The purity model emphasizes clean air, pure water, and the elimination of waste products. It fits in very well with the residual Puritanism of Canadian life, and the whole range of related middle class values. It is naturally associated with personal health, and the general fears about pollution and toxic chemicals. The environment enters as a carrier or pathway for the delivery of toxic chemicals. Of course, the other aspect of the environmental agenda is present.
People have a broad concern about endangered species and some endangered spaces.
And there are also fears about climate change and other global issues. If it is assumed that consumption of goods and services, especially with the advent of consumerist lifestyles in the developing world, will drastically increase, there are usually two safety valves proposed. The first is that industrial production and materials and energy use is rapidly improving, and that will mean that we will be able to continue our consumptive lifestyle without increasing the ecological burden. Neither of these assumptions is completely plausible. While there have been substantial savings made in the elimination of many metals, materials, and energy, the economic growth patterns seem to have simply begun filling the new space available.