One thing I can say for environmentalists — they seem to sense humankind’s debt to the natural order far more immediately than their opponents do.

I’m tempted to make an analogy. Just as conservatives fear economic collapse because (stereotypical) liberals think they (allegedly) can keep spending and spending and running up more and more debt, environmentalists see this same problem with ecology.

A liberal environmentalist might say to a (stereotypical) conservative, you can’t keep overdrawing on our natural resources this way and expect that ecological debt to accrue faster than it can be repaid. The ecology can extend us some credit, in the form of resilience and adaptation, but there is a limit, and when that credit limit is exceeded, expect collapse.

This is a very rough analogy meant only to indicate a trajectory of potential understanding. It is a newborn intuition. If someone wants to analyze it to bits — kill it in the cradle — destroying it will be like stealing candy from a baby. But I sense that it has some potential to mature and become a stronger line of argument. Or maybe it will grow up to make appeals to common understanding on ecology and economy.