Climate Change: We Need Conservatives to Fight Climate Change

The unprecedented hurricanes that have hit Texas and Florida, and the wildfires that have rampaged across California, seem to be pushing some reluctant conservatives from climate change skepticism to acceptance of reality. If so, that's great, because they're uniquely positioned to do something about it.

Scientists have long predicted that climate change would lead to more extreme hurricanes, and it makes sense that hotter air would exacerbate wildfires as well. Of course, the amount of randomness in these extreme events is so great that it doesn’t really make sense to switch one’s belief just because of a couple of storms. But if people like Republican Senator John McCain had been slowly edging toward abandoning climate change skepticism, and this was simply the final piece of data that pushed them over the edge -- well, better late than never.

For many Republican leaders, neither fire nor flood provides a reason to deviate from the party line that the threat of climate change is being exaggerated by liberals. That’s sad, because conservative ideas would be very helpful in the fight to limit further global warming.

First of all, conservatives are probably more likely to focus on the international aspect of the problem. American activists tend to put pressure on the U.S. government -- or on state and local governments -- to take unilateral action. That makes sense for activists, because they can’t do much about other countries or regions. But pro-business Republicans are wary of taking unilateral action, because if U.S. companies curb their carbon usage while their rivals in China, India and other developing countries don’t, it’ll mean a loss of competitiveness.

Full story at https://bloom.bg/2xaHblL

Source: Bloomberg

 

 

 

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