The idea that humanity is facing major environmental challenges has gained ground over the past century. But there are major variations in how environmental ‘problems’ and ‘the environmental crisis’ are understood and framed, resulting in the emergence of different ‘environmental-isms’ over this period (Guha, 2000). The back-to-the-land reaction to industrialization
differs from the wilderness movement, the protests against environmental pollution triggered by Rachel Carson’s work or the call for heeding global resource limits presented by the Club of Rome. Each of these environmentalisms emphasizes particular values or normative concerns along with particular understandings of the society–nature relationship (and of society
itself) to lead us to particular sets of solutions to the environmental crisis. An important strand or set of strands within these environmentalisms is what in the Global South is called the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ (Guha, 1997) or ‘environmental justice’ more generally (see Introduction). These -isms correspond loosely with differing perspectives within academia
on the environment–society relationship (see Robbins et al., 2010). For instance, ‘political economy of the environment’ is the academic perspective best corresponding to the environmental justice strand in environmentalism.