After doing a bit of reading about green initiatives and the mystical fringes of the environmental movement, I propose a new word to describe ecocentric environmentalism: "environmysticism." A Google search turned up a couple of previous hits, but there's no definition. Environmysticism holds that environmental problems transcend human conflicts over property and the use of resources. The claim that the natural world is valuable as such and that we can violate the rights of nature is an environmystical claim. One has to wonder how the environmystic comes to this conclusion. Does the Holy Spirit tell us? Do we learn it by communicating with Gaia the Earth Mother through transcendental meditation? How is the right to use force to override over others' value judgments allocated?

As I have said before, I consider myself an anthropocentric environmentalist. I care about environmental problems because I'm an economist and because human happiness is important to me. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit out there: a lot of "green" policies are actually bad for the environment, and a lot of policies that would make housing cheaper will also reduce pollution. I see no reason to grant the premise that water, soil, and air have enforceable rights.

In the last chapter of "The Armchair Economist," Steven Landburg contrasts "the science of economics" with "the religion of ecology." It's worth reading often: http://www.shrubwalkers.com/prose/list/not.html.

Finally, here's the definition of environmysticism I sent to the Urban Dictionary:

environmysticism
noun, also "environmystic," "environmystical" (adj.).

1. A body of propositions claiming that nature has enforceable rights independent of human wants and needs.

2. The view that the natural world is valuable for its own sake.

3. The view that one can make definitive, specific, and actionable claims about the costs and benefits of environmental changes independent of the price system.

The essay was an exercise in environmysticism: the author claimed that no matter the costs, recycling is always right.

Really finally, here's the only English site I can find that uses the word: http://alchemistpq.livejournal.com/909.html.