Environmentalism

Reading this post over at Washington Monthly's blog reminded me of a conversation I had with a Republican at the Union County Fair a couple days ago. He was advocating massive expansion of domestic oil drilling (specifically offshore and in ANWR) and prefaced the discussion with something to this effect, "Don't try and use global warming as a reason not to drill because I don't believe in it."

My response, "That's fine. There are lots of other reasons not to expand drilling: oil spills, air pollution, habitat disruption, short-term solution, etc."

It was good timing, then, that the above-mentioned post was written. In short it says that environmentalists need to lay off of the global warming mantra and talk more about dirty air, filthy water, lost animal habitat, ruined forests, dead lakes, trash everywhere, etc. In other words, there is a lot more to environmentalism than global warming.

I certainly agree, although that does not incline me to put the fight against global warming on the backburner. Instead, let us highlight that "saving our planet" means more than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Not only is this the correct thing to do, it is also practical. There are many people out there who are not interesting in global warming but who are willing to take on air pollution because their child has asthma, clean up rivers because they love fishing, or pick up trash because they want their surroundings to be beautiful. It's long past time we find allies wherever they may lie.