Ecology seems to have become a total social fact, an organising centre around which the life of society is structured, particularly via supranational organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Since the second half of the 1960s, ecology has made its way into the political arena to the point of becoming ubiquitous. Ideas have been born, developed and, in some cases, taken root, legitimised and even made commonplace. Others seem at first sight to have been created by a few NGOs trying to impose them, like ecocide. ENGOs (for Environmental NGOs) are the natural spearheads of ecology and its approach to the impact of human activities, environmentalism.

From Greenpeace to Sea Shepherd, from WWF to IUCN, several thousand ENGOs are active at various levels, from local communities to international bodies. However, the current state of information technology in general, and social networks in particular, creates a cognitive bias. The trend towards buzz and agitprop, and the media coverage they generate, therefore appear to be the main tools for measuring action and performance. This approach is partial, if not erroneous.

Our study shows that ecology as we know it is the result of work behind the scenes rather than on the stage. For decades, a tidal wave of activity initiated in international circles and by a handful of figures – one of the most prominent of whom is the Canadian Maurice Strong – has helped to bring the concepts of sustainable development, climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, and other more sporadically publicised concepts such as Overshoot Day, to the forefront. Furthermore, if we cannot identify a flagship for ecology, most of the time we find more or less the same players – in addition to Strong – in the development of these ideas: the Club of Rome, the Rockefeller family, the WWF… But if the political, economic and societal aspects have made it possible to bring together opposing parties from the Stockholm Conference to the annual COPs, it is also thanks to the implementation of a philosophical, almost eschatological element: the promotion by these same players of the feeling of belonging to the same planet and the same humanity, and of sharing common concerns and reference points. Far from being confined to the 1970s, this thought – the New Age – took off and brought together the philosophies of many different spiritualities, making a sustained contribution to the spread of ecological ideas right up to the present day.

The Earth Charter and its practical corollary, known at the time as Agenda 21 and now Agenda 2030, are among the most significant examples of this. All in all, the information we have gathered shows that the media coverage of ecological concepts does not depend on the intensity of a media buzz or on the field work carried out by NGOs, but is essentially a creation of leading circles. This natural position of authority then makes it easier for them to trickle down and be relayed through media sounding boards and NGOs that identify with their approach. In other words, Greta Thunberg (on the stage) was made possible by Maurice Strong (behind the scenes).