Environmentalism: Not Just for Dirty Hippies

Our old friend Tim Carney has a great piece up on the presumed conflict with being a conservative (or libertarian) and being an environmentalist. Or, to put it another way, why you don’t have to be red to be a green:

…we ought to resist falling into the temptation many conservatives and libertarians face, and decide that concern for the environment or waste is a flighty thing for dirty hippies. Younger conservatives, used to being contrarians on campuses dominated by imbalanced lefties, find it cute to advocate paving the rainforests. One prominent center-right activist in town likes to joke in his off-the-record meetings, “Kill trees because trees killed Sonny Bono.” As jokes or barbs to rile up self-righteous debating partners, these might be fine, but we shouldn’t forget that conservation and stewardship of creation really are good things.

The rest of the current issue of AFF’s Brainwash is here.