ABSTRACT
AIDS, acid rain and worries about the hole in the ozone layer, together with the New Right’s economic model and globalisation, the changes in East–West politics, and technological developments, were all defining features of the global 1980s. They affected different environments in different ways. This chapter assesses the ways in which both issues developed and considers how they were influenced by some of the wider concerns of the 1980s. In the summer of 1981, the first diagnosis of AIDS was made in the USA, although AIDS was not the term used. Because early cases were found amongst men in gay communities, the disease was initially referred to as Gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID. AIDS was used by some to make a political point in order to confirm their own homophobic prejudices. AIDS was more than just a health matter. It quickly became a deeply political issue and part of the decade’s wider social movements.
