Environmentalist

Environmentalists refers to people who claim to be concerned about protecting the environment and believe that legal limitations should be put on human use of the Earth's natural environment and resources. Many environmental organizations and movements have been used for political purposes with other objectives than direct concern for the environment or environmentalism.

Conservative environmental organizations such as the U.S. National Rifle Association and the British Countryside Alliance are generally more concerned with the reality of life in the rural environment than with the ideologically driven environmentalism of the left.

Many claiming to be environmentalists support a program of reducing usage of power and materials, and the reusing and recycling of waste.

American Pop Star Sheryl Crow, while touring the United States to raise consciousness about global warming and forest conservation made international headlines by calling for regulation of how much toilet paper an individual may use. Crow told ABC's Good Morning America,

"I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting."

In modern times, the environmentalist movement has taken on a new age religious philosophy. In fact, this belief system is considered to be the religion of choice for urban atheists and is one of the most powerful religions in the Western World.

The religion of environmentalism is a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths. There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.

Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday---these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative religious beliefs. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith. Facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.