CHAPTER 1 ENVIRONMENTALISM AN OVERVIEW Nhe political and intellectual move ment called environmentalism seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment It advocates curtail ing or ending human activities that harm the environment The movement also seeks to change political and economic systems so that human societies can prosper without causing pollution and other environmental damage The term environment is broad as it refers to all the natural world In various ways envi ronmentalists call for protecting or improving the quality of the air the water and the land including the conservation of the soil and important natural areas such as rainforests and wetlands Environmentalists are also con cerned with protecting the biosphere which consists of the animals plants and other living things and the ecosystems in which they live Environmentalists aim to preserve and care for air water and land as well as the animals plants and other living things that live there Shutterstock com IO
ENVIRONMENTALISM OVERVIEW AN II
THE PoLITICS OF SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT GoALS AND METHODs The goals and methods of different envi ronmentalists are quite varied For example Some focus on raising public awareness of the need to reduce reuse and recycle materi als to cut back on the resources consumed in making packaging and transporting con sumer products Others work to enact local national or international laws that protect the environment such as by requiring that motor vehicles meet certain fuel efficiency and emissions standards creating nature reserves banning the killing of endangered species or regulating the chemicals that businesses can emit into the air and water Some environmentalists organize various kinds of protest actions to draw attention to or to disrupt activities by corporations and governments that harm the environment Others seek to establish alternative commu nities that live in closer harmony with nature Despite the diversity of the movement most environmentalists agree on four general principles protection of the environment democracy social justice and nonviolence However a few individuals and groups believe that violence in the name of environmen talism is justified if it is committed against 12
ENVIRONMENTALISMAN OVERVIEW CANS Many environmentalists suggest recycling plastics paper and metals to preserve the environment Shutterstock com businesses that damage the environment or that kill or abuse animals for profit such as mining and logging companies and the mak ers of fur coats Critics of this practice many of whom are not themselves environmental ists have referred to it as ecoterrorism Two BASIC APPROACHES In many cases environmentalists want protection of the natural world to directly improve or maintain human health and 13
