Conservatives go green

An interesting article from Newsweek (August 14) on how environmentalism has gone mainstream:

“Something weird is happening in the once marginal world of environmentalism. The green cause is no longer the preserve of woolly-minded liberals and fringe activists. Its tenets are being actively pursued by business leaders, stockholders and investment managers.”

In fact in my view environmentalism went mainstream in the 1970s but now conservative politicians are embracing it more openly than ever. As Newsweek argues:

“Conservative politicians once skeptical of the green movement have been reacting to the pressure. Last week, California’s Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met with British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to promote the idea of a transatlantic carbon-emissions market. He also wants to reduce his state’s greenhouse-gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. David Cameron, the new leader of Britain’s Conservative Party whose revamped slogan is “Vote Blue, Go Green,” has visited the Arctic to see firsthand the effects of global warming. He cycles to work, and is redesigning his Edwardian house in London to include a wind turbine and solar panels, which will cut energy use by 30 percent. In Germany, the Greens and the conservatives recently agreed to join forces to run the city government of Frankfurt, the first such coalition in the country’s history. President Jacques Chirac of France is promoting a new “solidarity” levy to be paid by all air travelers.”

Crunchy Cons – to use a term coined by Rod Dreher – seem to rule much of the world.