There’s a faction of conservatives reaching out in Central New York and across the country to engage fellow conservatives with a different angle on climate change.
Former South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis is Executive Director of republicEn.
“We’re different than the Environmental Left. The Environmental Left ask, ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ We ask a very different question. We say, ‘Can free enterprise solve climate change?’ We think it starts a very different conversation that Conservatives can feel comfortable with.”
Inglis was joined by former Utica-area Congressmember Richard Hanna at Syracuse University who says that recent hurricanes are a wake-up call.
“It shouldn’t be a belief system. It should be something to do with science and trying to understand the issues. And they're not easy, but to deny it just for the sake of denying it - because it’s easier to put something off than to deal with it - is foolhardy.”
Inglis echoed Hanna’s sentiments.
“Some of us just don’t apparently believe in thermometers or yardsticks, because we honestly have people who say that sea level hasn’t risen. Does a wildfire have to burn down your house? Does a drought have to starve you before you realize that this real? So some people are going to be slow to get the memo.”
Inglis knows they have a long way to go in what he calls a “marathon.”
“We’ve got to build a tremendous new constituency of Conservatives who are ready to have a conversation about climate change. Progressives are already there, but on the Conservative side, there’s a lot of ground that we’ve got to gain.”
At least one student at the forum seemed persuaded. Robert George says hearing their message felt less confrontational.
“There’s so many differing opinions. There’s so many different graphs and statistics out there, but having Conservatives in there actually giving their opinions definitely does sway us. It’s not Liberals in there telling me ‘You’re a Conservative and that’s a problem.’”
George says the discussion made it clear climate change is a priority among conservatives. For more information on conservative environmentalism and republicEn, visit republicen.org.
