Environmentalism

Environmental Concepts

Environmentalism is partly defined by several concepts, some of which are in opposition to others. In fact, much of the controversy that surrounds environmental public policy formulation arises from this conceptual level, where views about the environment may greatly differ. In general, however, environmentalism is an expression of respect for nature and the natural environment that surrounds humans on this planet. Yet agreement about how this respect should be put into practice is not always easily reached. For example, at the beginning of the environmental movement, the distinction between the “preservationist” and “conservationist” environmental philosophies was problematic and led to great public policy debates that included factions from business and industry, the government, and environmental activists.

Simply stated, preservationism holds that respect for nature means that we are obliged to keep nature preserved and maintained in its pristine beauty, which must be passed on to future generations. Besides making such moral claims about the aesthetics of nature, preservationists usually also hold that nature has an intrinsic value that requires preserving and protecting. Some preservationists take this argument further and claim that nature has a high spiritual value for humans, since it was created by God, who is held to be immanent within it. Thus, for preservationists, nature is deserving of great respect from humans, and it is mandatory that it be preserved and kept intact for future generations, and public policy decisions should reflect this philosophy.

Conservationism is conceptually different from preservation, although the two terms are often used interchangeably in the popular literature of environmentalism. However, conservationists do express their understanding of how nature should be respected quite differently than do preservationists. To preserve nature is to keep it protected in its current state and quality without allowing any deterioration, but to conserve nature is to carefully use the natural environment as a resource in a way that does not exhaust or waste it and, thereby, to ensure its availability in the future. In conservationism, the emphasis is thus on use and productivity, and this reflects a philosophy of utility, which is not at all different from the idea of utility inherent in business, where nature is respected for the usefulness it represents to humans. Nature has only instrumental value, according to conservationists. Hence, the differing ways in which nature is respected in these two basic concepts of environmentalism account for a good deal of past and present public policy wrangling about the environment.

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