When I unpack the complaints of most environmentalists, I find a common theme. In their view, most people want the “wrong” things. Many enviros fault people who prefer snowmobiles to cross-country skies, Humvees over Hondas, or T-bones instead of tofu. SUVs are subject to especially intense criticism. They see the production and consumption of these […]

The Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” report of 1970 stated: “We can thus say with some confidence that… population and industrial growth will certainly stop within the next century, at the latest”. The cause of this projected arrest was a projected scarcity of natural resources. The report’s authors did not understand why scarcity has […]

We greens are gearing up to celebrate Earth Day on April 22. I’m afraid the celebration may miss a key to environmental improvement. Let’s first consider the assumptions of Earth Day’s leaders and then an important omission, the role of environmental entrepreneurship. It’s a full generation since the first celebration, 1970. This event, like the […]

Americans have become increasingly supportive of environmental protection. Ironically, however, recent battles to save endangered species jeopardize the survival of this conservation movement. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) itself may be endangered. How have we gone astray with endangered species? Let’s first consider the Act’s history. The 1973 passage of the ESA expanded the federal […]

What do Cyanide leach mining, dredges, and hydraulic mining have in common? Ecological, social, political, and economic destruction. First consider the most dramatic, hydraulic mining. Here’s how it works. Water is captured at an elevation above the site to be blasted. It is piped downward, picking up four tenths of a pound of pressure for […]

Each year the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado grants the Wallace Stegner Award to a writer who has contributed to “the cultural identity of the American West”. Stegner would no doubt be pleased by this year’s recipient, Paul Schullery, a long term Park Service contractor and defender, and husband of […]

America had a long love affair with agriculture. While farmers constitute less than 2% of the population, they’ve maintained a substantial reservoir of good will. However, huge factory farms are siphoning off that asset. What were its sources and how is it threatened? Farmers were revered by America’s founders, especially Jefferson. Our economy was predominantly […]

It’s time to consider the causes which lead to Clinton’s temporary victories and ultimate failures. These causes are clear and have one compelling implication. If we are to have honorable politicians we must sharply limit the role of government. There is a highly constructive role for government but it is constrained by financial and behavioral […]

Last week wholesale gasoline prices hit a historic low (Alas, not at the pump in Montana however.) and crude oil is just over $11.00 per barrel. But it wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. On the first Earth Day, ecologist Kenneth Watt stated: “By the year 2000, …there won’t be any crude oil”. And […]

Pacific Research Institute, 1998, John A. Baden, contributing author and editor.