Conclusion: Setting the Stage for Revolution

By the late 1960s, France had undergone profound environmental transformation. Industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization had brought prosperity but also pollution, habitat loss, and social dislocation. Traditional relationships with nature had been disrupted, while new environmental problems emerged faster than institutions could address them.

The foundations for environmental activism were in place: scientific knowledge of ecological damage, philosophical frameworks for reconsidering human-nature relationships, and growing public awareness of pollution's health impacts. Local conflicts over development projects demonstrated rising environmental consciousness. The conservation movement, despite its elite origins and colonial entanglements, had established organizational models for environmental advocacy.

What remained missing was a catalyst to transform scattered concerns into a coherent movement. That catalyst would come in May 1968, when broader critiques of industrial society crystallized into France's environmental awakening. The seeds planted during the long historical development we have traced would suddenly burst into flower, forever changing how France understood and addressed its relationship with the natural world.

The story we have told in this chapter—of forests managed and mismanaged, of industries that brought both prosperity and poison, of conservation efforts both inspiring and problematic—established patterns that continue to shape French environmentalism. Understanding this history is essential for grappling with contemporary challenges, for the past lives on in polluted soils, fragmented habitats, and institutional structures. But history also provides resources for transformation: knowledge of what has been tried, awareness of past mistakes, and inspiration from those who fought to protect the natural world against overwhelming odds.

As we turn to the revolutionary moment of 1968 and its aftermath, we carry with us the complex legacy of these historical foundations. The environmental movement that emerged would have to reckon with this inheritance while charting new paths toward a more sustainable and just relationship with nature.# The Environmental Awakening (1968-1980s)