It could be said that environmentalists are cursed with a conscience while the rest of the world just wants to go shopping. Some people accept unfiltered reality and others cling to protective cognition. It's as if two different planets are being observed; one based on evidence and the other based on ego.
Serious environmentalists feel like they're living among mouth-breathing aliens who only care about CYA & make-a-buck. That's not so extreme when you understand what people are doing to their only life-support system in the name of "economic growth" and other forms of false optimism. Anger at environmental-apathy is not unjustified when one is able to condense time and see final outcomes. The problem is that most people only react to immediate threats and adopt a glassy-eyed attitude toward long-term warnings. Later, when the warnings come to pass, all they can do is yell and blame the government or other shallow scapegoats. History is full of examples; not just in the environmental realm.
Generally speaking, a true environmentalist is someone with the foresight and intelligence to recognize limits to growth. A strong respect for nature is part of the environmentalist mindset. It's a moral stance as valid as any religious interpretation of the world.
Contrary to right-wing propaganda, true environmentalists are not motivated by socialist desires to control people's lives. Few of them would have us abandon technology and return to the caves. Environmentalists simply realize that Man, through modern medicine and technology, has stepped outside the bounds of nature and must restore true balance by halting population growth and maximizing resource efficiency. People who read socialism into such ideas are missing the point entirely. Like most other aspects of life, economic expansion and population growth must be practiced in moderation.
Those who think "balance" means building 1,000 new homes on pristine land vs. the 2,000 they originally sought, have no idea what the word means. That concept of "balance" is just a short term compromise between human overpopulation and whatever stands in the way of it. Nature continually loses ground in the process.
True balance means the cessation of population growth and a steady-state economy that doesn't demand an endlessly growing pool of resources. The biggest critics of environmentalism are people with dollar fixations and a shallow outlook on the future. Environmentalists know that true wealth originates in nature, and that it must be protected for our survival.