Historical Dictionary of North American Environmentalism

Environmental problems once affected only the places that created the pollution. Today, environmental problems have become shared problems of the world, and include the loss of biodiversity, the global warming threat, stratospheric ozone depletion, and acid rain. Environmentalism has its roots in the belief that humans have the power to reverse the trend of depleting ecological life support systems and maintain remaining resources. The Historical Dictionary of North American Environmentalism is neither a dictionary of environmental science, nor environmental issues, but rather an attempt to capture the people, places, and events which have contributed to the development of environmentalism around the world, attempting to place each term used in the context of a developing movement. Although the focus of this volume is the history of North American environmentalism, entries that are not purely North American in scope have been included because they somehow helped to shape environmentalism on this continent. The bibliography is separated into twelve subsections which categorize annotations by subjects such as novels, nature writing, environmental ethics, sustainability, and environmental science. Thirteen black and white photos, a chronology, and introduction provide valuable detail to the researcher. A necessary purchase for libraries supporting environmental studies programs.