ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the origins of environmentalism. It reveals the foundations of environmentalism in the changing human condition within our souls, in our emerging societies and economies, and through our administrative and political institutions. Geographers have almost made it their tradecraft to measure and assess the human impact on the planet and its peoples. Geographers have championed the cause of agri-biodiversity. Sustainability appraisal could be deployed to assess the ecological, social and economic implications, in combination, of agri-biodiversity, participatory involvement and precautionary science and a combination of both along the lines of resilience, vulnerability and socio-ecological justice. Sustainable development is nearly always characterized as a ‘triple bottom line’ of amalgamating environmental, social and economic well-being into a common audit. The business case for sustainability is steadily being adopted by corporations the world over. Sustainable development can mean almost anything, including the scope for fundamental contradiction.
