I need a single-word antonym for environmentalist. Why? Because there are many occasions when I would use this word, but the word never comes. There’s just this empty thought balloon floating where the word should be. Either we don’t yet possess such a word, or we have one but it’s exceedingly good at eluding me and the people I’ve queried.
The opposite is definitely not “conservative,” so don’t even think about it. There’s nothing more conservative than conservation. By definition.
For some reason I’ve always been tempted by “Blockheads,” a reference to the red animated blocks who are always causing trouble for Gumby (who is green after all) and Pokey. But I think some Blockheads might take offense at being called Blockheads.
A colleague of mine suggested “depletist” or “depletionist,” which might function as an opposite to conservationist, but doesn’t work as well when opposed to environmentalist. The problem with depletist, it seems to me, is that it should have its own opposite that means something like filler-upper.
Any suggestions?
UPDATE: John McIntyre has taken up the question at You Don’t Say, and some suggestions have also been arriving through back channels. As you’ll see, the challenge seems to be finding an apt term that isn’t pejorative. Some of the suggestions so far: consumerist, industrialist, pillager (from Karen), squanderist (from Stan), envirodiffident (from Michael Pakenham), homocentrist (from Jim in Austin)…
UPDATE: See many of the suggestions that arrived debated in a followup column: “Are you a wasteroon?”