n.
Advocacy of the preservation or improvement of the natural environment, especially the social and political movement to control environmental pollution.
Other specific goals of environmentalism include control of human population growth, conservation of natural resources, restriction of the negative effects of modern technology, and the adoption of environmentally benign forms of political and economic organization. Environmental advocacy at the international level by nongovernmental organizations and some states has resulted in treaties, conventions, and other instruments of environmental law addressing problems such as global warming , the depletion of the ozone layer , and the danger of transboundary pollution from nuclear accidents. Influential U.S. and British environmentalists have included Thomas Robert Malthus , John Muir , Rachel Carson , Barry Commoner , Paul R. Ehrlich , and Edward O. Wilson . In the social sciences, the term refers to any theory that emphasizes the importance of environmental factors in the development of culture and society.