ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the varieties of American environmentalism, both historical and contemporary, and anti-environmentalism. The chapter also focuses on global environmentalism, and patterns and predictors of environmental concern, ending with the issue of how we determine the success of environmentalism. Environmentalism is both ideology and action. Ideology denotes a set of beliefs about desirable human activities and perceived sets of problems. Environmentalism is also purposive action intended to change the way people relate to the environment. Social movements are the product of civil society. Civil society is the social space that exists outside of the market and government. Preservation and conservation were the first manifestations of American environmentalism, foreshadowing many contemporary environmental concerns. A primary problem for reform environmentalism was the almost exclusive reliance on the research of natural and physical scientists. In the early stages of collective mobilization, a tremendous amount of time and energy is devoted to education.
