Greatest Threat to the World.

Differences Between the Left and Conservatives Part II

Greatest Threat to the World.

For leftist ideology, climate change is seen as the greatest existential threat. Since the 1960s, each decade has brought urgent warnings about environmental catastrophe: in the 1960s, predictions of oil running out; in the 1970s, fears of a coming ice age; in the 1980s, dire warnings about acid rain destroying crops; in the 1990s, the ozone hole; in the 2000s, melting ice caps; and in the 2010s, projections of coastal cities underwater due to rising sea levels. Many of these predictions were alarmist and did not materialize as forecasted, though some, like ozone recovery and acid rain reduction, were addressed through policy and technological advances. The most visible, lasting changes have often been economic: higher energy costs and, in some regions, less reliable power grids, with blackouts in places like California and parts of Europe.

For conservatives, the greatest threat to society is human evil—corruption, violence, and the erosion of moral values. While most conservatives acknowledge that climate change is real and agree on the importance of environmental stewardship—such as reducing pollution, protecting natural resources, and addressing issues like overfished oceans or deforestation—they reject policies that could devastate the economy based on existential threats. Many conservatives are open to nuclear energy as a carbon-free solution, but point out that the left often opposes it due to concerns about nuclear waste, without offering clear regulations or alternatives for managing that waste. At the same time, renewable energy sources like wind and solar also produce waste at the end of their life cycles, raising questions about how this waste will be managed differently from that of nuclear or other energy sources.