The climate-change debate is one of those issues we've tossed into the great polarizing kettle. Either climate change is a catastrophe just around the corner requiring massive government intervention, or it's a lot of noise about nothing, perhaps even a hoax. You might find this interesting, a piece from someone of the center-right persuasion who doesn't see things in either-or terms:
Fourth and finally, it is important to recognize that some degree of warming is already hard-wired into the system. This means that some degree of adaptation will be necessary. Yet as above, recognizing the reality of global warming need not justify increased federal control over the private economy. There are many market-oriented steps that can, and should, be taken to increase the country's ability to adapt to climate change including, as I've argued here and here, increased reliance upon water markets, particularly in the western United States where the effects of climate change on water supplies are likely to be most severe.
I recognize that a relatively brief post like this is unlikely to convince many people who have set positions on climate change. I can already anticipate a comment thread filled with charges and counter-charges over the science. But I hope this post has helped illustrate that the embrace of limited government principles need not entail the denial of environmental claims and that a concern for environmental protection need not lead to an ever increasing mound of prescriptive regulation. And for those who wish to explore these arguments in further detail, there's lots more in the links I've provided throughout this post.
Those of us on each side of the debate like to think it's about science, but it's really more about politics. In fact, the whole climate-change brouhaha shows the dangers of mixing science and politics. Science is fluid, always seeking answers, always willing to change its mind as new evidence unfolds. Politics wants certainty, an immediate and permanent solution to problems perceived as static and unchanging until they're fixed. Basic incompatibility.
