Environmental Movement: Science 

Introduction

The campaign to save Lake Annecy was a tremendously successful environmental campaign,

long before the modern environmental movement came to prominence.

So where does it fit in the history of the environmental movement?

Dr Servettaz inspired a campaign to save Lake Annecy which was successful because it attracted the wholehearted support of many talented local citizens and elected officials, and eventually of the public at large.

Dr Servettaz was not a powerful politician, nor wealthy, nor part of an established elite. He was a person no larger than ordinary life - the same as the citizens to whom he turned for support.  But he won people round by using patient, scientific argument,  appealing to their understanding of their natural environment.  And their support was wholehearted because he made them appreciate afresh the wonderful beauty of the lake and their responsibility for its protection. In doing so he was an ambassador for the modern environmental movement - a movement which had evolved during the previous 400 years, and which had transformed Man's relationship to Nature.

The first lines of Dr Servettaz's 'L'eau, la vie d'un lac alpine' introduce this concept of Man's changing relationship to Nature: "It is a subject worth pursuing: Mankind has been compelled (for so long, and even to this day) to struggle against Nature, and to battle, in particular, the extremes of capricious weather and the brutality of  hostile environments. However, we now see that  "advanced societies" have actually become in their turn so aggressive, that the very foundations of the environment: water, air, the soil, have become gravely damaged, to the point at which they are becoming rapidly degraded by the  damaging consequences of a rapidly expanding civilisation."    The next two sections pursue this subject as Dr Servettaz suggests, and give a describe the changing relationship to Nature to which he refers. Part 1 is about the changing scientific understanding of Nature and Part 2  the story of the changing appreciation of its beauty.

Science and the Arts have each had their role to play in this history, which was often a battle for hearts and minds. For without caring people will not do anything, and without understanding they won’t do the right thing. Unlike many religions which contest the same battleground  - the environmental movement is concerned with doing the right thing not primarily as individuals to save our souls, but as a species to save our planet. Part 1 tells the story of a handful of remarkable scientists who saw laws of motion in Nature that no-one had seen, who researched and reworked their insights meticulously, and whose resulting work forever changed the way future generations understood  the natural world. Part 2 tells the story of a handful of remarkable individuals, explorers, poets, philosophers, painters, musicians and writers, who saw a beauty in Nature that no-one had seen, who worked meticulously to express their sense of Nature’s beauty in art, poetry and prose, and whose resulting work changed forever the way future generations appreciate the natural world.

All the remarkable individuals in this history are rightfully famous throughout the world, and the largest part of this history, and the entirety of what is well written, has been copied verbatim from the works of better writers, amply and gratefully acknowledged in the annotated bibliography. That is to say, in compiling this history  sound environmental principles have been applied – the majority of the material is re-cycled. With one exception. 

The purpose of this history is to explain the contribution made to the modern environmental movement by one Dr Paul-Louis Servettaz, who is not generally so well known.

That is to say he is remembered dimly by some older residents of Annecy, there are some cuttings from the local press in July 2003 with a glowing obituary “ Un homme lumineux dans les étoiles” and some fond memories from a few of his colleagues, and the footpath around the bay at Annecy is named after him.

And there is the account he wrote “L’eau, la vie d’un lac Alpin”, from which all the quotations in the headings to the following chapters are taken, last published more than twenty years ago in a small edition, in French, and now out of print. A second hand copy of this book however is easy enough to get hold from online bookstores, because although supply is negligible,  demand is less.
 

Dr Servettez was a remarkable individual who made a significant contribution to his community’s scientific understanding of Nature, by seeing laws of motion in lake Annecy that no-one had seen, researching and reworking his insights meticulously, and as a result forever changed the way future generations understand the lake. At the same time he also saw a beauty in Lake Annecy that others often overlooked, campaigning for decades with great passion and persuasion to protect this unique environment, and as a result safeguarded the beauty of the Lake for future generations to enjoy.

Continue Reading  Chapter One