Movements, Environmental

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS ARE groups collectively trying to improve the conditions of the environment for human health, biodiversity, and ecosystem integrity. Environmental movements can have a diverse set of political perspectives and ethical orientations and engage in tactics that vary from social protest and direct action to litigation and policy reform. Environmental movements promote one or more dimensions of environmentalism, which seek social change based on a commitment to resource sustain-ability and ecosystem preservation.

Some of the earliest environmental movements were organized around concerns about hunting and conservation of wildlife. By the 20th century, urban environmental issues with sanitation, clean water, clean air, and public health became another key focus for environmental movements. Environmental movements emerged at the same time as the women's liberation, the anti-Vietnam War, ...