Across the globe, environmental questions feature more and more in todayas social and political agendas. In Western countries environmental campaigns target issues at home and abroad. They have a special urgency, which draws in an astonishing range of field campaigners, from young militants to rebel aristocrats. This book examines the roots of contemporary environmental consciousness and action in terms of both popular experience and tradition. It offers a cutting-edge illustration of how narrative and oral history can illuminate our understanding of an uncertain present. The common linking theme is that environmental consciousness and activism are shaped through peopleas life stories, and that their memories are shaped not only through individual experience but also through myth, tradition, and collective memory.