The new materialism challenges us to love our possessions not less but more.  To cherish them enough to care about where they came from, who made them and what will happen to them in the future. Environmentalists are in a similar spirit, slowly redefining themselves less by what they are against, e.g., global warming, fossil fuel extraction, and runaway consumerism, then what they are for --  a healthy, balanced relationship with the material world that sustains us in all its delicate, interconnected beauty. This is both a philosophical and spiritual position. If we could truly cherish the things in our lives, wouldn’t we be the opposite of consumers?