(Why) are policies aimed at sustainability often associated with progressive/left-wing politics?

Question

It appears sustainable policies are often associated with progressive or left-wing politics. For example, the Wikipedia article on green politics states:

Green politics is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy.

Opposition to pipelines such as Nord Stream in Europe and Keystone in North America also appears to be linked with progessive policies.

Is this so?

Why are policies aimed at sustainability divisive at all?

Answer 1

One reason is the fiscal aspect of sustainability and renewable energies. Fiscal conservatives believe that there should be little to no government intervention in the economy, and renewable energy currently requires a large amount of government subsidies to be competitive.

A push for environmentalism also requires greater government control and regulation. Taxes on power plants for the amount of CO2 they emit, the Clean Air Act, and any regulation from the EPA are evidence of that. Conservatism generally points towards a smaller government with less government control, and so this idea goes against the conservative idea.

Another reason relates more closely to the idea of global warming, which leads some of the pushes for "green" technologies such as wind or solar.

Conservative think tanks and since the 1990s have opposed the concept of global warming; they challenged scientific evidence, publicised what they perceived as beneficial aspects of global warming, and stated their strong beliefs that proposed remedies would do more harm than good. [1]

For as to why liberalism has had a greater tendency to support increased environmental regulations:

Environmentalism appealed to the well-educated middle class, but aroused fears among lumbermen, farmers, ranchers, blue collar workers, automobile companies and oil companies whose economic interests were threatened by new regulations. [2]

[1] Aaron M. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap, "Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement's Counter-Claims," Social Problems, Nov 2000, Vol. 47 Issue 4, pp 499-522 in JSTOR

[2]Hays, Beauty, Health and Performance (1987) pp 287-328

Answer 2

The basest definition of "conservative" is someone who wants to keep(or conserve) things as they are, or adheres to more traditional values and more traditional ways of thinking

the word "liberal" no longer seems to have very much to do with it's base root word of libertas which means freedom, but It does continue to be a foil for conservative.

as such, the word progressive is probably more appropriate, as progressives are interested in progress or change.

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the difference between progressive and conservative is a fundamental trait of human nature.

Do you want to change things so they become better? or do you want to avoid change so they don't become worse?

Introducing more green energy is a change(or at the very least, fairly new), so it's only natural that it would be seen as progressive.

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SOURCES

• http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conservative
• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conservative
• https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+of+conservative&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative

• http://www.thefreedictionary.com/progressive

• http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive
• https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+of+progressive&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/progressive

Answer 3

There are 3 related basis for this:

1. Usually, proponents of "green" stuff are only interested in government-mandated/enforced/driven solutions to the problems.

   This "Big Government" approach is considered progressive, of course.

2. A lot of "green" movement has a political component - more specifically, anti-capitalist one. IOW, they don't see pollution/non-sustainability as bad intrinsically. They see it as proof of badness of free market/capitalism.

   Note: If you don't believe that, reflect that socialist countries - which have a significantly worse environmental record and worse pollution - rarely merit the "environmentalist" interest on nearly the same level. Also witness Greenpeace protesting NATO/US nuclear weapons (but not Soviet).

   Example: Belem declaration, quoting as its preambule from Morales:

   “The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model.” — Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, September 2007

   If you need a refresher on Soviet ecology, a good primer is "Ecocide in the USSR" by Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jr. Or this article: "Why Socialism Causes Pollution" by Thomas DiLorenzo

3. The solutions proposed by environmentalists almost invariably involve taking the money (via taxes) from "the rich" and spending it by the government, in a centrally planned way. Also a progressive associated philosophy.

   Quoting Brundtland Commission:

   Social Equality

   The Social Equality pillar of sustainable development focuses on the social well-being of people. The growing gap between incomes of rich and poor is evident throughout the world with the incomes of richer households increasing relative to the incomes of middle- or lower-class households. Global inequality has been declining, but the world is still extremely unequal, with the richest 1% of the world’s population owning 40% of the world’s wealth and the poorest 50% owning around 1%. The Brundtland Commission has made an impact in helping to reduce the number of people living on less than a dollar a day to just half of what it used to be, but this can also be attributed to growth in China and India. (src)