Truth v. The Machine » Archives » It ain’t easy being green

October 29th, 2007 by Jeff Kouba

On the way home from work tonight, I got stuck behind a car with a bumper sticker that said “Be Green: Help the Earth Live.”

This lady was certainly doing her part by poking along in the left lane at rush hour, leaving a good football field between her and the next car. The other lanes whizzing by, or me attempting to hook her license plate with my bumper as a gentle, prodding reminder were of no concern. She stuck to her principles. Fuel must be conserved.

Then, too, she might have been absorbed in her cigarette, the ashes of which she was flicking out the window. Remember my motto, class. When you’re a smoker, green or not, all the world’s your garbage can.

(Never mind that judging from her advanced girth, she’s done her share to help living creatures/plants on Earth not to live.)

The Strib had this today about the Guv’nuh.

Acknowledging that they might be “a bit of an odd couple,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty this afternoon said he nonetheless joined with Will Steger to raise the alarm about global climate change because countering it represents a “moral imperative.”
…
The pair, who spoke about climate at a conference on environmental issues affecting Lake Superior, said the governor will join Steger early next year on series of visits to places in the state where climate change is already showing its impact, and Pawlenty reiterated that he may rendezvous with Steger when the explorers returns to view shrinking ice sheets in the Canadian Arctic next spring.

Over at RF, Andy was nonplussed.

I believe that Gov. Pawlenty has done more to beat back true conservatism than the DFL legislative leaders. I believe if you want to know why Republicans lost so many House and Senate seats, you need to look no further than the top of the 2006 ticket.

His heart is in the right place, but I think that statement is a bit off the beam. Each of us should have a T-Paw shrine in our homes, and thank it every time we pass by it that Hatch is not the Governor. (And I maintain Bush and Iraq were the biggest factors in the GOP massacre last November, even here in MN.)

We conservatives could stand to be more engaged on the environment. Yes, we can rightly guffaw and chortle that the Nobel folks thought Algore making a movie was somehow about peace, but then what. (Yes, I know we’ll always be swimming upstream against a media that will characterize Republicans not as the Green Party, but as the Party of Soylent Green.)

As I see it, there are three choices when it comes to the climate.

It’s warming and it’s our fault. It’s warming due to natural causes. It’s not warming at all. There’s nothing unconservative about getting involved in the debate.

Posted: October 29, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Under: The Warming | 6 Comments »

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6 Responses to “It ain’t easy being green”

First Ringer Says:
October 29th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
There are any number of things on which T-Paw and I don’t see eye-to-eye (his forthcoming sojourner to the tundra among them), but it does say something of the uphill climb we face politically when few could argue that Pawlenty has been the most conservative governor in state history since maybe the 19th century.

When he was the House Majority Leader, Pawlenty talked and acted with a view of incrementalism. Such tectonic-speed results certainly don’t please the base, but when you consider that last year all three major party nominees for guv eschewed tax increases at least publically, you have to consider that a small victory in the right direction for a traditionally tax-and-spend state.

Conservatives should hold Pawlenty’s feet to the fire to keep him from drifting left, but we shouldn’t incinerate him.
Jeff Kouba Says:
October 30th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Yeah, I’ll take T-Paw any day in this state, though, as you say, he has strayed from orthodoxy on occasion.

The reason I think his Arctic trip is good politics, or at least not bad politics, is that I think we’ve ceded the issue to the Left.

If you did a poll and asked which party was better on the environment, would the GOP get 30%?

I think we could do some things to show green voters we care about the environment, too. Yes, the Left has an advantage in that they can just emote and say they just feel like they want to do something for the environment, and that’s enough to achieve saint status.

For us, that’s not usually how we do things, so we have to have something tangible. I don’t think it hurts to be seen as concerned about the environment.
SD63 Says:
October 30th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I’m with both of you on this one.

We should hold the hot poker to his feet, but it is also time to be engaged in this debate. Staying quiet or saying “there is no global warming PERIOD” will not work. That just makes it easy for them to pin the usual stereotypes on us.

Regarding Andy… it seems like T-Paw was the bully that picked on Andy when they were in elementary school and now that he has a blog he just can’t skip a chance to hammer him.
AAA Says:
October 30th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
What is to be gained by this trip?

Lend more credibility to alarmists like Steiger and Gore? Yep.

I am concerned for the environment too. I recycle, try to minimize my energy consumption, blah blah. That’s the “compassionate” angle he could push.

But, I fear that he is drifting towards the fringe on this one. The solutions the global warming types are advocating are liberty squashing and will be the end of the American way of life as we know it.

I’m sorry if I am getting back at that bully, but that bully is someone who I expected to see through the house of cards and realize that the green movement he is open to is simply absolute liberalism.

His trip is doing nothing but lending credibility to the non-sense that AZl Gore and his ilk are pushing.

I’d be all for a “conservation” (ahem conserv-ative) angle or answer, but it seems Pawlenty is more comfortable on the liberal approach on this issue.
Jeff Kouba Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I hear what you’re saying, and I too hope Pawlenty doesn’t drift into Algore land.

We do care about the environment, but who knows it? I think SD63 is right in that a lot of voters think our approach is just to say “there’s no global warming, period” and that’s it.

What I like about the Arctic trip is it can get us engaged in the issue.
First Ringer Says:
November 1st, 2007 at 12:34 am
Let me at least be on the record as to agreeing with Andy on this specific case. There is nothing good (either in politics or policy) to come out of a photo-op with a ranging left-wing explorer who is as qualified to comment on climate change as I am on mutual funds. If T-Paw wants to look “green” and ramble on about the corny magic of ethanol, I can tolerate it (even if I roll my eyes on occasion). But this is silly bordering on stupid.

If Pawlenty wanted to get in on climate change in a constructive way, talk to actual scientists and experts. Of course, the real scientists would hardly paint as dramatic and concise a picture as Gore or Steger would – and that’s precisely the value of talking to them and not the “Chicken Little” climate crowd.

Go to Como Zoo and look at a polar beer, Tim. But please don’t go up north.