Fifty years ago, the New Zealand Values Party contested the New Zealand General election. The party had been formed three years ealier and was the first national 'green' party in the world1, and in 1975, they published Beyond Tomorrow, their manifesto.
The 1970s was a crucial decade for several reasons. Firstly, we don't need to put up with all the '60s clichēs, and got on and got things done.
Secondly, and most importantly, it was the last decade we seemed to be actually winning. Richard Nixon, the worst President Americia had ever had - or would ever have - established the OSHA, the EPA, and passed legislation requiring environmental impact statements for federal projects. The Carter administration dropped Kissengers 'realpolitic' for a human-rights based foreign policy, and installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. The Kirk/Rowling government sent ships to protest French nuclear testing at Mururoa atol. Pākeha started to take the Treaty of Waitangi seriously. Climate Change was being discussed as the next big global challenge2.
Thirdly, and also most importantly, it's the first decade I really remember.
Then, in 1979, Margret Thatcher became the British Prime Minister, in 1981 Ronald Reagan became president, and in 1984, we got Rogernomics.
The United Tasmanian Group formed a couple of months before the Values Party, but they weren't a national group, and had formed to oppose the building of dams on Tasmanian rivers. They didn't have a broad set of policies addressing social and economic issues. To my mind, they are more of an environmental grouping than a Green one. ↩
There was some concern that pollution in the upper atmosphere would cause cooling, but most scientists in the '70s thought CO2 was warming the atmosphere at the same time airborne aerosols were reflecting sunlight and cooling the atmosphere. ↩