Climate change solutions, left, right and centre

Acknowledging the need to prevent climate change has officially become mainstream. How do we know this? Because it has its own political spectrum: a far right, a far left, and shadings in between.

It used to be that right-wingers were depicted as either unconcerned about the environment or even global warming deniers. While the debate still continues on whether global warming is human-caused, increasingly being viewed as right-wing doesn’t necessarily denote gun-toting, straw-chewing, Anne Coulter-quoting rednecks. Well…maybe it can still mean those things, but when it comes to the environmental right, you can increasingly add “eco-conscious” to the list.

So if the belief in curbing climate change has its own left, right and centre, what exactly is the approach of each ideology? Let Flow give you the abridged course of Climate Change Politics 101:

Left-wing climate change solutions

The most visible approach to fighting global warming from the left is to implement government legislation that will curb the production of greenhouse gases. Initiatives include carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs, both of which were introduced to BC earlier this year and gaining more widespread interest across other provinces. Other left-leaning approaches to stopping climate change include banning, subsidizing and other financial incentive programs. The premise behind these approaches is that big business cannot be trusted to curb its own emissions, and that government intervention is required in order to stimulate a market for clean energy.

Right-wing climate change solutions

The view from here is that market forces will solve climate change woes by necessitating the growth of new, innovative and environmentally sustainable technologies. In other words, leaving the government out. As one National Post blogger notes: “Rising prices for fossil fuels will make alternatives more attractive to industrial and individual consumers – and point to which are the most practical – far faster than government prodding and poking of the marketplace.”

So, with right-wing economic ideology based in Adam Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” of market forces, the environmental right now believes invisible market forces, such as commodity prices and demand for cleaner technologies, will push individuals and businesses towards innovative solutions due to the financial gains such solutions bring to their enterprise.

Centrist climate change solutions

Tucked in the middle is an environmental centrist movement that is seeing influential voices from both right and left wing camps who are, instead of engaging in yelling matches with those on the other side, are calling on their own, what New York Times refers to as “political brethren” to move towards the “pragmatic center on climate and energy”. For example, traditionally conservative Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, has written a book entitled A Contract With the Earth, in which he challenges conservatives to acknowledge climate change and embrace the need for the affordable reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. As the New York Times article describes, Gingrich’s book is written primarily for conservatives, empathizing with their frustration with the left’s reliance on government intervention in the fight against climate change and encouraging them to partake in crafting a new “entrepreneurial environmentalism.”

Another voice in the centrist movement is that of Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, authors of the book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. Their main criticism of the left is the use of fear tactics in mobilizing western society toward a greener way of life.

“Martin Luther King didn’t give the ‘I have a nightmare’ speak; he gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech,” explains Shellenberger in a video interview. “We need politics that is positive and that inspires people around an exciting and inspiring vision of the future.” Shellenberger believes the solution to climate change is, much like the right-wing approach, market-oriented and technology-driven but also similar to the left-wing approach in that he does believe government has a role to play in terms of investing in new technologies rather than legislating against old ones.

So next time someone asks you what you think should be done about climate change, ask them if they want the right answer, the left answer, or the one in the centre. Or better yet, reflect on where you stand. The more people think about how much of a role government should play in the environmental movement, the more people become engaged in the political process. And the more people educate themselves about politics and environment. the more people can participate in one of the most important conversations in the history of mankind – preserving the planet on which we all live.