landscapes, coastlines, buildings and open spaces; the Enterprise Neptune coastal campaign; contemporary programmes on habitat restoration, access and climate adaptation. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Age of Ecology
References: [1], chaps. 1-2; [3], parts I-II.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Official institutional history | Annual Report 2024-25
5. 1899-present – NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland; founded as Bund für Vogelschutz) |
b) Country / geographic base | Germany |
c) Establishment-termination | 1 February 1899-present |
d) People activated | More than 980,000 members and supporters and about 70,000 active volunteers (current official figures). |
e) Main events organised | Bird-protection campaigns; reserve and habitat management; public mobilisation on biodiversity, agriculture, transport and climate policy; participation in major German conservation-law debates. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Age of Ecology | Environmental Movements
References: [1], chaps. 1-3; [3], parts I-II; [5], 35-58.
Primary / institutional evidence links: NABU profile and scale
6. 1903-present – Fauna & Flora
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Fauna & Flora (founded as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom; global conservation programmes |
c) Establishment-termination | 11 December 1903-present |
d) People activated | No membership total comparable to mass movements. The organisation reported training 5,572 partner staff, community members and students in 2024; this is programme reach rather than membership. |
e) Main events organised | Early species and protected-area advocacy; work contributing to the creation of national parks and conservation institutions; contemporary locally led biodiversity, marine and landscape programmes. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | Environmentalism: A Global History | The Age of Ecology
References: [1], chaps. 1-3; [2], chaps. 1-2; [3], parts I-II.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Celebrating 120 years of innovation, influence & impact | Fauna & Flora Annual Report & Accounts 2024
7. 1935-present – The Wilderness Society
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | The Wilderness Society |
b) Country / geographic base | United States |
c) Establishment-termination | 21 January 1935-present |
d) People activated | More than one million members and supporters in the organisation’s public descriptions; a stable audited active-participant count is not published. |
e) Main events organised | Long campaign for the Wilderness Act 1964; advocacy for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 1980; later public-lands, Indigenous partnership, energy and climate campaigns. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | Agency, Democracy, and Nature
References: [1], chaps. 3-5; [10], chaps. 3-5.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Our History
8. 1958-present – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom |
c) Establishment-termination | 17 February 1958-present |
d) People activated | About 5,000 attended the founding meeting; Aldermaston marches and later national demonstrations mobilised tens of thousands. No single continuous membership series is comparable across the organisation’s history. |
e) Main events organised | The first Aldermaston March in 1958 and subsequent Easter marches; Committee of 100-era civil disobedience; campaigns against Polaris, cruise missiles and Trident; recurring national anti-nuclear demonstrations. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: The Age of Ecology | Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest
References: [3], part III; [6], 57-85.
Primary / institutional evidence links: The History of CND
9. 1961-present – World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF; originally World Wildlife Fund) |
b) Country / geographic base | Founded in Switzerland; global network |
c) Establishment-termination | 29 April 1961-present |
d) People activated | More than five million supporters, with activities in more than 100 countries (organisation’s global public figures). |
e) Main events organised | The 1961 Morges Manifesto and fundraising network; long-running species and protected-area programmes; Living Planet reporting; Earth Hour, initiated by WWF-Australia in 2007 and expanded globally. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Making of Green Knowledge | Protest Inc.
References: [1], chaps. 5-7; [4], chaps. 3-5; [27], chaps. 2-4.
Primary / institutional evidence links: WWF history
10. 1970-present – Earth Day movement
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Earth Day movement |
b) Country / geographic base | United States at origin; now global |
c) Establishment-termination | 22 April 1970-present |
d) People activated | An estimated 20 million people participated in the United States in 1970. EARTHDAY.ORG currently claims engagement of more than one billion people annually; the latter is an organiser estimate, not an independently audited attendance count. |
e) Main events organised | The first nationwide environmental teach-ins and demonstrations on 22 April 1970; global Earth Day campaigns after 1990; education, clean-up, policy and climate-mobilisation events held annually. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: The Genius of Earth Day | Reclaiming Paradise
References: [7], especially chaps. 8-12; [1], chaps. 5-6.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Earth Day history
11. 1971-present – Friends of the Earth International
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) |
b) Country / geographic base | International federation; secretariat in the Netherlands |
c) Establishment-termination | 1971-present (Friends of the Earth US was founded in 1969) |
d) People activated | About two million members and supporters through 73 national member groups and roughly 5,000 local activist groups in the federation’s published organisational descriptions. |
e) Main events organised | Founding federation of groups from France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States; campaigns on nuclear power, forests, trade, food sovereignty, corporate accountability and climate justice; participation in UN climate summits and counter-mobilisations. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Making of Green Knowledge | Environmental Movements
References: [1], chaps. 5-7; [4], chaps. 3-5; [5], 290-310.
Primary / institutional evidence links: FoEI history and federation profile
12. 1971-present – Greenpeace
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Greenpeace |
b) Country / geographic base | Canada at origin; global network headquartered in the Netherlands |
c) Establishment-termination | 1971-present |
d) People activated | The first Amchitka voyage carried 12 activists. Recent organisational reporting describes roughly three million financial supporters globally; annual totals and supporter definitions vary. |
e) Main events organised | 1971 voyage opposing US nuclear testing at Amchitka; anti-whaling and anti-sealing campaigns; Rainbow Warrior voyages; Brent Spar campaign; climate, forest, ocean, plastics and fossil-fuel campaigns. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Reclaiming Paradise | The Making of Green Knowledge | Protest Inc.
References: [1], chaps. 5-7; [4], chaps. 3-5; [27], chaps. 2-4.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Greenpeace history
13. 1973-c. early 1980s – Chipko movement
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Chipko movement |
b) Country / geographic base | India (Garhwal Himalaya, present-day Uttarakhand) |
c) Establishment-termination | 1973-c. early 1980s as the principal campaign cycle; organisational and symbolic legacies continue |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. Participation was village-based across the Garhwal Himalaya; the iconic Reni action of 1974 was led by Gaura Devi with 27 women, while wider campaigns involved many villages. |
e) Main events organised | Mandal forest protest in 1973; Reni forest protection action in 1974; marches, fasts and village-level resistance to commercial logging; contribution to the 1980 central Himalayan green-felling ban. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: The Unquiet Woods | Environmentalism: A Global History
References: [8], especially chaps. 5-8 and epilogue; [2], chaps. 3-4.
Primary / institutional evidence links: FAO historical account
14. 1976-1989 – Clamshell Alliance
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Clamshell Alliance |
b) Country / geographic base | United States (New England) |
c) Establishment-termination | 1976-1989 |
d) People activated | About 2,000 people joined the 1977 Seabrook occupation; 1,414 were arrested. This event figure is more reliable than any lifetime membership estimate. |
e) Main events organised | Nonviolent occupation of the proposed Seabrook nuclear-power-plant site in 1977; mass training in affinity-group organisation and consensus decision-making; regional anti-nuclear demonstrations and legal/political campaigns. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest | Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement
References: [6], 57-85; [28], chaps. 4-6.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Clamshell Alliance historical site
15. 1977-present – Green Belt Movement
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Green Belt Movement |
b) Country / geographic base | Kenya; later international advocacy |
c) Establishment-termination | 1977-present |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. The movement reports mobilising tens of thousands of women and community participants and planting more than 50 million trees; these are cumulative programme claims rather than current membership. |
e) Main events organised | Community tree-planting and women’s livelihood programmes; defence of Uhuru Park and Karura Forest; democracy and human-rights mobilisation under Wangari Maathai; climate adaptation and watershed restoration. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Environmentalism: A Global History | Is There a Global Environmental Justice Movement?
References: [2], chaps. 4-5; [21], 731-755.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Green Belt Movement history
16. 1978-1981 – Love Canal Homeowners Association
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA) |
b) Country / geographic base | United States (Niagara Falls, New York) |
c) Establishment-termination | August 1978-1981 as the local association; its organising legacy continued through the Citizens’ Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste and today’s Center for Health, Environment & Justice |
d) People activated | Approximately 500 families organised through the association; more than 800 families were ultimately relocated from the contaminated area. |
e) Main events organised | Resident health surveys, petitions, rallies and confrontations with state and federal authorities; national media mobilisation; pressure contributing to emergency declarations, relocation and the federal Superfund programme. |
f) Website | Center for Health, Environment & Justice – Love Canal history |
Academic source links: Dumping in Dixie | Agency, Democracy, and Nature
References: [9], chaps. 1-3; [10], chaps. 6-7.
Primary / institutional evidence links: CHEJ institutional history
17. 1980-present – Earth First!
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Earth First! |
b) Country / geographic base | United States at origin; later networks in several countries |
c) Establishment-termination | 1980-present |
d) People activated | No formal membership, central office or auditable global headcount. Particular blockades, road shows and forest actions mobilised from dozens to thousands, but a lifetime aggregate would be speculative. |
e) Main events organised | 1981 Glen Canyon Dam protest; road blockades, tree-sits and forest-defence campaigns; Redwood Summer in 1990; circulation of direct-action tactics and biocentric ideas through the Earth First! Journal and local networks. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse | The Rebirth of Environmentalism | Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism
References: [11], chaps. 1-7; [12], chaps. 2-5; [16], 1-42.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Earth First! Journal
18. 1985-present – Narmada Bachao Andolan
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement) |
b) Country / geographic base | India (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat) |
c) Establishment-termination | 1985-present |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. The movement organised across hundreds of villages and represented many tens of thousands of people facing displacement or livelihood loss from the Narmada dam complex. |
e) Main events organised | Harsud rally in 1989; Sangharsh Yatra in 1990-91; hunger strikes, legal challenges and village mobilisation; campaign contributing to the World Bank’s withdrawal from the Sardar Sarovar project in 1993. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: In the Belly of the River | Dams and Development
References: [13], chaps. 4-8; [14], chaps. 5-8.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Movement archive
19. 1990-present – Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) |
b) Country / geographic base | Nigeria (Ogoni region, Niger Delta) |
c) Establishment-termination | 1990-present |
d) People activated | The movement claimed to represent the Ogoni population, commonly estimated at about 500,000 in the early 1990s. Approximately 300,000 people participated in Ogoni Day on 4 January 1993, one of the largest documented mobilisations in the region. |
e) Main events organised | Ogoni Bill of Rights in 1990; Ogoni Day mass mobilisation in 1993; campaigns against oil pollution and for political autonomy; international advocacy after the 1995 execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Political Process Theory and Transnational Movements | Is There a Global Environmental Justice Movement?
References: [15], 395-415; [21], 731-755.
Primary / institutional evidence links: MOSOP official website | Ogoni Bill of Rights
20. 1990-present – Indigenous Environmental Network
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) |
b) Country / geographic base | United States and Canada; international Indigenous alliances |
c) Establishment-termination | 1990-present |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. Nearly 500 Indigenous participants attended the first Protecting Mother Earth gathering in 1991; the network connects tribes, grassroots groups and Indigenous organisers rather than individual dues-paying members. |
e) Main events organised | Protecting Mother Earth gatherings; campaigns against toxic waste, fossil-fuel extraction and carbon trading; participation in Standing Rock and other pipeline resistance; Indigenous Just Transition and climate-justice advocacy. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: From Environmental to Climate Justice | Mapping the Frontiers and Front Lines of Global Environmental Justice
References: [25], 359-374; [26], 255-278.
Primary / institutional evidence links: IEN history and mission
21. 1991-present – Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens / Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) |
b) Country / geographic base | Brazil |
c) Establishment-termination | March 1991-present as a national movement; earlier regional struggles date from the late 1970s |
d) People activated | No stable audited national membership total is published. MAB organises thousands of dam-affected families through regional collectives; representation claims should not be confused with active membership. |
e) Main events organised | First National Congress in 1991; annual 14 March International Day of Action Against Dams; occupations, marches and negotiations over resettlement, electricity, water and reparations; organising after the Mariana and Brumadinho tailings-dam disasters. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Dams and Development | Is There a Global Environmental Justice Movement?
References: [14], chaps. 3-8; [21], 731-755.
Primary / institutional evidence links: MAB history
22. 1992-present as a decentralised label – Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Earth Liberation Front (ELF) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom at origin; later cells and communiqués principally associated with the United States and other countries |
c) Establishment-termination | 1992-present as an ideological label and claimed network; the best-documented US “Family” cell operated mainly 1996-2001 |
d) People activated | No membership structure or defensible global total. The decentralised model allowed anonymous claims by independent cells. US federal investigators described the “Family” cell as roughly 20 participants; this cannot be extrapolated to the wider label. |
e) Main events organised | Property-damage and arson claims including the 1998 Vail ski-resort fire and 2001 actions against forestry and university facilities; later Operation Backfire investigation and prosecutions. No operational instructions are reproduced here. The FBI’s “domestic terrorism” classification is an institutional/legal framing, not a neutral scholarly consensus. |
f) Website | FBI Operation Backfire archive (institutional evidence; no central ELF website) |
Academic source links: Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism | The Earth Liberation Front and Environmental Terrorism
References: [16], 1-42; [17], 37-58.
Primary / institutional evidence links: FBI Operation Backfire archive
23. 1993-present – La Via Campesina
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | La Via Campesina |
b) Country / geographic base | International peasant, farmworker and Indigenous federation |
c) Establishment-termination | 1993-present |
d) People activated | More than 200 million people represented through more than 180 organisations in 81 countries (movement’s current public figures). This is represented constituency, not event attendance. |
e) Main events organised | Articulation of food sovereignty from 1996; mobilisation against WTO agricultural liberalisation and land grabbing; global days of peasant struggle; advocacy leading to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas in 2018. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization | Is There a Global Environmental Justice Movement?
References: [18], introduction and chaps. 1-4; [21], 731-755.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Movement history and scale
24. 2000-present – Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) |
b) Country / geographic base | International network; founded through a meeting in South Africa |
c) Establishment-termination | December 2000-present |
d) People activated | Founded by 83 participants from 23 countries; now reports more than 1,000 member organisations in over 100 countries. These are organisational, not individual, counts. |
e) Main events organised | International anti-incineration and zero-waste campaigns; Global Day of Action; support for waste-picker and community organisations; campaigns on plastics, methane and environmental justice in climate policy. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Is There a Global Environmental Justice Movement? | Mapping the Frontiers and Front Lines of Global Environmental Justice
References: [21], 731-755; [26], 255-278.
Primary / institutional evidence links: GAIA: Our History
25. 2006-present – Transition Movement
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Transition Movement / Transition Towns |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom and Ireland at origin; international network |
c) Establishment-termination | 2006-present |
d) People activated | No global individual headcount. Transition Network reports initiatives or hubs in 67 countries; local activity ranges from informal groups to registered organisations. |
e) Main events organised | Transition Town Totnes and early energy-descent planning; local food, repair, renewable-energy, currency and resilience projects; international gatherings and municipal partnerships. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Growing Grassroots Innovations | Environmental Networks and Social Movement Theory
References: [19], 381-400; [29], chaps. 5-8.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Transition Network: About the Movement
26. 2008-present – 350.org
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | 350.org |
b) Country / geographic base | United States at origin; global network |
c) Establishment-termination | 2008-present |
d) People activated | No membership total comparable across countries. Its 24 October 2009 International Day of Climate Action registered about 5,200 events in 181 countries, providing a documented event-based measure of reach. |
e) Main events organised | 2009 International Day of Climate Action; Keystone XL mobilisation; fossil-fuel-divestment campaigns; People’s Climate March organising; regional campaigns for renewable energy and climate finance. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Networks in Contention | Climate Activism and Its Effects
References: [20], chaps. 3-6; [23], e683.
Primary / institutional evidence links: 350.org history
27. 2011-present – Pacific Climate Warriors / 350 Pacific
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Pacific Climate Warriors / 350 Pacific |
b) Country / geographic base | Pacific Island countries and diaspora communities |
c) Establishment-termination | 2011-present |
d) People activated | No audited individual total. The network operates across 18 Pacific Island nations and associated diaspora communities; this geographic reach is more defensible than a membership estimate. |
e) Main events organised | Canoe-led blockade of the Newcastle coal port in Australia in 2014; “We are not drowning, we are fighting” campaign; delegations and performances at UN climate conferences; campaigns for fossil-fuel phase-out and Pacific-led climate justice. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Networks in Contention | From Environmental to Climate Justice
References: [20], chaps. 4-7; [25], 359-374.
Primary / institutional evidence links: 350 Pacific: About
28. 2015-present – Ende Gelände
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Ende Gelände |
b) Country / geographic base | Germany; later European participation |
c) Establishment-termination | 2015-present |
d) People activated | About 1,500 people joined the first named mass action in 2015; approximately 6,000 participated in the 2019 Rhineland action. The alliance has no conventional membership register. |
e) Main events organised | Mass civil-disobedience actions at lignite mines and associated rail or energy infrastructure in the Rhineland, Lusatia and other coal regions; climate-camp organising; European anti-extraction alliances. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Ende Gelände self-description and action archive
29. 2016-2017 encampment phase; continuing legal and political movement – Standing Rock / #NoDAPL water protectors
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Standing Rock / #NoDAPL water protectors |
b) Country / geographic base | United States (Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and allied Indigenous nations) |
c) Establishment-termination | April 2016-February 2017 for the principal encampment phase; legal, cultural and political campaigns continue |
d) People activated | More than 300 Indigenous nations were represented. The camps held several thousand people at peak periods; published totals vary because population changed daily and no central registration existed. |
e) Main events organised | Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin and allied camps; prayer marches and nonviolent direct action against the Dakota Access Pipeline; mass veteran and interfaith delegations; continuing litigation, divestment and water-protection campaigns. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: From Environmental to Climate Justice | Mapping the Frontiers and Front Lines of Global Environmental Justice
References: [25], 359-374; [26], 255-278.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe | Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access Pipeline
30. 2017-present – Sunrise Movement
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Sunrise Movement |
b) Country / geographic base | United States |
c) Establishment-termination | 2017-present |
d) People activated | The movement describes thousands of members and hundreds of local hubs; it does not publish an audited dues-paying membership count comparable across years. |
e) Main events organised | November 2018 sit-in at Nancy Pelosi’s office; mobilisation for a Green New Deal; youth-led electoral organising in 2018 and 2020; later campaigns on jobs, public investment, housing and fossil-fuel influence. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Sunrise Movement: Our Story
31. 2018-present – Extinction Rebellion
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Extinction Rebellion (XR) |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom at origin; global network |
c) Establishment-termination | 2018-present |
d) People activated | XR reports 1,080 national, regional and local groups. Its April 2019 London mobilisation involved about 10,000 protesters; 1,148 arrest events involving 1,076 people were recorded during that rebellion. |
e) Main events organised | Declaration of Rebellion in 2018; April and October 2019 London rebellions; road, bridge and institutional occupations; citizens’ assembly campaigns; The Big One mobilisation in 2023 and continuing national actions. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Extinction Rebellion and Climate Change Activism | Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [22], chaps. 1-7; [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: XR UK history and scale
32. 2018-present – Fridays for Future
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Fridays for Future (School Strike for Climate) |
b) Country / geographic base | Sweden at origin; global network |
c) Establishment-termination | 20 August 2018-present |
d) People activated | The movement’s event database reports more than 14 million participants across approximately 7,500 cities. This is a cumulative organiser count and may include repeat participants. |
e) Main events organised | Greta Thunberg’s first school strike outside the Swedish parliament; global climate strikes in March, May and September 2019; recurring demonstrations around UN climate summits, elections and fossil-fuel expansion. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Fridays for Future strike statistics
33. 2021-January 2025 – Letzte Generation (Germany)
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Letzte Generation (Last Generation, Germany) |
b) Country / geographic base | Germany |
c) Establishment-termination | August 2021-January 2025 under this name and structure; successor projects include Neue Generation and Widerstandskollektiv |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. Publicly visible actions involved hundreds of organisers and action-takers and a wider supporter network, but published figures use inconsistent categories and cannot support a precise lifetime total. |
e) Main events organised | 2021 “Hunger Strike of the Last Generation”; road blockades, airport and energy-infrastructure protests, and interventions at museums and monuments; strategic shift announced in late 2024 and organisational dissolution/reconfiguration in January 2025. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Archived movement website | UN Special Rapporteur communication on criminal proceedings
34. 2022-26 April 2025 – Just Stop Oil street-action campaign
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Just Stop Oil |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom |
c) Establishment-termination | February 2022-26 April 2025 for the street-action campaign; legal and prisoner support continues |
d) People activated | No audited membership total. In its retrospective account the organisation reported more than 3,300 arrest events and about 180 imprisonments over three years; these are legal-impact figures, not unique-participant totals. |
e) Main events organised | Oil-terminal blockades in 2022; M25 and central-London disruptions; interventions at sporting, cultural and heritage sites; final announced street action in Parliament Square on 26 April 2025. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Extinction Rebellion and Climate Change Activism | Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block
References: [22], conclusion; [23], e683; [24], 619-625.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Announcement ending the street campaign
35. March 2022-present – Tyre Extinguishers
Field | Documented information |
a) Name of movement | Tyre Extinguishers |
b) Country / geographic base | United Kingdom at origin; autonomous actions reported internationally |
c) Establishment-termination | March 2022-present |
d) People activated | No central membership. By November 2022 the network said it knew of about 100 autonomous groups and claimed actions affecting more than 10,000 SUVs. These are self-reported decentralised action counts, not verified membership figures. |
e) Main events organised | Coordinated nights of nonviolent property interference directed at SUVs in multiple countries; public statements connecting vehicle size, urban safety and emissions. For safety and source-critical reasons, this report records the campaign historically and does not reproduce tactical instructions. |
f) Website |
Academic source links: Climate Activism and Its Effects | New Kids on the Block | From Environmental to Climate Justice
References: [23], e683; [24], 619-625; [25], 359-374.
Primary / institutional evidence links: Movement website
3. Historical and project synthesis
The chronology does not support a single origin story. Nineteenth-century conservation organisations often combined public access, landscape preservation, species protection and elite philanthropy. Their institutional durability helped establish legal categories, reserves, trusts and national lobbying organisations, but their histories also intersected with imperial science, property regimes and unequal decisions about whose uses of land counted as legitimate.
From the late 1950s through the 1970s, anti-nuclear mobilisation, Earth Day, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace expanded environmentalism into mass media, street protest, transnational campaigning and professional advocacy. At the same time, Chipko, the Green Belt Movement, Love Canal and later environmental-justice networks challenged narrow conservation by linking ecological harm to labour, race, gender, livelihood, colonialism and democratic participation. Movements against dams, oil extraction, waste infrastructure and agrarian dispossession made affected communities political subjects rather than passive recipients of conservation policy.
The climate era intensified this convergence. 350.org, Pacific Climate Warriors, Ende Gelände, Standing Rock, Sunrise, Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future organised across digital networks, spectacular public actions and local chapters. Their scales range from federations representing hundreds of millions to anonymous or affinity-based formations with no membership register. This is why the report treats mobilisation data as heterogeneous evidence rather than a league table.
For The Sunshine Find, the chronology provides the historical bridge between landscapes organised for preservation or controlled viewing and landscapes contested as sites of extraction, pollution and climate breakdown. It connects the archive’s early objects on panoramic tourism, national scenery and glacier commodities to its later materials on Earth First!, the ELF, sabotage, SUV protest, the Green Scare and the category of “eco-terrorism”. The transition is not presented as inevitable. Mainstream conservation, environmental justice, civil disobedience and clandestine property damage coexist, overlap and conflict. The project’s parafictional layer can stage those tensions, while the research archive must keep organisational facts, self-descriptions, scholarly interpretation and state classifications visibly distinct.
4. Numbered academic reference list
Chicago bibliography style. This numbered list contains only verified scholarly books and peer-reviewed journal articles. Official movement websites and institutional records are cited locally as primary evidence and are not counted as academic sources.
2. Guha, Ramachandra. Environmentalism: A Global History. New York: Longman, 2000.
28. Doherty, Brian. Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement. London: Routledge, 2002.
Appendix: User prompts related to this report
Prompts are reproduced chronologically as a research-process record. Wording and spelling are preserved, with line breaks retained for clarity.
1.
1. Make a research on environmental movements since the beginnings.
2. create a numbered chronological list:
a) Name of the movement
b) date of establisment-date of terminating activity
c) number of people it activated
d) main events organized
e) link to their website
2. create an rtf file accorsing to the standards and criteria
2. after a) add: country