Meanings
- uncountableThe belief that environmental concerns should be primary above all other considerations.
The chief problem with earthism is that it sometimes distracts attention from commitment to justice for the poor and oppressed.
1997, John B. Cobb, Reclaiming the Church, →ISBN, page 452 more examples
This paper seeks to foster the trend to earthism or the internalization of currently externalized social and environmental costs, such as immiseration, extinctions and climate change.
2000, Robert Goodland, Social and Environmental Assessment to Promote SustainabilityWhile common agendas and strategies certainly bind these two resistance groups together, the next two chapters develop two slightly divergent themes—earthism and postcolonialism— that dominate the work of globalization resistance and transformation.
2006, Rebecca Todd Peters, In Search of the Good Life: The Ethics of Globalization, →ISBN, page 103
Origin
From earth + -ism, coined by John B. Cobb in the 1990s as a contrast to economism.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
earthism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/earthism
“earthism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/earthism. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “earthism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/earthism.
Source: earthism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.