environmentalism

environmental +‎ -ism

environmentalism (countable and uncountable, plural environmentalisms)

1. (medicine, social sciences) A theory that views environment, rather than heredity or culture, as the important factor in the development of an individual or group.
   • 1939, Alfred L. Kroeber, “Objectives”, in Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, published 1963, page 1:

     The first is that the present work in no sense represents a relapse toward the old environmentalism which believed it could find the causes of culture in environment.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:environmentalism.
2. (politics) A political and social ideology that seeks to prevent the environment from degradation by human activity.
   • 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 196:

     The need for environmentalisms engaged with the commons rather than relegated to the individual consumer or tied to the middle-class principles of private property.

(politics):

• ecocapitalism
• ecosocialism

• antienvironmentalism
• enviro-
• environment
• environmental
• environmentalist