Ideas and perceptions vary from person to person. However, objectively measuring those differences can be difficult. Titles like “Conservative” and “Liberal” will shift over time. Conservatives used to be against tariffs. Liberal labor unions and socialists supported tariffs. That flipped 180 degrees in 2018. Yet some conservatives were always “Green”. Teddy Roosevelt, a conservative from 100 years ago, liked to invade countries (conservative) but also created our National Parks system (liberal). What is and isn’t Green varies in America and around the world. Today, we compare and contrast American Treehugger Green with a new color, China Green.
Your perception of the environment has a lot to do with how wealthy you are, as individuals, as a location, and as a nation. From colonial days to just after World War II, America developed from a poor colony to a rich nation. In our earliest days, we had (or thought we had) an infinite amount of resources and fairly empty bellies. We chopped down forests, drained swamps, turned the Plains of the old West into farms, and pushed thousands of species into extinction. After WWII, America was filled up from shore to shore. Cities were crowded and dirty, and residents of poor neighborhoods suffered from infectious diseases (diphtheria, tuberculosis, flu), bad water, and poor air quality.
When you get richer, you demand a higher quality of life. A rich Big City family can simply move away when the city is too dirty and polluted. Greener and less polluted neighborhoods are on the edges of the city. Even more pristine neighborhoods are further out in the suburbs. Rich and educated citizens understand very complex threats… phosphates in detergents discharging into our drinking water, chemicals running off our lawns, effective but dangerous pesticides (DDT), strange chemicals in our milk (antibiotics, artificial hormones), acid rain (from smokestack pollution) that kills forests and lakes, hyper-deadly chemicals (dioxin) escaping from incinerator plants… the list goes on and on. The products that defined our prosperity now destroyed our health and longevity.
The education we needed for our high paying jobs allowed us to analyze the new dangers in our lives and develop actions to clean up the environment. China’s middle class has developed similarly, starting out as poor farmers and then becoming urban factory workers. Becoming a manufacturing economy meant building a lot of new infrastructure. China became industrial and polluted. Then, just as in America, richer and more educated Chinese citizens became demanded a better quality of life.
Leisure time was an invention of America in the 1950’s. Everyone wanted a car, and a golf course membership, family vacations and even a ticket on an airline for an offshore adventure. A golf course membership was the icon of success, but it soon became the icon of pollution as runoff from their lawns polluted rivers and lakes. Big cars meant prosperity but later meant environmental irresponsibility. But it was a consumer economy, and consumers could boycott golf courses that used too many chemicals or sprayed pesticides when the elementary school down the road was open. American and Chinese Green looked pretty much the same.
In the post-industrial world, we have a more nuanced color chart. American Green was defined by the political Left, and (barely) accepted by the Right (corporations, and individuals) if A) new regulations were not too painful and/or B) being Green gained rather than lost customers. Mainstream support for environmental issues developed when a highly educated public realized that if phosphates were bad, using a laundry detergent to clean your baby’s diapers could be… dangerous. “Additive-free” and “natural” became a selling point or could justify a premium price. Gluten-free, hormone free, MSG free, and no artificial dye became a new market for consumer goods. Being Green was now profitable.
America has pulled back on environmental protection. Regulating industrial pollution, improving air quality, and eliminating Coal power plants were now seen as a detrimental to our economy. Subsidizing solar panels, wind turbines, and renewable energy was anti-capitalist or just a waste of money. The Environmental Protection Agency was targeted for dismantling. Yet, Exxon Mobile recently admitted that Global Warming is real, “climate change is clear and the risk warrants action. Increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere are having a warming effect. There is a broad scientific and policy consensus that action must be taken…”. Yet, Washington conservatives like Ted Cruz are still using an obsolete playbook, telling us that Climate Change, “is not science — it is propagandizing.” And President Trump calls Climate Change a “Hoax”.
China’s deeper shade of Green is seen as positive and even necessary for the growth of the economy. China workforce is aging and shrinking. Creating entry-level factory jobs is no longer an economic priority. Shifting low paid workers to the more skilled service sector jobs is a priority. Citizens have demanded (and are receiving) clean lakes, rivers, and beaches. Chinese economists see alternative energy as a route to better-paying jobs and an expanding economy. It is a Win-Win for business and consumers.
Throughout the 20th century, America was the “Factory of the world”. In the 21st century, China holds that title. Just as America became prosperous through our enormous (and cheap) coal reserves, low-cost renewable power is China’s path to growth, by holding down the cost of products and services. By dominating renewable energy, China can remain unencumbered by the oil politics of the Middle East, Russia, and other unstable petroleum centers.
Ameria’s Green is looking washed out as we try to hold onto old tech and obsolete fuels, while China’s deeper shade of Green may propel them into a leadership role in alternative energy and environmental issues. Which is the right shade of Green? If China is right the deepest Green will be literally the richest Green there is!