While I am not an advocate of “extreme” environmentalism (much of it is informed by strong anti-capitalism and the like, as well as overstating human influence on climate change, etc), Latter-day Saints are to be stewards of this earth, as, for the faithful, it will be an eternal possession. The following from Stephen L. Richards is instructive about a sane approach to environmentalism:
We as a church believe and so declare that in the end the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. When this is done it will be beautiful and glorious beyond finite conception. This being our doctrine, so you think it becoming in God’s children to deface the earth while we sojourn here? Being the stewards and custodians of the resources which are committed to us, have we not an obligation to use them, preserve them and return them in the best possible condition of which our circumstances will permit? I think upon reflection you will say that we have such an obligation and that it is very definitely our task to make God’s footstool as beautiful as we may. For “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof” and the righteous “and the generations shall inherit the earth from generation to generation forever and forever.” (Where is Wisdom? Addresses of President Stephen L. Richards [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1955], 336)
