ABSTRACT
OK, here is the history lesson. It will be short, occupying only a single chapter in this book, and undoubtedly incomplete. While I think history is a very interesting subject and relevant to the environmental issues of today, I am certainly not a historian. Rather than being a comprehensive historical review, it is included here to help us see how much things have changed over the past few decades. I have deliberately focused on a few historical events that I consider to be instructive in making sense of our modern environmentalism. I hope it serves as a good reference point for where we are and where we are going, or where we should be going. The past is important, for it informs us of our beginnings, which are always linked to our future.
