I say “conservatives” because there is nothing genuinely conservative about pretending that an existential threat doesn’t exist. As I see it, there are three separate strands of “conservative” thought:
1. Climate change is a hoax. It doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, there is a mountain of objective, undisputed data which shows that the planet is warming. Taking this position requires you to ignore the evidence.
2. Climate change is real, but is a purely natural phenomenon. If you truly believe this, the logical response is to funnel money into capital improvements that address the symptoms of climate change, if not its causes. That would require increased federal spending and a larger state. As a result, #1 is more popular among “conservatives.”
3. Climate change is real, and at least partly man-made, but doing anything about it won’t be cost-effective. This approach essentially shifts the costs of climate change from fossil fuel producers to the victims of natural disasters; it doesn’t make them go away. No politician is going to admit to believing that the fossil fuel industries are more important than the lives of the victims of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, but there you have it.
The best we can hope for in the foreseeable future is a shift to #2 and a realization, without openly admitting it, that it is more cost-effective to prepare for disasters than to pay for clean-up.