Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a movement and body of ideas advocating protection of the natural environment and responsible use of its resources.
Conservation movement: A movement to protect natural resources and landscapes through preservation, sustainable use, and public policy. Its resource-management strand helped shape environmentalism before modern ecological politics.
Environmental policy: Government laws, regulations, and programs that address environmental protection and resource use. Policy turns environmental goals into standards and public programs.
Deep ecology: An environmental philosophy that assigns intrinsic value to nonhuman life and calls for profound changes in human society. It is a distinct philosophical current within environmental thought, with stronger claims about human-centered values.
Climate change mitigation: Actions that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions or increase their removal from the atmosphere. It is a central contemporary campaign for limiting environmental harm.
Environmental movement in the United States: The development of organizations, campaigns, and policies addressing environmental protection in the United States. Its history includes influential laws and mass campaigns that shaped global environmental politics.
John Muir: An American naturalist and writer who advocated wilderness preservation and helped establish the Sierra Club. His preservation campaigns made wilderness protection a public cause.
Environmental law: The body of laws governing pollution, natural resources, biodiversity, and environmental assessment. Legal duties and enforcement give environmental demands institutional force.
Environmental pragmatism: An approach to environmental ethics that emphasizes practical problem-solving over fixed philosophical foundations. It favors workable coalitions and outcomes where environmentalism can contain conflicting principles.
Biodiversity conservation: The protection and management of species, genetic diversity, and ecosystems. It applies environmentalist aims to the variety of life and its habitats.
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment: The 1972 Stockholm conference that placed environmental issues prominently on the international agenda. It helped establish environmental protection as a matter of international cooperation.