An environmental politics discrepancy brought to you courtesy of the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers:
“Left-wing environmentalists, living in cities where concrete has largely replaced nature, will brag about their environmental successes while claiming the planet is doomed.
Conservatives, more likely to live in rural areas, surrounded by nature, will downplay environmental politics – but will live the values they express in their private life.”
Why is this important?
According to Myers, the discrepancy is indicative of the current environmental politics, i.e. “the political value of environmentalism is now greater than actually helping the environment.” The true key to helping the environment is not through liberals’ “green” agenda. It’s through a healthy respect of free market principles. Liberals’ green policies pale in comparison to free market effects on technology, consumer desire to get “the most bang for the buck,” and personalized solutions to reduce resource use. Myers,
“Hybrid cars were created when Toyota saw the opportunity to let consumers save money on gas and help the planet. Soda cans today use much less aluminum, reducing the use of energy. Coca-Cola developed PlantBottle, a plastic bottle made partially with renewable resources…
“None of these earth-saving trends came from politicians, although they jumped on the bandwagon later…
“In a free market, people must prioritize based on effectiveness, not symbols, because they are accountable to the bottom line. Wasteful, ineffective businesses are bankrupt businesses…
“The left loves big, government-run projects that impose one-size fits all policies…
“Most citizens, on the other hand, support smaller, personalized solutions, choosing individual approaches that work best to reduce resource use.”
Leave a Reply