Environmental means to do with the natural world and with looking after it. Air, water, wildlife, waste.
It attaches itself to the machinery of protection — environmental impact, environmental policy, an environmental health officer, environmental campaigners. A second and quieter use belongs to science and medicine, where environmental factors are the outside influences on something as opposed to the inherited ones. That is the nature-versus-nurture sense, and it has nothing to do with green politics. The noun is environment, and the trap is the n in the middle.
1adjectiveenvironmentalRelating to the natural world and its protection.
“The plant failed an environmental inspection.”
2adjectivecausedCaused by surroundings rather than by inheritance.
“The study looked at environmental factors in asthma.”
Middle French
environnement
English
environment
English, today
environmental
From environment + -al. environment Borrowed from Middle French environnement. From Middle French environnement. Compare French environnement. by surface analysis, en + environ + ment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA