environmentalists

Noun

environmentalist (plural environmentalists)

1. One who advocates for the protection of the environment and biosphere from misuse from human activity through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention.
   • The Santa Barbara oil spill has environmentalists and California officials scrambling as an estimated 105,000 gallons of oil may have spilled into the Pacific Ocean and onto the Golden State’s coast.2015 May 21, Eliott C. McLaughlin, “How does Santa Barbara match up with other U.S. oil spills?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2016

   Synonyms:

   environmental activist, ecologist, eco-warrior, greenie, tree hugger

2. One who holds the view that environment, rather than heredity or culture, is the primary factor in the development of an individual or group.
   • As we remarked once before, there are two extreme views with respect to life, one attributing everything to the environment, the other to inherent abilities. If, for example, an unusual number of distinguished men are born and reared in the same locality, the environmentalists assert that the...1926, Clark Wissler, The Relation of Nature to Man in Aboriginal America, published 1971, pages 211–212

See all 3 meanings of environmentalist