We Can Have Green Conservatism - And We Should [For] the last 36 years, I have watched the pro-regulation, pro-litigation, pro-taxation liberals label themselves as the only Americans who care about the environment. The leftwing machine would have you believe that to care about clean air and water, biodiversity, and the future of the Earth you have to both buy in to their catastrophic scenarios and sign on to their command-and-control bureaucratic liberal agenda, including dramatic increases in government power and draconian policies that will devastate our economy, as the only solution to environmental challenges. The time has come to define a fundamentally different approach to a healthy environment and a healthy economy. The time has come for the development of Green Conservatism as an alternative to big bureaucracy and big litigation liberal environmentalism.
[For] the last 36 years, I have watched the pro-regulation, pro-litigation, pro-taxation liberals label themselves as the only Americans who care about the environment.
The leftwing machine would have you believe that to care about clean air and water, biodiversity, and the future of the Earth you have to both buy in to their catastrophic scenarios and sign on to their command-and-control bureaucratic liberal agenda, including dramatic increases in government power and draconian policies that will devastate our economy, as the only solution to environmental challenges.
The time has come to define a fundamentally different approach to a healthy environment and a healthy economy. The time has come for the development of Green Conservatism as an alternative to big bureaucracy and big litigation liberal environmentalism.
So what is Green Conservatism? Here are its basic values: 1. Green Conservatism favors clean air and clean water. 2. Green Conservatism understands biodiversity as a positive good. 3. Green Conservatism favors minimizing carbon loading in the atmosphere as a positive public value. 4. Green Conservatism is pro-science, pro-technology and pro-innovation. 5. Green Conservatism believes that green prosperity and green development are integral to the successful future of the human race. 6. Green Conservatism believes that economic growth and environmental health are compatible in both the developed and developing world. 7. Green Conservatism believes that we can realize more positive environmental outcomes faster by shifting tax code incentives and shifting market behavior than is possible from litigation and regulation.
On the other hand - at least it signals the authoritarian right is willing to consider the idea that climate matters.
That's a big clunky shift of the Overton window in the right direction. Especially if it means they spend even a little less time ranting about terrrra, Islamoblogoleftofascists, and Bill Clinton.
(But perhaps I'm just being cynical.)
