preservationist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who advocates for the preservation of natural or man-made landmarks.

   Thanks to cheap storage and easy copying, our digital souls have the potential to be truly immortal. But do we really want everything we’ve done online – offhand comments, camera-phone snaps or embarrassing surfing habits – to be preserved for posterity? One school of thought, the “preservationists”, believes we owe it to our descendants.

2. 2
   noun

   someone who advocates the preservation of historical sites or endangered species or natural areas

Etymology

From preservation + -ist.