I'm old enough to remember the development of ecology as an academic discipline which emerged around the same time as the social movement that gave rise to "environmentalism."

This process began around 1969-75, when Americans were made aware of the massive scale of industrial pollution and the EPA was created. I can recall when Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, the latest in a series of burning river incidents.

As with all creations of the left, what began as a worthwhile path to environmental protection was co-opted by large corporate interests and the lunatic fringe in the universities and presto! you get climate alarmists, anti-human propagandists and creatures like Greta Thunburg.