Beware the Precautionary Principle
December 7, 2006
by The Social Issues Research Centre
"A new mantra is beginning to occupy pride of place in debates on all environmental
issues, whether they be to do with food safety, genetic engineering or global
warming – the precautionary principle. Originating in 1960s Germany as
Vorsorgeprinzip (literally foresight planning) it has been increasingly seized upon by
green activists and other romantics since the 1970s as an unanswerable credo – when
considering technological innovation, exercise caution with regard to its potential
consequences."
Closing the Green Gap of Market Liberalism
December 1994
by Karl Hess, Jr.
"Greens and market liberals can engage in the common cause of good environment
and sustainable liberty if they will only take the time to appreciate and exploit
the less obvious and deeper expressions of the free market paradigm.
Sustaining free-ranging ecological processes may require neighbors and neighborhoods
to cooperate and enter into an array of protective covenants and binding social
agreements at the local level. Communities that value open spaces and untrammeled
vistas may have to find new tools of self-governance to curb the tragedy of the
commons that is now transforming desirable environments into exploited landscapes.
Associations and cooperatives may have to be formed to protect unbounded communities
of plants and animals and steward free-flowing streams of water and air."
The Commons: Tragedy or Triumph?
April 1999
by Bruce Yandle
"Human beings can and do avoid the tragedy of the commons.
But doing so requires property rights and markets, which must be defended
if the triumph is to continue."
Conservation and Speculation
by Dwight R. Lee
"The speculation that results from private property and the desire for profits is
the most powerful force for beneficial conservation."
Conservation, Ecology, and Growth
by Murray Rothbard
"What we need is more economic growth, not less; more and better technology, and not
the impossible and absurd attempt to scrap technology and return to the primitive
tribe. Improved technology and greater capital investment will lead to higher living
standards for all and provide greater material comforts, as well as the leisure to
pursue and enjoy the "spiritual" side of life."
Destroying the Environment
by Mary J. Ruwart
"We are more likely to protect the environment when we own a piece of it and profit
by nurturing it."
Eco-Fascism
by Russell Madden
"The violations of private property rights that have flowed from the environmental
movement and its adherence to the erroneous theory of "intrinsic value" have already
caused intense hardships for many people. Individuals have been prevented from
developing their land as they best see fit because of claims by environmentalists
that such usage would threaten an endangered species, a coastline, a wetland, or the
general "character" of some landscape. The contention is that efforts to enjoy the
benefits of these properties would destroy the value which that land or animal or
plant supposedly possesses by its mere existence regardless of its relationship to
specific human beings."
Eco-Industrial Parks: The Case for Private Planning
by Pierre Desrochers
"Would centrally planned eco-industrial parks (EIPs)—communities of businesses than
recycle each other’s by-products—make industry greener and more efficient? The lessons
of several private EIPs suggest that short of removing regulatory barriers to resource
recovery, government planners can do little to improve upon the industrial symbiosis of
the free market."
Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation edited by Walter Block
reviewed by William H. Peterson
"The key, then, to this work lies in its subtitle, A Reconciliation. Fraser senior
research fellow and editor Walter Block holds in his tone-setting contribution that
ecology is really a branch of economics, even if he is willing to concede that economics
just may be a branch of ecology.
The foundation of each is, or ought to be, private property rights. He accordingly says
that ecological and economic costs are inseparable—two sides of the same coin. The two
are intellectually indistinguishable insofar as our relations with nature are
involved—but only if all costs are fully taken into account."
Economics, Ecology, and Exchange: Free Market Environmentalism
by Robert Taylor
A bibliographic essay about market solutions to environmental problems. It summarizes the major developments in the literature of free-market
environmentalism up to 1992.
The Economics of Ecology: Angry Planet or Beautiful World?
by Mark Skousen
"In sum, free-market environmentalism has come a long way in showing how to replace
the regulatory fist of command with a greener invisible hand. Many free-market think
tanks, such as PERC and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, have challenged the
supremacy of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace."
Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism Joseph L. Bast,
Peter J. Hill, Richard C. Rue
reviewed by Doug Bandow
"Many good books have appeared on the environment and the environmental movement in
recent years. Ronald Bailey, Michael Fumento, Lou Guzzo, and Dixy Lee Ray, among others,
have produced devastating studies of environmental foolishness. Thoughtful
environmentalists like Wallace Kaufman and Martin Lewis have written sharp critiques of
the dishonesty and radicalism of movement activists. But if you want the one book that
concisely explains both the real ecological state of the world and offers sensible,
market-oriented solutions to environmental problems, it is Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense
Guide to Environmentalism. Written by a trio of free market analysts and outdoorsmen,
Eco-Sanity should provide the standard against which future environmentalist
claims are measured."
The Efficient Amount of Pollution
by Dwight R. Lee
"Our pollution problems should make all of us, especially environmentalists, appreciate
the advantages of private property and market exchange, which require us to pay prices
for goods and services that reflect their marginal cost. If this were the case with
polluting activities, there would be no pollution problems, since pollution would be
expanded only up to the efficient level, where its marginal value equals its marginal
cost."
Entrepreneurship and Coastal Resource Management
by Jeffrey J. Pompe and James R. Rinehart
"In response to market incentives, private developers are protecting shorelines where
traditional bureaucratic management has led to erosion and pollution. As consumer
affluence and environmental knowledge increase, this trend will accelerate, especially
where property owners have similar tastes and a strong system of protective covenants."
Enviro-Capitalists: Doing Good While Doing Well by Terry A. Anderson
and Donald R. Leal
reviewed by Bruce Yandle
"Enviro-Capitalists should be read both by environmentalists and friends of
liberty. True environmentalists, those who seek to protect the precious biological
envelopes that support life and are not simply dedicated to the replacement of
individual freedom with command-and-control regulation, will be encouraged to know
that markets are on their side. Friends of liberty, who sometimes find themselves
hard-pressed to defend markets in the face of attacks from environmentalists, will
welcome the reinforcements provided by this excellent, if too-short book."
Environment
by Dr. Mary Ruwart
The good doctor answers tough questions about environmental issues.
Environmental Colonialism: “Saving” Africa from Africans
by Robert H. Nelson
"Under the banner of saving the African environment, Africans in the last half century
have been subjected to colonialism from an overlooked source: the conservation movement.
Local populations have been displaced and impoverished in order to create national parks
and to serve other conservation objectives, in large part because Western conservationists
misunderstand African wildlife management practices and problems."
Environmental Doom and Economic Slowdown: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
October 27, 2005
by Carl P. Close and Craig S. Marxsen
"In an analysis submitted by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy,
economist W. Mark Crain found that in 2004 compliance with EPA regulations on average
cost small manufacturers (those with fewer than 20 employees) a whopping $15,747 per
worker, compared to $3,391 per worker for large manufacturers (those with 500 or more
employees)—a cost difference of 364 percent!"
Environmentalism and Economic Freedom: The Case for Private Property Rights
by Walter Block
Environmentalism as Though People and Facts Really Mattered
May 2001
by Christopher Lingle
"It is as though a new set of “environmental rights” is being imposed that clash
with property rights and individual rights. If these rights are threatened, it will
actually weaken the support for environmental protections. For environmentalism to
thrive and serve its purposes, it should take into account that individuals really
do matter."
"Economists have exerted considerable effort to examine ways in which the pricing systems
can bring about desired reductions in pollution and similar problems caused by the
“tragedy of the commons.” Examples of market-based mechanisms for resolving environmental
problems include marketing pollution rights, privatizing wilderness areas and wildlife,
and innovative techniques like “tagging” that would allow for the identification of
ownership of dispersed resources or to the tracing of the sources of pollution."
Environmentalism in the Light of Menger and Mises
by George Reisman
Environmentalism: The Triumph of Politics
by Doug Bandow
"We need to look for private strategies to protect the environment. Privatizing federal
timber and rangeland, for instance, would end subsidized development, since no private
individual or company would willingly turn a dollar investment into a few cents in
revenue. Establishing full private property rights in water would help conserve this
precious resource in the western United States. We need to develop equally creative
solutions for such “common pool” problems as air and water pollution. In short, we need
to depoliticize the environment, making the issue one of balancing competing interests
rather than imposing ideological or religious dogmas. If we succeed in doing so, we
will end up with not only a cleaner society, but also a wealthier and freer one."
Environmental protection through private property and private action
by Jonathan Adler
A private organization, the American Bison Association, saved the
American Bison from extinction. Private stewardship conserves resources
while the destruction of resources on public land is so widespread that
it has a name: "the tragedy of the commons."
Environment and Conservation
by stormy MON
Brief descriptions of market options for preserving forests and wilderness,
saving endangered species, and preventing pollution.
Environment and Free Trade
by Jo Kwong
"The evidence is overwhelming that opening markets will provide both economic and
environmental prosperity for all parties. It is the poverty of a closed economy, not
free trade, that threatens ecological degradation around the globe."
An Environment of Freedom
by Jo Kwong
"Those who value individual liberty and a free society have reason to keep an eye on
environmental regulation. Fortunately, classical liberal principles offer a clear
vision of proper environmentalism, but it’s a tough message to communicate. Nonetheless,
it’s a vision of environmental freedom that entails the freedom to protect, preserve,
and enhance the environment in ways that reflect human innovation and stewardship.
Hopefully through this commitment, we can make a difference in the environment, while
at the same time preserving freedom and all its virtues."
An Environment without Property Rights
February 1997
by Richard L. Stroup and Jane S. Shaw
"Now that the Soviet system has broken down, the environmental destruction in the
Eastern bloc should be nearing its end. Simply closing down the polluting factories,
many of which were wasting resources, anyway, will reduce the pollution.
But how fast and how well the environment will recover crucially depends on the
restoration of private property rights."
Externalities and the Environment
by Andrea Santoriello and Walter Block
"The key to environmental protection is a free market with defendable and
transferable property rights."
Externalities, Conflict, and Offshore Lands: Resolution Through the Institutions
of Private Property
by John Brätland
"Oil leaks and spills are the most visible externality associated with offshore
development, but public policy must also take into account another type of negative
externality: cost-shifting through the political process (such as when environmentalists
successfully lobby to ban offshore oil drilling). Fortunately, both environmental and
political externalities can be resolved through the often-neglected institution of
private-property rights."
The Fine Art of Conservation
by Bernie Jackson
"For the sake of our species and our descendants, we ought to remove our ecological
resources from governmental stewardship. Let each individual seller research his market
and hold out for a buyer willing to pay dearly. When selling a precious old-growth
forest, leave the unregulated seller free to turn away the industrialist, the logger,
and the homebuilder, who will be happy with cheaper and less remarkable tracts of land.
Let him hold out for the nature lovers, environmentalists, hunters, quirky billionaires,
wildlife foundations, and ecological research groups. They are uniquely qualified to
conserve the land (or to hire those who are), and uniquely motivated to raise serious
money for its purchase."
Free-market forces favor public good, not privilege
March 09, 1994
by John A. Baden, Ph.D. and Tim O’Brien
"People who take pro-market stands take equally strong stands against special privileges
for businesses. Both justice and efficiency demand that businesses bear full
responsibility for the costs their actions impose on society, including the environmental
costs. Market principles favor the environment because many environmental problems arise
when people are isolated from the costs of their actions. This insulation comes from
favors for the politically powerful. This is why being pro-market supports the public's
interests first and foremost. As environmentalists learn this distinction, I hope to see
a union of pro-market and environmental forces."
Government Versus the Environment
by Russell Madden
"Ultimately, it is the state's violation of property rights that leads to many of the
environmental ills laid at the feet of private citizens and businesses. The greatest
ecological disasters in the world have occurred in those countries where property rights
did not exist. (In the former Soviet Union and East Germany, for example, the
devastation reached horrific heights.)"
The Green Scare
by Roger E. Meiners
"These horror stories, the stuff of the Green Scare, have achieved the status of
Official Truth. But each is grossly distorted in the service of interventionist
environmentalism. Here’s yet another example of the old saying that it’s not what
we don’t know that hurts us. It’s what we know that isn’t so."
The Grey Consequences of the Green Agenda
Part 1. Economic Matters
October 1, 2001
Part 2. Environmental and Scientific Matters
December 4, 2001
Part 3. Social and Political Matters
June 25, 2002
by Rudy Tietze
"The results of implementing the proposed Green Agenda in the economic, environmental,
and other areas, will not be as straight forward and beneficial as the Greens would
have us believe. Libertarians will be competing with them at the ballot box, so that
will be an opportunity to analyze their proposals and make the probable results known
to the voters. In general, a government run or influenced by the Greens will be more
of a police state with a lower standard of living. Libertarians on the other hand would
produce a freer state with more limited government, and a much higher standard of
living. Following is a discussion and analysis of the major proposals."
The guiding principles of environmental reason
May 31, 1995
by John A. Baden, Ph.D. and Peter Baldwin
"While environmental values are important guides for behavior, I stress the importance
of information, incentives and institutional design. These are the pillars of a new
field of political economy, the New Resource Economics (NRE)."
How to Make the Economy Sustainable, and to
End Poverty in the Process
January 19, 2003
by Neil Lock
"Enviros and politicians, with their perverted notion of (sniff) "sustainability", tell
us that we must cut our use of natural resources. And then, that we must cut it again,
and again. Even though, as they well know, the long-term effect of policies based on this
notion can only be to destroy our economy. In the name of (sniff) sustainability, they
want to take away our means of sustenance, and to condemn us all us to poverty. Ladies
and gentlemen, the enviros and the politicians claim to care about the future. But they
don't care about your futures."
The Impossibility of Harming the Environment
by Roy E. Cordato
"Environmental problems tend to arise when people are allowed to impose costs on others
by degrading other people’s property or by using property that is unowned. A
property-rights-based “polluter pays principle” would go a long way toward solving many
of these problems, first by seeing to it that existing property rights are enforced and
by providing principled guidance for the privatization of currently unowned resources
by courts and legislatures. It will be much easier for lawmakers and adjudicators of
disputes to move in the right direction once the target is clearly identified."
In the Absence of Private Property Rights
July 1999
by Dwight R. Lee
"Private property allows us to solve problems by taking into consideration the present
and future concerns of others. Unfortunately, people with good intentions but
little economic understanding often call for solving problems stemming from
inadequate private property by subverting rights to private property with political
restrictions and mandates."
Liberty, Markets, and Environmental Values: A Hayekian Defense of Free-Market
Environmentalism
by Mark Pennington
"Free-market environmentalism, which advocates private-property rights and market
processes to promote environmental goals, is unlikely to make political progress unless
its arguments are recast to address communitarian environmentalists on their own terms.
F. A. Hayek’s insights about decentralized knowledge, spontaneous order, and the
systemic nature of environmental problems provide an immensely helpful framework for
this task."
Making the Polluter Pay
by Jonathan H. Adler
"In sum, making the polluter pay should not entail trying to eliminate the generation
of wastes and other by-products of a modern industrial society. Nor does it mean
regulating every emission, every industrial process, indeed every aspect of economic
life. It means focusing environmental protection efforts on the greatest sources of
harm and ensuring that polluters pay for the costs of the harms they inflict upon
others. This goal can be best accomplished through a decentralization of environmental
policy and a greater reliance upon common law remedies. Central government dictates are
not up to the task."
The Market and Nature
by Fred L. Smith, Jr.
"Ecological central planning cannot protect the environment, but it can destroy our
civil and economic liberties. There is too much at stake to allow the world to embark
upon this course. The environment can be protected, and the world's peoples can
continue to reach new heights of prosperity, but it is essential to realize that
political management is not the proper approach. Rather, the leaders of the world
should follow the path of the emerging nations of Eastern Europe and embrace political
and economic freedom. In the final analysis, the free market is the only system of
truly sustainable development."
Market-Based Environmentalism vs. the Free Market
by Roy E. Cordato
"Market-based environmentalism and the free market are not the same. Free-market
policies, even with respect to the environment, would not have “environmental
protection” per se as their central focus. Instead the focus would be on resolving
conflicts among human beings as they put natural resources to use. An important
by-product of that would be a cleaner environment and a more conscientious
stewardship of resources."
Markets, Not Mandates
April 26, 2006
by Pete Geddes
"Markets are a decentralized process of discovery. This process is much more likely to
yield solutions that function under many different circumstances. Here’s how it works.
High energy prices transmit important information. They spur millions of individuals
into action, harnessing their unique knowledge and talents. Through trial and error,
experimentation and feedback, creative ideas emerge. The best survive a process of
ruthless and unsentimental testing."
Montana’s Intellectual Entrepreneurs
March 31, 2004
by John A. Baden, Ph.D.
"Bozeman incubated the “new environmentalism.” This movement shows how economic
analysis promotes environmental quality. Our ideas, radical decades ago, are now
conventional."
Nature's Entrepreneurs
by Terry L. Anderson and Don Leal
"If we were to compile a list of the vital few from the environmental history books,
it might be headed with names like Audubon, Leopold, and Muir. As entrepreneurs, these
men recognized the value of the natural world at a time when most people saw nature’s
frontier as a wilderness to be tamed. Of these early entrepreneurs, however, only Aldo
Leopold saw the importance of linking the conservation movement to entrepreneurship,
with all the trappings of finance, contracting, marketing, and even profits."
No Turning Back: Dismantling the Fantasies of Environmental Thinking by Wallace
Kaufman
reviewed by Lance Lamberton
"Kaufman envisions a future where property rights are recognized, scientific principles
are applied to public policy, and technological advances address the dual societal
requirements of environmental stewardship and economic growth. If such a confluence of
changes were to occur, it would relegate today's environmental movement to the dustbin
of history. I just hope I live long enough to see it."
Owning the Unownable
by Paul Georgia
"A survey of U.S. government policy in the last sixty years makes it painfully clear
that the government's efforts have often aggravated the problems it was trying to solve.
The track record of free societies and free institutions in satisfying human needs is
far better than the track record of governments. Because of this, faith in the market
is not blind, and relying on government, in light of its past performance, seems
foolhardy."
The Perils of Energy Subsidies
January 04, 2006
by Pete Geddes
"Wind farms are enjoying a boom. Alas, their popularity has more to do with harvesting
advantages in the tax code than with their environmental or energy merits. Following
The Logic of Collective Action, we’re not surprised to learn these “good” subsidies
annually transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from customers and taxpayers to a few
large companies. Wind “farmers” reap more revenue from tax breaks and subsidies than from
the sale of their product. They benefit at the expense of other taxpayers and energy
consumers."
The Polluting State
July 25, 2005
by Jayant Bhandari
"But, the politicians had other motives: employment generation and spreading industry
uniformly around the country without consideration for economics. And of course all this
means environmental damage of horrendous proportions as I attempt to show."
The Pollution Solution
by Mary J. Ruwart
"Restoring what we have harmed is the best deterrent of all!"
Pollution Trading Permits as a Form of Market Socialism and the Search for
a Real Market Solution to Environmental Pollution
by Robert W. McGee and Walter Block
Private Property Rights, Not Ideologies, Are the Crux
by Jane S. Shaw
"Colarelli is right to say that liberals have become conservatives in their desire to
keep nature from changing. His critique of conservatives falls flat, however, because
he fails to consider the merits of free-market environmentalism, which emphasizes the
use of private-property rights and economic incentives to foster environmental
protection."
The Problem of Environmental Protection
by Dwight R. Lee
"The only sensible way to determine whether clean air is more or less valuable than
clean water is by making the comparison at the margin. If the water is extremely
dirty (dysentery in every drop) and the air is extremely clean, then the marginal
value of clean water (the value of an incremental increase in water quality) is
greater than the marginal value of clean air (the value of an incremental increase
in air quality). In this case, it is sensible to improve water quality even though
the cost is reduced air quality. And the improvement in water quality should continue
as long as the marginal value of clean water is greater than the marginal cost of
dirtier air."
Property Rights and Natural Resource Management
1979
by Richard Stroup and John Baden
"In this bibliographical essay we will: (1) trace the outlines of the property rights
paradigm as it relates to resource management, (2) sketch the workings of resource
markets when property rights are private and readily transferable, (3) explain market
failure and the potential gains in efficiency from governmental intervention in resource
markets, (4) show why collective control of resources can also be expected to have
problems, (5) illustrate by case studies how the theoretical analysis works in practice,
and (6) draw some policy conclusions."
Property Rights: The Key to Environmental Protection
by Elizabeth Brubaker
"Secure property rights provide both powerful incentives for the preservation of natural
resources and effective tools to resolve differences over resource use."
Property Rights v. Environmental Ruin
August 1, 1994
by David J. Theroux
"Conventional wisdom holds that the market process necessarily involves interpersonal
conflict and the degradation of the natural environment. Government, it is alleged,
must step in to establish rational and cooperative uses of scares resources. However,
it is only with private property and voluntary exchange that conflicts have historically
and today can be resolved, giving each person the opportunity to carefully consider
resource use alternatives. The future depends upon people employing their personal
wealth and that of their heirs toward efficient management of resources, and only
private property and free market-based institutions enable us to do so."
Prosperity Without Pollution
March 1, 1996
by John Semmens
"We can have both a growing economy and an improving environment. In fact, it seems
likely that a growing economy may well provide the very means needed to improve the
environment."
Resolving the Conflict Between Man and the Environment: A Model in the Philippines
June 22, 1994
by Jim McMahon
"A private group, The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEFI), has developed a program which
has improved the economic life of the local residents while preserving the habitat of
the eagles."
Resource Misallocations, Externalities, and Environmentalism in the U.S. and Canada
by Walter Block
Re-Thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy
edited by Carl P. Close and Robert Higgs
"Re-Thinking Green exposes the myths that have contributed to failed
environmental policies and proposes bold alternatives that recognize the power
of incentives and the limitations of political and regulatory processes. It
addresses some of the most hotly debated environmental issues and shows how
entrepreneurship and property rights can be utilized to promote environmental
quality and economic growth."
Re-Thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy
Edited by Robert Higgs and Carl P. Close
March 2007
Reviewed by Michael Sanera
"Robert Higgs and Carl Close have collected 22 articles that cover the gamut of
environmental issues—population, global warming, endangered species, coastal management,
urban planning, air pollution, and energy. The common theme is the explanation of how
the good intentions of environmental groups, policy makers, and bureaucracies fail to
produce improvements in the environment."
Risk and the Environment: Facts vs. Phantoms
March 12, 2003
by Pete Geddes
"We're rightly concerned about the potential harm, both to us and the environment, from
the products of our technologically advanced society. But people often perceive risks
to be far greater than they really are. I have many friends who, in an effort to avoid
trace amounts of synthetic chemicals found on "regular" produce, eat only organic. Yet
they rock climb, kayak, and ski the backcountry. These activities are far riskier than
consuming chemical residues on food."
The Risk of Excessive Caution
March 19, 2003
by John C. Downen
"The risk from not reducing emissions of such gases is that we may increase global
warming, which will certainly have some adverse effects. But the risk to imposing
restrictions on the output of these gases is that the cost of compliance will surely
slow economic progress. This would be particularly damaging to the poor of the Third
World. Even if restrictions on GHGs are imposed only on wealthy countries, the resulting
decrease in economic growth will harm poor countries, which often rely on developed
nations to buy their exports."
Rockwell's Anti-Environmentalist Manifesto
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Today we face an ideology every bit as pitiless and messianic as Marxism. And like
socialism a hundred years ago, it holds the moral high ground. Not as the brotherhood of
man, since we live in post-Christian times, but as the brotherhood of bugs. Like
socialism, environmentalism combines an atheistic religion with virulent statism. But it
ups the ante. Marxism at least professed a concern with human beings; environmentalism
harks back to a godless, manless, and mindless Garden of Eden."
Save the Environment, and Get Rich
by David R. Henderson
A review of Natural Capitalisn by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins.
Saving the Environment for a Profit, Victorian-Style
May 2003
by Pierre Desrochers
"Pollution might have seemed an acceptable price to pay for such progress, but a
surprisingly large number of Victorians thought it reasonable to expect both a higher
standard of living and improved environmental amenities, if some trends that they
witnessed in their day continued in years and decades ahead. First among these were the
tremendous successes of entrepreneurs and technologists in creating valuable byproducts
from industrial waste."
Saving the Environment from Political Destruction
by Harry Browne
"The answer to environmental problems isn't to expand the reach of government, but to
shrink it. No problems will be solved by the people who gave us the U.S. Postal Service
and the Savings & Loan crisis."
The State of Humanity Edited by Julian L. Simon
reviewed by Walter Block
"If you are concerned with improving the livability of the planet, buy this
book! Mass purchases, true, will mean the death of many trees. But this will
just raise the price of pulp, calling forth yet additional supplies. With
The State of Humanity at hand, you will have the facts of the environmental
debate at your command—just about all of them."
The Strip Miner as Hero
by Walter Block
Take Back the Environment
by Jorge Amador
"Despite its reputation, government’s record on environmental protection is at best
mixed. Antipollution legislation has encouraged pollution in the name of abating it.
Governments at all levels are among the worst defilers of the environment. Government
is itself one of the major obstacles to solving the problem of pollution."
Taking the Greens Seriously: A Libertarian Response to Environmentalism
by Chris Cooper
The Toxicity of Environmentalism
by George Reisman
"Clearly, the most urgent task confronting the Western world, and the new intellectuals
who must lead it, is a philosophical and intellectual cleanup. Without it, Western
civilization simply cannot survive. It will be killed by the poison of environmentalism."
True Ecology
by Daniel Hager
"Animists are repressed from progress by their fear-driven passivity to nature, an
avoidance of tampering with it lest the spirits that inhabit natural objects unleash
their fury. A variant of this primitivism is a current environmentalist mantra ascribed,
spuriously, to an obscure leader of a mid-1800s band of Puget Sound Indians named
Seattle: “This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.” That
statement is a formula for a level of poverty and squalor under which no modern-day
environmentalist would care to exist."
The Unsustainable Politics of Natural Capitalism
by Pierre Desrochers
"While sustainable-development theorists typically indict market processes for their
alleged failure to create wealth out of industrial waste, much evidence indicates that
most of today’s “unsustainable practices” were actually brought about through the
political process by well-established producers against more innovative new competitors.
Because innovative business behavior subverted the status quo, defenders of the status
quo soon subverted elected officials, which often led to the adoption of
counterproductive measures and environmental harm."
Wasting Energy on Energy Efficiency
by Ben Lieberman
"Federally mandated energy efficiency has been touted as a real win/win policy for
consumers—we save on energy and enjoy the societal benefits from a national decline
in energy use. In reality, it has been lose/lose—we must endure the negative effects
of Washington’s preoccupation with energy conservation while the overall policy
proves pointless."
Why Socialism Causes Pollution
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
"Under communal property ownership, where no one owns or is responsible for a natural
resource, the inclination is for each individual to abuse or deplete the resource before
someone else does. Common examples of this "tragedy" are how people litter public streets
and parks much more than their own yards; private housing is much better maintained than
public lands but maintain lush pastures on their own property; the national forests are
carelessly over-logged, but private forests are carefully managed and reforested by
lumber companies with "super trees"; and game fish are habitually overfished in public
waterways but thrive in private lakes and streams. The tragedy of the commons is a
lesson for those who believe that further nationalization and governmental control of
natural resources is a solution to our environmental problems."
Why the Precautionary Principle is Wrong
Part 1
December 21, 2006
Part 2
December 23, 2006
by Neil Lock
"And isn't the precautionary principle itself a source of risk? Are we sure there would
never be harmful effects from its application? One thinks of the human lives lost to
malaria through the banning of DDT. And can we be sure that it would never cause us to
miss out on benefits in the future? One thinks of drugs like aspirin, and wonders
whether, if discovered today, such drugs would be approved for use."
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This page was last updated on August 28, 2007.