Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a social movement that focuses on protecting the environment. Environmentalists work to safeguard the ecosystem, and both prevent and correct damage to the environment using a variety of methods to reach their goals, including protests, legislation, and awareness-raising efforts.

The environmental movement is diverse because environmentalists do not have the same goals or employ the same methods to reach their goals. For example, some environmentalists focus on lobbying for legislation to protect the environment such as laws to prevent businesses from dumping chemicals into bodies of water. Others, however, may work to raise awareness of an endangered bird species to prevent it from becoming extinct.

Despite their differences, environmentalists can be divided into two groups. Some have an...