There's another way of looking at all this in which the essential thing from the "liberal" point of view is defending individual choice as the fundamental value, rather than seeing the essential thing as being ready to collaborate with other people for the common good.

See this thread

Of course this draws the battle lines in a rather different way, and people might find themselves with some rather unexpected allies and enemies. The point is, the assumption that people's views can be lined up in a simple left/right spectrum just doesn't reflect what's really going on. And trying to fit views about environmental into that simplistic spectrum is a bit laughable.