Markets economize on love, that most precious of values. They encourage cooperation and civility among disparate people. This was one of the great lessons of Kenneth Boulding, a Quaker economist who was founding editor of The Journal of Conflict Resolution. Boulding developed the concept of “Spaceship Earth” with the understanding that we’re all in this […]
Read More
Each fall my thoughts return to a boyhood of hunting. Opening day trumped Thanksgiving and even rivaled Christmas. Our rituals and gear provided anthropological fodder. In fifth grade I created the Concord Conservation Club. Like most rural people of my generation (I’m in my mid-50s), the green path ran through Field and Stream, the leading […]
Read More
Each fall my thoughts return to a boyhood of hunting. Opening day trumped Thanksgiving and even rivaled Christmas. Our rituals and gear provided anthropological fodder. In fifth grade I created the Concord Conservation Club. Like most rural people of my generation (I’m in my mid-50s), the green path ran through Field and Stream, the leading […]
Read More
Whether we’re trying to save species or specie, decisions are based on information and incentives. Reform that generates poor incentives simply won’t work. Good intentions are not enough. Congress tried to protect endangered species via the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. Prior to 1973, landowners could operate even if their activities harmed the habitat […]
Read More
Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 to protect species threatened or in danger of extinction. Federal judges have an especially difficult time dealing with it. In the ESA, they confront nasty conflicts between Congressional intent to save endangered species and our Bill of Rights. In Saving All the Pieces, Rocky Barker notes […]
Read More
At each summer’s end, I leave our Montana ranch and return to Washington. I love to drive the West. This is a good time to reconsider our culture, ecology, economy and politics. Increasingly, I’m having second thoughts about these subjects. Many friends, academics, business people and environmentalists, are also re-evaluating their approach to environmental goals. […]
Read More
THIS is my last lecture as a professor at UW. I end my career with the course I began 25 years ago at Indiana University, The Political Economy of Environmental Policy. Throughout my career, I have advocated environmental policies based on incentives, not commands I helped create an environmental paradigm that views economies as ecosystems. […]
Read More
AMERICA experienced a major energy crisis in 1978. Ill-conceived federal price controls and OPEC’s last successful petroleum embargo combined to create an emergency. The results were disastrous, the predictable consequence of policies that disrupt the market process and favor special interests In response to this “crisis,” Congress passed the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, commonly […]
Read More
COUNTY executives from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties recently sent a letter to the state Legislature asking for a “transportation summit” to address a broad range of issues related to transportation in the Puget Sound region. The proposed two-day summit, tentatively scheduled for June, represents an excellent opportunity to educate legislators and the Regional Transit […]
Read More
RACHEL Carson’s ecological wake up call, “Silent Spring,” initially appeared as a series of essays in The New Yorker in June, 1962. Her work launched America’s modern environmental movement and set the stage for the Earth Day celebration of 1970 On April 10, 1995, just a few days short of the 25th anniversary of Earth […]
Read More