What is Environmentalism?
Environmentalism is the process of conserving the natural fabric of the planet or in other words keeping it clean and tidy and safe for us safe to live in. If we are to neglect our world by polluting it with heavy amounts of carbon dioxide and other green house gases then we are literally destroying our planet. This has been proven by the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer and the melting of the polar ice caps, there is cause of concern because of changes in climates and inconsistent weather patterns and the increase of damage done by weather such as floods. The study of environmentalism is split into two categories which are A) anthropocentric B) ecocentric or egalitarian.
The term environmentalism is taking from other terms such as greening, environmental management, resource efficiency and waste minimization and environmental responsibilities.
History of the Environmental Agency
Environmentalism had started taking its roots during the mid 19th century in the united states is was people like John Muir and Henry David Thoreau that started it. Thoreau was interested in the relationship between people and nature and studied this by living closely with nature in a simple life. He had written and published his experiences in a book called Walden, which argues that people should become more accustomed to living closely with nature. Muir came to a realisation in nature's inherent right whilst hiking in Yosemite Valley and studying the geology and ecology.
During the 20th century people developed more ideas on continuing to preserve the environment, this grew immensely in popularity and recognition. Efforts were made to save some wildlife, such as the American Bison. The death of the last passenger pigeon raised questions with conservationists on what could be done to save endangered species. It wasn't soon after that conservations popularised there concerns with the public making people aware that whilst they comfortably go on with there normal lives abusing the environment more animals are being killed or driven from there natural habitats and that if we continue to do so, more animals would become extinct.
Well Known Environmentalists
In the late 1940's a book was published by Aldo Leopold titled "A Sandy County Almanac" it described Leopold's thoughts and beliefs that mankind should have more respect for the environment and that we should be taking more care and paying more attention to our surroundings.The book is sometimes looked upon as the most influential book on conservation.
40 Years since Leopold's book and former NASA scientist James Lovelock published a book entitled "Gaia; A new look at life on Earth" which puts forth new theories that earth itself is similar to a living creature and has its own life force. This became a deep subject for green ideology. Throughout the rest of history environmentalism there has been a great amount of controversy over the radical followers of the deep green ideology and mainstream factions. Environmentalism has now extended to cover new alarming subjects such as global warming (o-zone and green house gases) and bio engineering or otherwise known as genetic engineering.