Some green theorists have criticized John Locke's theory of property as the source of liberalism's failure to address environmental degradation. Yet when properly read, Locke's Second Treatise provides a fruitful source for constructing an environmentally sensitive and sustainable twenty-first-century liberalism. This article contends that Locke's economic, political, and social circumstances sensitized him to issues of scarcity and the importance of material resources that are critical to a twenty-first-century environmental liberalism. His theory of property limits individual rights by establishing rules of fair play (enough and as good), prohibiting waste (spoilage), and requiring the support of the poor (sufficiency). His textparticularly, the "enough and as good proviso"-connects equality, fairness, and the common good to the natural world.

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