John Ruskin

Paper Summary:

The paper begins by tracing Ruskin's early life in relation to the rapid development of capitalism and the problems of urbanization and pollution, in particular, the issue of smog. The paper then reviews two speeches given by Ruskin in 1884 at the London Institution on the problem of smog, and also looks at some of the reviews of the speeches, debating whether Ruskin was indeed referring to an environmental matter, or whether the "storm cloud" was meant as a symbol of God's wrathful and unpredictable power, a retribution for a dissolute and unstable world - as he articulated at the end of both speeches. The paper concludes by tracing the origins of PULSA, a group of interdisciplinary artists and professionals involved in environmental research and the impact of pollution and by summing up Ruskin's social comments on environmental issues.

From the Paper:

"By the time of John Ruskin's death in 1900, he had left a vast legacy of literary output vis a vis art and social criticism, prose and a collection of artistic masterpieces some his own. Less known about Ruskin was his interest in science. The speech-essay "The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century" (Ruskin 1884) was prophetic. His eye for artistic discernment discovered smog. Over the years smog killed a few thousand people in London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It gave way to the Clean Air Act of 1956 (EcoLaw 1993) that banned the burning of raw cola in England. Green Peace and other Environmental Protection organizations are said have arisen from this act."

More papers on John Ruskin:

• Analytical Essay # 142377 : "Daily Bread and Daily Meaning in Ruskin and Arnold"
• Essay # 31933 : "Art and Architecture in Society: Production and Reproduction in Historical Contexts"
• Analytical Essay # 63690 : "The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century"

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