| 释义 |
environmental, a.|ɛnˌvaɪrənˈmɛntəl|
[f. prec. + -al1.]
1. Of or pertaining to environments or the environment.
1887Athenæum 7 May 611/3 The external or environmental explanation of evolution. 1891Blackw. Mag. CL. 853/1 Some general environmental cause appears to be necessary for the explanation of the facts. 1902W. James Var. Relig. Exper. xiv. 360 Utopian dreams of social justice..are, in spite of their impracticability and non-adaptation to present environmental conditions, analogous to the saint's belief in an existent kingdom of heaven. 1917A. S. Pringle-Pattison Idea of God 75 Terms like stimulus, response, behaviour, all imply the notion of selection, the power of adaptation to environmental change. 1928R. N. Chapman in Ecology IX. 114 It seems evident that we have in nature a system in which the potential rate of reproduction of the animal is pitted against the resistance of the environment, and that the quantity of organisms which may be found is a result of the balance between the biotic potential or the potential rate of reproduction, and the environmental resistance. 1945Koestler Yogi & Commissar iii. ii. 171 The socialist attitude to criminology, based on environmental psychology. 1950New Biol. VIII. 18 Any peculiar character induced in a parent by special environmental conditions does not appear in the offspring, unless the same environmental conditions are reproduced. Non-hereditary variation due to external conditions is known as environmental variation. 1957Financial Times Ann. Rev. Brit. Industry 85/5 This raises a question wider than occupational safety—namely environmental safety. 1962Listener 24 May 903/1 There must be a proper relationship between the traffic capacity of the main distributory system and the capacity of the intervening areas (which for convenience I call the ‘environmental areas’). Ibid. 30 Aug. 304/1 Allied to the earth sciences are the environmental sciences. Meteorological forecasts will be greatly improved in the future. 1967K. Mellanby Pesticides & Pollution i. 15 The rather special case of pesticides, which have recently been shown to constitute such an important contribution to environmental pollution. 1970P. R. & A. H. Ehrlich Population, Resources, Environment xi. 275 Environmental consulting firms have begun to appear. 1970New Yorker 15 Aug. 42/1 Under its control is an environmental-health commission.
2. Special collocations: environmental engineer, one who specializes in controlling damage to the environment caused by pollution and other hazards (see also quot. 1972); also environmental engineering.
c1962D. R. Scott in Proc. Internat. HEVAC Conf. Heating, Ventilating & Air Conditioning 19/1 Emergence of new technologist: the Environmental Engineer, who will take his specialist place with the civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers. 1972Accountant 21 Sept. 361/1 On the front cover of the report Young, Austen and Young describe themselves as ‘Environmental Engineers’, which seems to be an increasingly popular form of description for what used to be called heating and ventilating engineers.
c1971Loughborough Univ. of Technol. Cal. 1971–72 90 The undergraduate courses offered by each School of Studies are: School of Engineering Aeronautical Engineering and Design..Civil Engineering..Environmental Engineering..[etc.]. 1980Engin. News-Rec. 23 Oct. 20/1 Forces of the marketplace cannot fill the need for environmental engineers..because 53% of the environmental work force is employed by government or educational institutions.
Hence environˈmentally adv., with reference to or by means of (one's or the) environment.
1884Mind July 338 Environmentally-initiated Sensations are classified according to the nature of the agent by which they are aroused. 1918Times Lit. Suppl. 2 May 205/1 A cell may environmentally acquire a new property and keep it. 1928Daily Tel. 21 Aug. 13/1 If you cannot indict a nation, neither can you fully describe a nation, environmentally or spiritually. 1958Punch 12 Feb. 238/2 Both..knew that the most important thing in life—it is something we first heard of from the Americans—is to get ‘environmentally well-adjusted’. 1965Language XLI. 277 An environmentally conditioned allophone of terminal fade.
Add:[1.] b. Not harmful to the environment, ‘environment-friendly’.
1983Amer. Speech LVIII. 94 Thus Right Guard spray deodorant, having omitted ozone-decimating fluorocarbons from among its ingredients, now directs itself towards ecological armpits with the epithet ‘new environmental Right Guard’—heard on ABC-TV, 5 Sept. 1978. 1985N. Bagnall Defence of Clichés ix. 162 Developers and even local planning authorities..fool either themselves or others with the idea that if something is environmental it must be good, whereas its proper use is quite neutral. 1990Los Angeles Times (Orange County ed.) 18 June b11/3 Irvine has become known as America's ‘environmental’ city, an urban community where one-third of the land is planned as open space.
Add:2. Special collocations. environmentally friendly a., safe for or not harmful to the environment (see *-friendly).
1984Christian Science Monitor 6 Apr. 9/3 The factory means jobs. There is no factory without emissions. It just has to be as *environmentally friendly as possible. 1989New Scientist 15 Apr. 27 (caption) Holmen has converted an old pulping plant..to produce environmentally friendly paper for an image-conscious computer industry.
environmentally sensitive area orig. N. Amer., an area containing wildlife (esp. rare species) or other significant features of the environment vulnerable to destruction by unrestricted development, or industrial (agricultural, etc.) practices; esp. one so designated for grant-aided protection.
1974Conestoga Wagon (Waterloo, Ontario) Oct. 12/4 *Environmentally Sensitive Areas as identified by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Regional naturalists and the Regional Municipality are shown on the Flood Plain and Environmentally Sensitive Area Policy Map No. 4. 1976Economist 4 Sept. 32/3 ‘Environmentally sensitive’ areas, even in urban zones, can be defined and protected. 1990Birds Summer 17/1 The Somerset Levels..are drying out... This is despite..their classification as an Environmentally Sensitive Area which provides cash payments to farmers to manage their land in a traditional way.
Add:[2.] environmental audit, an assessment of business activity as regards its observance of practices which seek to minimize harm to the environment (cf. green audit s.v. *green a. 13 a).
1971College & Univ. Business Oct. 49 (heading) *Environmental audit uncovered pollution no one knew was there. 1981Chem. Engin. 15 June 101/1 Many corporations are demanding environmental audits as a prerequisite to real estate transactions. 1990Managing Environment (Business International Ltd.) vii. 96 The essential purpose of an environmental audit..is the systematic scrutiny of environmental performance throughout a company's existing operations.
▸ environmental management n. (a) chiefly Psychol. manipulation of the physical or social environment of a person or group; (b) management of human impact on the natural environment, esp. with the intention of preserving natural resources.
1949W. C. Olson Child Devel. xi. 321 The teacher exercises delegated social responsibilities for control through language and *environmental management. 1962H. J. Barnett & C. Morse Scarcity & Growth 40 The public interest in river basin and watershed development cannot be fully satisfied by local agencies... Society has had an ‘environmental management’ function thrust upon it. 2001S. A. Brown et al. in M. C. Roberts & C. E. Walker Handbk. Clin. Child Psychol. xxxviii. 771 Inpatient and outpatient programs typically include..a rehabilitation phase focusing on coping skills training, environmental management, and alterations in social networks. 2005J. Diamond Collapse (2006) xi. 342 Trujillo shifted the impetus for environmental management to a top-down approach. His regime..set up a corps of forest guards to enforce protection of forests. |