Green Conservatism - Πράσινος Φιλελευθερισμός

I just saw this excellent video with a speech by Newt Gingrich, where he defines and makes a case for "green conservatism", where market forces will be used to save the environment. He also shows how catastrophic the leftist activism can be for the environment, by giving the example of the anti-nuclear energy movement (Jane Fonda et al.) in the early 80's: If nuclear energy had been adopted in US at the same level as it had in France, emitted carbon would have been reduced by more than 2 billion tonnes by now, number much higher than the cuts proposed in Kyoto Treaty for US.

I do not however want to underplay the irresponsible position (at least until recently) of the American right that tends to react so emotionally to whatever "the other side" is saying. More on that, here

"What global warming? It's all a conspiracy"

It is really disappointing to see Andreas Andrianopoulos, a leading greek liberal intellectual, to fully adopt the WSJ and other global warming deniers' arguments that actually there is no global warming and it is all a conspiracy of the leftist media (that means basically all of the media apart from FOX), Greenpeace and the anti-capitalist movement. But even if there is a threatening global warming, we learn from Adnrianopoulos, well, let's be cynical about it, evolution doesn't necessarily need humans.

I am not going to discuss the ubiquitous evidence that the EXISTING global warming IS indeed caused by human activity. I used to doubt in the past, but the recent years all the evidence from all independent agencies agree on the facts. And as Keynes said: "When facts change, I change my mind. What do you do Sir?"

What I really find more interesting is to observe how intelligent and usually independent minded people can get so blinded by their biases. Currently, some liberal thinkers feel that if you are pro-market you should be automatically a global-warming denier and consequently pro-pollution (given that pollution is a byproduct of economic growth). It is ironic to notice that in this line of thought they agree 100% with their intellectual rival, Greenpeace.

But they are both wrong. They forget that it was the market and the private sector that has provided environmental friendly solutions by developing all these new clean technologies: recycling, alternative energy etc. And currently, private equity funds and banks invest trillions in alternatives. It seems that the market will save humanity again -but only if we are all aware of the situation and boost the necessary demand for clean energies.

The environment is too important to leave it to the leftist/Greenpeace loonies. I, for one, am not willing to hand them victory in such a defining issue.