ABSTRACT
Ecologism has only emerged as a fully fledged ideology since the 1960s. As with all recent ideologies it has intellectual roots stretching back centuries, but the construction of a relatively autonomous set of ideas and prescriptions for action is a very recent occurrence. Ecologism should be distinguished from environmentalism – for environmentalists, the desire to protect the environment is based primarily on concern about the consequences of environmental degradation on human beings, whereas for ecologists, something called ‘ecology’, or ‘nature’, is the source of value. It follows from this distinction that whereas environmentalism can be combined with other ideologies, ecologism is distinct. In terms of political practice, politicians from across the political spectrum have embraced the rhetoric, and sometimes the policies, of environmentalism, but this does not mean they have endorsed ecologism.
