From Envirowiki

Environmentalism is basically the recognition that the environment has inherrent value, both in and of itself, and to the human species and individual humans.

The term "environmentalism" is problematic in that it means "support for the environment", however, environment refers to a static situation in which objects (organism, landforms, weather, etc) exist independent of each other. A better term might be ecologism, which includes the processes linking the objects in the environment, and is generally a more holistic view of reality. This term is also problematic, because a practicioner of ecologism would be an ecologist, however, this term already refers to a practitioner of the science of ecology.

[edit] History of environmentalism

Envrionmentalism has a long, fairly hazy history, depending on who you ask, but modern environmentalism can generally be dated back to Henry Thoreau's works such as "Walden", in the late 1840s. There was a large uptake of environmentalism in mainstream thought in the 1960s, in part due to the flower-power and hippie movements in the USA and around the world.

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" - a book on the detrimental effects of toxins, especially pesticides - was highly influential in the 1950s, and was perhaps the point at which environmentalism became a solid mainstream (albeit small) movement.

Barry Commoner was highly during the Cold War in bringing the concept of nuclear winter to the forefront of the public's imagination.

During the 70s and 80s, direct action first began to be used against environmental destruction, especially old-growth logging. since then it has commonly been used against the nuclear industry, and mining industries.

In recent years, climate change has come to the fore as the largest environmental issue of our time.

[edit] Environmentalism in action

Environmental action can take many forms, for the out-reaching political, to the individual. These can include

• Environmental Political Action
• Personal Waste reduction and adherence to the four Rs of environmentalism
• energy efficiency on any scale