Events

Thursday 23rd October, 7pm
(British Library (Pigott Theatre))

A unique event with leading environmentalists Areeba Hamid (Co-director of Greenpeace UK); Asad Rehman (CEO of Friends of the Earth) and Harriet Lamb (Chief Executive of the Green Party) and Tony Juniper (Chair of Natural England). Introduced by Craig Bennett (CEO of the Wildlife Trusts).

They discuss what makes an effective campaign? What have been the major successes and failures across the last 50 years? What makes people stand up and what impact does it have on their lives? Does ‘think global, act local!’ really work? What lessons are there for environmentalists of the future? The evening includes presentations, sound clips and in-depth discussion.

This event launches the groundbreaking ‘Voices for Change’ an Oral History of the Environmental Movement that has captured 100 life story interviews with UK environmentalists active over the last fifty years – all to be available at the British Library. A remarkable conversation with leading environmentalists: people who have been the mainstay of the movement, advocating and making change locally or nationally, often unrecognised or derided, sometimes even criminalised. From the National Trust to Extinction Rebellion, from the Conservation Society to Greenpeace, this is a movement that has created lasting change across the UK.

The project is funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council and run by Royal Holloway University of London in partnership with National Life Stories at the British Library, the Royal Geographical Society, Friends of the Earth, and the Wildlife Trusts.

Part of Green Libraries Week 2025.

To book a ticket please visit the British Library event booking page.

Accessing the archive

By the end of January 2026 the full collection will be searchable on the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue and the interviews without access restrictions will be accessible onsite at the British Library in St Pancras by appointment. The British Library continues its work to restore its services following the 2023 cyber-attack, so in due course the open interviews will also be made available for online access.  For up-to-date information visit https://bl.libguides.com/reference-services/sound-and-vision.

Thursday 5th June 2025 - 14.00-18.00

Graham Hills Building, University of Strathclyde, 40-50 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1QE

We have invited ten people from different parts of the environmental movement in Scotland to join us for a recorded panel discussion covering the following questions: 

• What are the key moments and turning points in the development of environmental activism in Scotland?
• What has been the impact of devolution on the environmental movement, and environmental policy, projects and campaigning in Scotland?    
• Are there lessons from the past experience of environmental action for present and future generations?

The event was held at the University of Strathclyde, Graham Hills Building, George Street, Glasgow from 14.00 to 18.00, and will be followed by a reception and an opportunity to network informally. 

3pm – 6pm Thursday, March 20h 2025 

Welsh School of Architecture, Bute Building, Cardiff University 

To celebrate 10 years of the Future Generations Act the Oral History of the Environmental Movement project invited ten people from different parts of the environmental movement in Wales to join us for a recorded discussion about how the environmental movement developed in Wales.  
The seminar covered the following questions: 

• How has the unique context in Wales shaped and influenced the environmental movement?
• What have been the key moments in the development of environmental work in Wales?
• What was the impact of devolution on the environmental movement?
• What impact has the Future Generations Act had over the last ten years? 

The event was kindly hosted by the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. The event was recorded and the transcript will be made available to the public via the project blog soon.

Our participants were:

Haf Elgar, Friends of the Earth Cymru
Rachel Sharp, Wildlife Trusts Wales 
Karen Whitfield  Wales Environment Link (WEL)
Margaret Minhinnick,  Sustainable Wales 
Rory Francis, Snowdonia Society   
Gary Mitchell, Social Farms and Gardens Cymru   
Alyson Austin, anti-coal mining campaigner
Jane Powell  Organic Research Centre
Andy Rowlands, Eco Dyfi 
Anne Meikle, WWF Cymru 

A series of five free seminars on the environmental movement were hosted by the London Group of Historical Geographers, both online and at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.

21 January 2025 Julian Agyeman (Tufts University)

Just sustainabilities in policy, planning and practice: reflections on transatlantic environmentalisms.

4 February 2025 Toby Butler (Royal Holloway, University of London) with Mary Stewart (National Life Stories, British Library)

National Life Stories of the environmental movement in the UK, 1970–2020.

18 February 2025 Jenny Pickerill (University of Sheffield)

Mud, dancing, and resistance: the joy and mess of radical environmentalism and non-violent direct action in 1990s Britain.

(Jenny’s talk is available as a podcast on the LGHG podcast page)

4 March 2025 David Matless (University of Nottingham)

England’s green: nature and culture since the 1960s.

18 March 2025 Paul Merchant (National Life Stories, British Library)

Environmental interest and indifference in life story oral histories.

Convenors: Felix Driver (Royal Holloway), Margot Finn (UCL), Innes M. Keighren (Royal Holloway), and Miles Ogborn (Queen Mary). For supporting this seminar series, we are also grateful to King’s College London; The Open University; Queen Mary University of London; Royal Holloway, University of London; UCL; and University of Sussex.

28^th February, 2025, Birkbeck, University of London

A recorded discussion on the topic of how the movement has influenced policy and legislation was held, covering policy work from 1970-2020, how such work developed under Conservative and Labour-led administrations; how work has been aided by protest and project work and what could be learned from the history of the movement in in this period.

Our witness seminar participants were:

Tom Burke, Founder of E3G, Government advisor, Former Director of Friends of the Earth
Nigel Doar, Director of Policy and research, Wildlife Trusts
Nigel Haigh, Founder of IEEP, EEB, Green Alliance
Areeba Hamid, Joint CEO, Greenpeace UK
Fiona Harvey, Environment Editor, The Guardian
Vicki Hird, Agriculture Lead, the Wildlife Trusts, formerly Sustain
Stephen Joseph, Former CEO CBT / T2000
Harriet Lamb, CEO WRAP, formerly CEO Ashden
Jonathon Porritt, Founder Forum for the Future, former Director Friends of the Earth
Shaun Spiers, CEO, Green Alliance
Joanna Watson, Comms Manager, Policy & Insight, Friends of the Earth

This event was filmed recorded and highlights will be published soon on via the project blog page.

13th May 2024 the Camley Street Natural Park, London

This recorded discussion focused on project work in the environmental movement. We brought together people who worked and are working on community energy, green spaces and wildlife, sustainable transport, and waste and recycling. Some worked for voluntary organisations and others for social enterprises. Our chosen venue was the Camley Street Natural Park, beside the canal just north of Kings Cross, developed in the 1980s as a first ‘flagship’ project of the emerging London Wildlife Trust (LWT) who generously hosted this event.

Issues discussed included how people got involved in the movement, scaling projects and overcoming difficulties, the impact of different sectors of the movement on green infrastructure, ethnic diversity in the sector and lessons learned.

An edited transcript and a reflective account has been posted on the Project Blog.

Our participants were:

Syed Ahmed, Chair, Community Energy, London
Lydia Blake, Land Manager, Sustrans
Mathew Frith, Director of Policy and Research, London Wildlife Trust
Des Garrahan, Former Chair of Board of Trustees Ramblers Association, & Freelance Writer
Nick Gardner, Head of Climate Action at The National Lottery Community Fund
Roger Geffen, Traffic Reduction campaigner, Transport Action Network
Jeremy Iles, Coordinator, Urban Agriculture Consortium
Brian Kelly, Director, Organic Lea
Duncan Law, Head of Policy & Advocacy, Community Energy England
Jane Stephenson, Director and former CEO of Resource Futures
Nicky Scott, Coordinator, Devon Composting Network
Malcolm Williams, Founding Director - Zero Waste International Trust and ex-CEO Cylch - Wales Community Recycling Network

29^th January 2025, Royal Holloway, Stuart House Bloomsbury

Over the last 50 years, visual art, music and sound have played various tactical roles within the broader suite of activist strategies. This recorded discussion with seven activist artists, musicians, producers and singers explored the tactical role of artivism, its methods and tactics for motivating and inspiring ideas and action.

Our participants were:

Martin Goldschmidt, Music producer and founder of Cooking Vinyl Records
Victor Smith, XR Rhythm drummer 
Bergit Arends, Art Curator at the Courtauld  
Fay Milton, Drummer and Co-Founder of Music Declares Emergency   
Bob Wilson, Special Events Manager for Greenpeace 
Maeve Bayton, Musician, author of Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music 
Jo Flanagan: founder the Climate Choir Movement

An edited transcript of this session will be made available soon on our Project Blog; Oli Mould and Chris Church have posted reflective blog on the music industry and environmental movement.

26^th January 2024 (online)

To help inform our research in Northern Ireland we convened an online workshop with the help of Miriam Turley (Research and Policy Officer) and Patricia Wallace (NI Manager) from Social Farms and Gardens and James Orr (CEO, Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland). 

After discussion throughout 2023, we held an online workshop and invited a range of people who had been involved in the environmental movement in Northern Ireland to share their experiences.  This workshop took place on 26^th January 2024 with 20 or so participants. The discussion was focused on key turning points and campaigns in Northern Ireland and how the movement developed in relation to the unique social and political context of the Troubles and the Good Friday agreement. We were grateful to Linen Hall library in Belfast for attending and offering to be a contact for potential archive donations or oral history project proposals from the movement in Northern Ireland.

An edited transcript and reflective account has been posted on the Project Blog.