But let me say that I’m not going to open up that “debate” here again. That was one of the less edifying recent episodes in The Corner.

I’m not sure which conservatives are endorsing left-liberal environmental strategies. Not the green-minded Evangelicals, who are quite clear where they diverge from the mainstream environmentalists. Not Wendell Berry, who is no conservative, but who refuses to endorse this or that campaign by the environmentalists because of what he sees as the movement’s refusal to accept that human communities have legitimate needs and rights. The history of the Soviet bloc (and of contemporary China) makes it abundantly clear that the state cannot be relied on to clean up the environment. But common sense should tell us that industry itself, absent state pressure, likely won’t do it either. I don’t believe in demonizing the private sector on the environment – indeed, some of the most innovative ideas for pollution clean-up, such as cap-and-trade, have come from using market forces – but too many conservatives have too little concern about the environment, thinking it’s merely something for liberals to worry about. I spoke to one conservative Evangelical who told me at his church, the common view is that God gave us this world to use as we like. That is a deeply unconservative point of view. But as long as we on the Right respond to legitimate concerns about the environment with what Judge Harris called “a reflex instead of an acknowledgement,” we leave this important area of moral, political and public policy inquiry largely to the Left. Why would we do that?