A combination of rapaciousness and lack of awareness of consequences has tilted the balance so radically that a very strong environmental protectionism is necessary to try to get back to the "middle." Rapaciousness is still more the norm than not (and I am not just talking about "big money". the big money is there because of the market that individuals create by their demands.) The environment of the earth is seriously compromised, and a strong tilt toward "pristine" is the only hope of bringing the environment back into sustainable balance. That tilt, however, is not likely to occur rapidly enough or steeply enough. Rapacious use continues at an alarming speed, only slightly checked by environmental advocacy. The short-term matters very, very much. The industries that have the capacity to develop and exploit the Western World's rapacious appetite continue to have much, much more money to buy influence among policy makers than do environmental advocates. Environmental advocates mainly have the long, slow, ability of changing public opinion and patterns of consumption over time. A long time. And there is not much time.
I don't agree that environmentmentalism, over time, represents an inherent demand for the pristine. I simply think that environmentalism recognizes that for now and for the foreseeable future, radical preservation, conservation, and reversal in trends of consumption are absolutely necessary to counter the effects our our "dominion over the earth" to try to insure a sustainable environment.