Rick Pombo - the Gnostic gospeller of "wise use"

Here is an interesting item at Counterpunch on the anti-environmentalist Senator Representative Rick Pombo (R, CA). An opponent of the Environmental Species Act, Pombo wrote a book described here as "the book acquired the allure of a Gnostic gospel among the "Wise Use" crowd, whose concept of wise use derives from God's commandment to Adam in the book of Genesis to pillage the earth's natural resources as he thinks fit." Again, the use of religion by conservatives to support exploitation, in this case of ecological systems, for profit shines through.

Once upon a time "conservative" meant "one who desires to keep things stable". Now it means "one who tries to take whatever can be took". It's a peculiarly American definition of "conservative".