Wikipedia:WikiProject Environment/Definitions

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Definitions

The following are terms related to the environment and environmentalism that are sometimes used incorrectly. Editors are encouraged to use these terms correctly.

Conservation: environmental protection, especially as related to appropriate or reduced use of natural resources.
Conservationist: an individual who believes in or practices conservation.
Conservation biology: a scientific discipline that deals with human effects on species, communities, or ecosystems, or deals with their protection.
Conservation biologist: a scientist working in the field of conservation biology.
Environmentalist: an individual who believes in or practices any form of environmental protection.
Environmentalism: the movement concerned with protecting the natural environment from human-caused harm.
Environmental science: a multidisciplinary scientific discipline that draws on biology, chemistry, and geology, among other sciences, to study the relationships between human beings and the natural environment.
Environmental scientist: a scientist working in the field of environmental science.
Environmental social science: the broad, transdisciplinary study of interrelations between humans and the natural environment.
Ecology: scientific discipline that deals with the interrelationships of organisms and/or their abiotic environment.
Ecologist: a scientist working in the field of ecology.
Preservationist: an individual who believes in, or works to, protect functional, largely pristine, ecosystems from human impacts.

Structure

Environment as in natural environment, wildlife, ecological succession
Environmental issues as in pollution, global warming, waste, Exxon Valdez

More information

— Note that the conservation of species or habitats as defined in the science of ecology is considered by this project as a subset of environmental topics.

A topic that is generally, but not divisively omitted from this project:

Ecology – the study of species and ecosystems in natural environments— Refer to WikiProject Ecology.