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Actions have consequences.

Normally, that phrase is linked to social conservatives who criticize what they view as America’s increasingly libertine, if-it-feels-good-do-it culture. But the phrase can just as easily be applied to another issue: conservation.

Last week, millions of Americans observed Earth Day. If there is an overriding message of Earth Day, it’s one of self-restraint. Everything we do that involves consumption of a natural resource has consequences. There are consequences when we choose to live far from our workplace. There are consequences when we choose bigger houses and bigger automobiles that consume larger amounts of electricity and gasoline. There are consequences when we choose motorized recreation over non-motorized pursuits. There are consequences when we clear farmland for residential development. There are consequences when we drive animal and plant species to extinction by overharvest or habitat destruction. There are consequences when lakefront property owners maintain lush, suburbanized lawns.

Often, it’s a message people don’t want to hear. Americans are staunchly libertarian and cling tightly to the notion of private property rights. Perhaps individual landowners should assume absolute sovereignty over their property, but no amount of libertarian philosophy can change the fact that land-use decisions have far-ranging consequences. Many of us may desire our house in the country, but none of us want to be anywhere near the infrastructure (power plants, for example) that makes that kind of mobility possible. And those who have moved to the country don’t want the townships to become the crowded places they sought to escape.

The conservation ethic -- and the belief that government has the right to enforce it -- isn’t that different from cultural conservatives who argue, with much justification, that an increasingly crude and sexualized culture has a negative impact on our social environment. The overriding message of Earth Day is that actions have consequences. It’s true with our culture, and it’s true with the environment.