Via Jeremy, a smart post from Patrick Deneen on the way Left vs. Right thinking is driving a lot of people’s reactions to environmental and resource challenges.

I continue to be somewhat amazed at the glib dismissal of global warming and other environmental problems on the part of many conservatives. There is almost no attempt to actually engage the issues except occasionally by cherry-picking experts like Bjorn Lomborg who take a contrarian view (though even Lomborg concedes that human caused climate change is a reality). As Professor Deneen quotes from a Salon.com article by Andrew Leonard, the “very idea that dirty Gaia-worshipping hippies might be right is absolute anathema.”

Deneen concludes:

What may be most productive in coming years is to stop calling this cadre of economic libertarians – what we now call “the Right” or even conservatism – conservatives. There is nothing they want to conserve – nothing in the natural or moral ecology. They are rapacious exploiters who want to use every last natural and cultural reservoir for their own immediate profit – even at the price of leaving nothing for their children. Recall, it was Dick Cheney who said “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis all by itself for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.” Probably true, but it’s a damned good place to start, and we fool ourselves if we think we are not going to need substantial reservoirs of personal and political virtue in coming years.

Soon, if not soon enough, I predict, there will be a party of conservatives and a party of “live now’ers.” Live now’ers have original sin on their side, and are likely to win a lot of votes until it’s clear that the grasshopper was wrong and the ant was right. Then they will tell us it’s time to get the guns. Are you sure that’s the side you want to be on?