In fact, environmentalists were often dismissed during that time period. Moreover, environmental regulation was seen as an area of concern for each individual country, so that other countries would rarely, if ever, provide international pressure for environmental issues. However, the growing body of scientific literature about the environment changed the game between the 1970s and the 1980s/1990s. For example, when the James Bay Project was first conceived, it was considered a very green source of electricity because it lacked emissions and other hallmarks of pollution. The reality, however, is that the project resulted in incredible environmental damage:

It has been shown that environmental impacts of the first phase include: methyl mercury contamination of water in reservoirs and downstream rivers and mercury accumulation in fish; reversal of the natural seasonal flow pattern of rivers; conversion of La Grande estuary from a saltwater environment to a freshwater one because of regulated peak...
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