The environmental movement capitalizes on the rejection of religious faith by the West. With the loss of eternity, lesser magnitudes are adopted as surrogates; Earth’s biosphere is an icon for a vital order greater than ourselves and outlasting our national selves.

Religious faith may be ultimately about not tolerating any limits to one’s national preservation. In its absence we have to explain our future; and with no special reason to exempt ourselves from national extinction, we have to explain why we have no future.

That’s the distinction, to me. *Of course* it is prudent not to foul our own nest; but the doom preached by hard greens is not about what our actions may bring. It is a prophecy that seeks to explain an implicit doom.