Christian — and devout greenie

At first look, Brendan Woodward may seem like your typical Seattle-area greenie.

He's got his fleece pullovers. He covets the Prius. He talks about sustainability to anyone who will listen.Last year he started an eco-business, buying and selling carbon offsets to help businesses combat climate change.

But deep on his Web site, standardcarbon.com, beneath tips for green travel and the carbon footprint calculators, is a hint something's different.

"We believe in God, not Gaia," it reads. The Earth should be protected because "it is not owned by our human race, but belongs to God who placed us here as stewards."

I asked Woodward about that "God, not Gaia" thing.

"Yes, I am part of that evangelical right wing you guys always write about," he laughed. "I'm a home-schooled Christian. I'm a Republican.

"I also strongly believe my country and my party are missing the boat, badly, on energy issues and the environment."

There are fresh political winds blowing, aren't there? Woodward is 24, so maybe it's that young people are inspired. Or that the old campaign warriors are tired. But you can just feel that right vs. left, red vs. blue calcification starting to erode.

The Woodinville native is Exhibit A. Recently, when King County Republicans were drafting the 2008 party platform, Woodward tried to talk them into adopting a "Strategy for Climate Change."

His pitch was that inaction on emissions is not an option, regardless of whether global warming is real. Curbing pollution and breaking our addiction to oil will make the U.S. cleaner, stronger and freer — all supposedly bedrock conservative ideals.

The party elders ignored him.

"They acted like I was talking about an issue that doesn't exist," Woodward recalled.

Not the party youngers. Afterward, Matthew Lundh, the 23-year-old political director for the county GOP, e-mailed Woodward to commiserate:

"Some of those people are just never going to come around and frankly, we are the ones who are going to inherit this planet and I want to be making these decisions ... NOT THEM!"

We are the ones to inherit this planet. That's the new generation of Republicans talking.

It's strikingly the same refrain you hear at Obama gatherings. The system's broken, Obama people say. So let's make a new one. Let's go where the political parties won't.

These are some of the more hopeful political happenings of my lifetime. Crouching politics feels out. The GOP of Bush and Rove is dead. The timid Democrats are alive only because of Obama, and because they're not Republicans. Independence is what's in.

To what end? Woodward says "green is the new patriotism." America's energy crisis is its economic crisis and its global security crisis. Using government and free markets to solve that is the great challenge that could reunite us all.

Is that too Pollyanna? Well, Woodward's a Bible-quoting suburban conservative. I'm a nonbelieving urban liberal. If even we can agree, sure seems like there's something brewing. Maybe, something big.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.