On Earth Day, it is worth noting this event, for it illuminates the essential meaning of environmentalism. But that is a very superficial interpretation. If there is a choice between electric power for human beings and swimming lanes for salmon, it is always the fish that are given priority. If there is a choice between cutting down trees for human use and leaving them untouched for the spotted owl, it is always the bird's home that is saved and human habitation that goes unbuilt. Because the requirements of human life are not the standard by which environmentalists make their judgments.
Environmentalists often declare their philosophy openly.
We are not interested in the utility of a particular species, of free-flowing river, or ecosystem to mankind. The environmentalist goal, in other words, is to protect nature, not for man, but from man. But this means that man must suffer so that nature remains pristine. Human beings survive by reshaping nature to fulfill their needs. Earth Day is an appropriate occasion for challenging the environmentalists' philosophy.