Conservationism versus environmentalism

We've become real conservationists at our house. We recycle or compost almost everything possible, shun toxic cleaners, and feel funny if a light is on in an empty room. The net is that our weekly garbage is about a quarter what it was a few months ago, there's not much that is poisonous on our property, and all our utility bills are lower. But we aren't environmentalists.

Here's a fine article that describes how conservationism is not environmentalism.

I didn't know Al Gore has said "the climate crisis is not a political issue; it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity." That's exactly wrong. If there really were human-caused global warming and it really were a bad thing and there really were something we could do about it, it would be primarily an engineering problem, not a moral issue.