For people who care about the environment, making a judgment about Donald Trump is easy.
Trump has embraced policies that would allow the powerful to pollute without consequences. His plans would mean more smog, more asthma attacks, less productivity, and a less healthy future.
Hillary Clinton’s approach to environmental issues is clear, too. She sees climate change as a serious problem and wants to dramatically expand clean energy.
But what about Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson? Some progressives, unhappy with the political system and the major parties, might be tempted to consider Johnson. He was a millionaire Republican businessman, but since he hasn’t been subject to as much media scrutiny, voters can mold him into their own image.
The problem is that Gary Johnson’s actual positions on environmental issues are troubling. He is certainly not a con man like Trump, but his approach to the most important environmental challenges is deeply problematic.
Johnson says that climate change is “probably” happening. The fact that NASA, all major scientific organizations, and decades of data demonstrate the facts of climate science is apparently not quite enough for him.
It’s not surprising, then, that Johnson does not favor policies that would hold polluters accountable for the damage they are causing.
Johnson’s belief in the free market isn’t wrong – the market is the engine of economic growth – but without sensible rules, climate change is creating a market failure. Since it’s currently free for big companies to put carbon pollution in our atmosphere, they are effectively shifting trillions in costs to taxpayers and consumers, who must pay for the impacts. Johnson would leave it that way.
If Johnson doesn’t want national policies to deal with climate change, it’s hard to see how he would address the problem. Asking companies to volunteer to produce less pollution is hardly an effective answer.
However well-intentioned he is, Gary Johnson’s opposition to any effective climate policy would mean more global instability, dangerous droughts and heat waves, rising sea levels, and more asthma attacks.
The reality is that ignoring climate change leaves a huge and expensive burden on our children and grandchildren. As much as some people are unhappy with the state of politics, that is too high a price to pay.
