Yearning.

Scruton on conservative environmentalism ...

“The form of environmentalism which emerged in the 19th century, both in this country and in America, is not really an ‘ism.’ It’s not a system of belief at all,” he says. “It’s a yearning towards the old way of doing things and the old connection to the natural world, and a desire to integrate and to develop in a harmonious way. People like Ruskin in Britain and John Muir in America didn’t necessarily want the same thing, but they did want to get back to a more natural connection with the world. That has endured, and it’s not especially political, though of course it has political implications, and it’s not a form of millenarian belief.”

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