Concern for the environment is widespread. Politicians put it high on their agendas, businesses have environmental policies, thousands upon thousands of products are supposed to be environment friendly, green is a favourite colour and countless people describe themselves as environmentalists. But what is the environment with which all these are so much concerned? What makes an issue environmental, as opposed to political, biological or economic? What does someone need to do, believe or want in order to be an environmentalist? There is a need for answers to these questions, but there is a need also to indicate that the answers will be of limited use, and that they cannot always be firm.

Terms

It may seem that the answers here are too obvious to be worth stating. Books, policy documents, government bodies and industries that are concerned with environmental matters often simply assume that the term is understood, and rarely make any effort to clarify just what it is with which they are so concerned. But this ought to be considered unsatisfactory. Although the insistence that key terms be defined before serious discussion gets under way is, in general, rightly resisted, there is in this case reason to hope for more. Talk of the environment is relatively new, a lot hangs on it, and although it can for a while be disguised, it isn't long before evidence of important disagreement as to and misunderstanding of some central terms comes to the surface.