Greater Democracy: Right Turn on Green

June 21, 2006

Right Turn on Green

Something is happening in English politics we should know about. Ode Magazine has published a very interesting essay by Jay Walljasper in their issue 34:

Right Turn on Green

Excerpt:

The rise of a political paradox brings hope for the world

Modern politics is notorious for the way it creates strange new meanings for familiar words. “National security,” for instance, now means attacking distant countries. “Choice,” in American electoral debates, is a secret code for abortion, and “family” signifies fierce opposition to gay rights. “Us,” in the minds of some European political candidates, refers exclusively to white people.
But the word that has undergone the most dramatic transformation at the hands of politicians is “conservative.” It once clearly described a political philosophy devoted to preserving tradition. But powerful leaders around the world now use the term to justify a complete reordering of society according to the wishes of global corporations and radical free-market economists. The merit of these policies is open to discussion, but it seems obvious that this kind of political agenda is anything but conservative.
“It’s no accident that ‘conservative’ and ‘conservation’ are almost the same word,” notes American environmentalist philosopher Bill McKibben. “But what we call conservative today has been captured by something else—the idea that we need economic growth at all costs. That can be ruinous to our environment and our communities.” That’s the great irony of politics today: The very idea of conservation—conserving the environment, natural resources, energy, a sense of community or anything else—is considered unnecessary, or even a dangerous obstacle to economic progress, by most so-called Conservatives. U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney summed up the prevailing right-wing view when he said, “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis... for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”
This is what makes the recent turn of events in British politics so fascinating. The Conservative Party, which earned the undying wrath of environmentalists when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, is now trumpeting green issues in an effort to unseat the ruling Labour Party. The new Conservative leader, David Cameron, who assumed power last fall, quotes Gandhi in urging people “to become the change we want to see in the world.” He can be seen riding his bike all over London and plans to add solar panels and a wind turbine to his home in the fashionable Notting Hill neighbourhood. He’s gone so far as to question the dominance of corporate power in the UK, declaring in a recent newspaper ad, “We should not just stand up for big business but to big business.”
While this might sound like some sort of political gimmick, there are signs that Cameron is sincere about pioneering a new brand of “green” conservativism—which could become as globally influential as Thatcher’s free-market policies were in the 1980s. If the environment ceases to become a divisive issue among parties of the left, right and centre around the world, we will see a new flowering of green initiatives.

Read the whole article at: Right Turn on Green

Thanks to Greater Democracy member Erika Keller Rogoff for bringing this to my attention.

Posted by Jock Gill at June 21, 2006 11:35 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Tony Blair is creating a big opening for the Conservative Party with his embrace of nuclear power. Blair carefully kept the issue of building more nuclear plants off the table during the last election.

But barely before the last ballot dropped into the box, Blair gave notice that he was putting the "nuclear option" back on the table by calling for a new national energy review. It quickly became clear that the review was a farce, and that Blair had already decided to build more nuclear plants. Blair recently fired a top environmental aide, allegedly because the aide was not sufficiently enthusiastic in public about Blair's nuclear plant-building program.

The nuclear industry in Britain is much more controversial than in the United States. Blair's embrace of things nuclear has UK enviros up in arms.

So the anti-nuclear fruit is already hanging pretty low, if the Conservatives want to go that way.

I hope that people who have identified themselves as "conservatives" are beginning to wake up about the dangers to the environment that "free market" economic policies have produced. What remains to be seen is what these people will do when they are forced, as they will be, to confront the role of unregulated corporations and the "free market" in producing environmental harm.

Converting to a green economy based on minimizing the use of energy and material throughput has the potential to create millions of new jobs. This proposition has been true for decades, at least since Jimmy Carter shivered in his sweater. But as Herman Daly, Amory Lovins, and so many other analysts have demonstrated ad nauseum, the political and structural obstacles to realizing this green future are very daunting.

If we guided our national energy policies by wisdom and common sense, we would have switched to a green economy long ago. Instead, we have elected George Bush to office two times.

Given the slow pace of change to date, I fear that despite all of the evidence already on the table, we will not act until there is an essentially catastrophic, unavoidable stimulus, like an overnight tripling of oil prices after a series of terrorist attacks on major oil ports, say.

In the meantime, we should welcome anyone who appears to be moving towards understanding the importance of environmental issues, regardless of their previous party or ideological brand. It's as true in politics as it is in physics, it's much easier to move something along if it's already moving in the direction you want to go.

Posted by: Dick Bell at June 21, 2006 2:07 PM