Environmentalism plays a vital role in the evolution of better environmental ethics but some of it is of limited value. Adams (1990:) warned: ‘it is necessary to move outside environmental disciplines, and outside environmentalism, to approach the problem from political economy and not environmental science to the understanding of environmental aspects of development which uses both natural science and social insights.’ An example of such an integrated approach is that applied by Blaikie (1985) to the problem of soil erosion . There has been a huge increase in the interest taken by social scientists in the environment since the late 1970s, with a shift from mainly enlightened activists at first to more widespread interest since 1992 (Chappell, 1993). There has been borrowing of concepts and jargon by social science from the environmental sciences, but sometimes things become distorted because some environ mentalists and agencies do not derive their concepts by a process of logic, but bolt on scientific justification to values they already hold. For example, the sustainable rural livelihoods approach is widely used by development agencies and researchers (having originated in the early 1990s – Chambers and Conway, 1992). This appears to support sustainable development; however, users vary in their interpretation of sustainability, some virtually ignoring the need to avoid environmental damage.