Talk:Conservationist

conservationist vs preservationist

These articles ( the see also articles) it seems to me, are a mess. What is needed perhaps is a framework to organize them. These articles are a “snapshot” of where we are today. The meaning of conservation as the conservation of natural resources has been around for a long time. For example laws regarding conservation of wildlife. Gifford Pinchot was a conservationist of this type. Later preservationist, represented by John Muir, recognized the value of nature and wilderness for spiritual and moral reasons. However in time, preservationist became a derogatory label, so today this term is avoided. Meanwhile as our understanding of nature has changed, the meaning of conservationist has expanded to include ecological and other values and now includes conserving wilderness, however, it seems that the meaning of conservationist has also shifted to exclude economic values. Some environmentalist today believe using a forest for economic reasons to be morally wrong. In the past this would have been called preservationist. This leaves no term for an environmentalist who would have formerly been called a conservationist except wise use however that has become a derogatory label also. KAM 8 July 2005 20:53 (UTC)