Conservatives, how do you propose to solve environmental problems?

Question

Believe it or not this is a genuine question and I am just seeking to understand your position better (Hard to believe on YA sometimes, I know)

By environmental problems, I don't neccesarily mean global warming, per se. I don't want this to devolve into a global warming debate.

Rather, I am speaking more about polluted rivers and irresponsible industries polluting the air. There is firm science backing up that pollution is harmful to your health. Alot of conservatives support the second ammendment and enjoy hunting. It seems like some sort of environmentalism would be neccesary to make sure that your grandchildren will be able to enjoy hunting as well.

I'm seeking mature responses so that I can better understand your position.

I am not insinuating that pollution is anybody's fault. Please be mature. If the conservative position is "pollution doesn't matter" please state that.

I can understand you not wanting to save the environment at the expense of the economy. I was hoping for other suggestions besides the ones typically spouted off by liberals.

Answer 1

good question.
Actually one of the reason I became a conservative.
I believe the conservatives are just as good if not better stewards of the enviorment.
For example I was a merchant marine for about 6 years before went back to military and school. I worked on Ships that were grossly nasty polluters. Under Clinton we the companies were fined just enough to to make the repair or upgrade to expensive.
Bush came to office and he told companies that if they upgraded to higher standards he would not only pause the fines for 2 years but help give tax credits to pay for the upgrades.
You have to ask yourself what did more the enviorment. The fines or the upgrades? Bush got slammed for catering to BIG business when he actually helped the enoviorment more than the previous administration.
After that I started looking into other claims by my affiliated political party and found allot of them to be of the same type. So I switched parties.
I guess the left pushed issues to far so I woke up. My interests were pro enviorment not pro socialism

Answer 2

We'll survive for a long time to come, but I think without immediate action to sustain our resources and stop our further expansion and destruction, the Earth is going to be one ugly, horrible place to live. Look back as little as a hundred years ago and this vast planet has changed so much. Not for the better either. Sure, we solved the problem of small pox in the U.S., but now we have lung cancer and chemical poisoning from plastics. We have big buildings and fancy cars, but kids still go hungry and without medical care. Mother nature may still control the weather and have a boat load of new diseases ready for us, but we've done a great job of destroying this place and ourselves all on our own. It's always good to take in the big picture.

Answer 3

A lot of conservatives support rational environmentalism like the clean air act and such. Its when environmentalism takes on an anti-progress and standard of living approach that turns me off at least. No one wants to live in a polluted area and no one enjoys during so. However, by enacting onerous regulations to prevent industry from growing or even surviving hurts us all by lowering our standard of living in a variety of ways. Thats why in the more industrialized nations like the US and Europe we are able to afford a large number of environmental safeguards that we currently have in place. In the developing world, raising the standard of living is the biggest priority than protecting the environment.
Environmentalism's biggest flaw is that it is very expensive as the disposal of waste and protection of wilderness cause all sorts of goods to go up. In addition, a lot of the moves today by environmentalists have very little or no benefit to people. Its hard to expect people to care about how long a tree has grown in a certain spot or the plight of some earthworm.

Answer 4

Most of the pollution in the world does not come from the US. We have done our part. America is a very clean country compared to most places in the world. We have much stricter standards than other countries. I believe our current standards are fine, if anything they are too strict on certain issues. When it comes to controlling other countries pollution, it's tough to police. You could put sanctions against these countries, but that will probably be counter productive. You should be thankful that you have some of the cleanest drinking water in the world. Many people in these other countries would drink from our toilets. Here is an article about polluted cities around the world, as you read it, you can clearly see that we are not the problem.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15320729/

Answer 5

OK, seeing you do not seem to think conservatives have answers, you tell us. Your phrasing comes across as insulting. You direct it at cons rather than everyone. If you think that any group wants unclean air, pollution and bad water, you are not thinking and your opinions of conservative is in the way of rational thought. OK, there are many things we can do to start lets clean the air. Demand car maker start reducing all emission each year until we get to better levels. Industries must pay to clean there mess. We may be to late but we should ASAP but not all at once, in a panic. Peace

Answer 6

what is more harmful, the crap food they are pushing on us, the lead, mercury and formaldehyde they are putting in our children's vaccine since early 90s causing the skyrocketing in autism in children. in new jersey 1 in 90 children in new jersey have been diagnosed with autism.

my point being, get the government out of it. if the media would do their job and report the environmental problems, the free market would solve these problems. the government wants to hide these things. this is why the media won't report on it.

what i mean by the free market would solve the problems is look at it like this... if the media would say that general motors was causing all kinds of pollution that was poisoning our waters, the american public would be in an uproar.

solution is get these corrupt corporate fed politicians out of office and get people in there that are responsible to the people instead of the very corporations that are causing the pollution. government is not the answer.

ron paul is our only hope.

Answer 7

I am a far right conservative. The truth is that we all individually do our part. Why? Because we like to save money and be efficient too. For example I switched all my lightbulbs, insullated the attic, installed a high efficiency Furnace. Why? Because it is a great investment.

Also, nobody cares about the environment more than those that live in the country, i.e. CONSERVATIVES. Hunters, fishermen, campersfarmers, etc. They all want a clean environment. Don't let the liberal lie to you and make you think that all conservatives are white collar CEOs and rich politicians. But then at the same time they say they are all red-neck hillbillies. See the lies?

Answer 8

First govt should tax oil companies and give those dollars to the ethonal industries.

Second- Anyone who drives a car which runs on gas should have to pay an extra tax. If they don't care about people's lives, then they shouldn't care to pay extra for it.

Third- We should force people to walk or ride a bike to work at least once a week. Anyone that intends to drive should have to pay a $500.00 fine. The only ones that should be allowed to drive is our law enforcement to catch law breakers.

Forth- A tax increase to help the bring in more alternative energy and stop the horrid power plants that distroy Americans lives.

There is no better protection then government protection.

Answer 9

There is more to pollution than just the rivers etc.. as you have stated. Can start by cleaning out DC, there is major pollution there and will never change untill all are voted out, and start clean.

Answer 10

If they were truly conservative, then they would believe in small government with more local control. If you put the control of the environment back into the hands of the everyday people that have to live in it, I think that you would likely start to see some improvement. Decentralization, and local authority could do wonders for our natural systems. Too bad neither party supports these things. The Libertarians and the Greens just might be on to something...