The Church of the Environment

Michael Crichton talks about the West's new religion:

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World
is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for
urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If
you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st
century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and
unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a
result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions
there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to
die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability.
Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic
food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the
right beliefs, imbibe.

I also caught the similiarities a while back in this article titled "Superstition Rises".