I think a lot of good people get into a knee-jerk reaction to "environmentalism". Since liberals and environmentalists try to "save the earth", we conclude it must be a bad thing, and strive to do the opposite: we pride ourselves on using incandescent light bulbs, on doing NOTHING to save energy, etc.
But we'd be simply going over to the other extreme!
The true path is this: don't worry about population, carbon dioxide levels, etc. because God will take care of that. He commanded us to "be fruitful and multiply" and He commands us to use Marriage for its proper end.
However, when we waste anything we are being ungrateful to God for His great gifts. If someone threw a gift back in your face, would you be happy? Of course not.
God gives us food, energy, and even a beautiful earth -- we should strive to keep it that way, as long as we worry about our soul first.
The priest in the article was trying to say that a saint won't destroy the earth -- but he won't even have to "try" -- he'll just be himself. But people CAN focus on saving the earth and stop there, neglecting their soul. Then what good does it do them?
Composting your food scraps (to take one example) just makes good sense. God designed vegetables to grow best "organically" -- not in depleted soil soaked in pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
And conserving water, electricity, and gasoline is just being frugal -- it helps me to raise my family on one income. That's certainly Catholic and a good thing.
I do things the way God would have me do them -- whether or not the environmentalists would be happy. In some ways they'd love me, in other ways they'd be furious! Let them scratch their head about the apparent "contradiction" and just MAYBE it will make them stop and think about their position.
I can see it now:
"He is overpopulating the earth with his 3 kids under 3. But he doesn't generate much garbage, he grows a lot of his own food, and the electric bill for his family of five is lower than the average person living by himself. ARRGH! I don't get it!"
Matthew