ABSTRACT
As environmentalism has become more and more important over the past few decades, a number of methods have arisen to chart our progress toward a healthier planet and a better future. These methods have generally been intended to be a measuring stick that informs us of our impact upon the earth. This chapter is devoted to a discussion of some of these methods and a comparative analysis with the Practical Environmentalism approach to bettering our world. The number and variety of these measures are a testament to our societies’ burgeoning acceptance of environmentalism as a basic component of our culture. The following list of environmental quality metrics is certainly not complete but hopefully long enough to grant us a decent picture of the various attempts we make to quantify and qualify our impact upon the natural world.
