noun
- an expert on environmental problems.
- any person who advocates or works to protect the air, water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.
- a person who believes that differences between individuals or groups, especially in moral and intellectual attributes, are predominantly determined by environmental factors, as surroundings, upbringing, or experience (opposed to hereditarian).
noun
- psychol the belief that a person’s behaviour is affected chiefly by his environmentCompare hereditarianism
noun
- an adherent of environmentalism
- a person who is concerned with the maintenance of ecological balance and the conservation of the environment
- a person concerned with issues that affect the environment, such as pollution
1923, as a psychological theory (in the nature vs. nurture debate), from environmental + -ism. The ecological sense is from 1972. Related: Environmentalist (n.), 1916 in the psychological sense, 1970 in the ecological sense.