ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the principles and describes a conservative approach to environmentalism. The conservative political philosophy is not a single, unified doctrinal system. Rather, American conservatism embraces a spectrum of ideas on politics and economics that ranges from free market libertarianism on the one side to Burkean traditionalism on the other. The typical conservative intellectual falls near the middle of that spectrum, borrowing from both sides. Conservatives are not materialists. They believe that there are many more important things than production and consumption. The emphases of the two schools at the ends of the conservative spectrum are quite different, but they share this common premise. The traditionalists are most emphatic in rejecting materialism as an end for either the society or the individual. Libertarians place much more stress on freedom, and much less on responsibility to society.
