IS economics an enemy of ecology? Many environmentalists seem to think so. They portray economists as insensitive number crunchers with Republican leanings, people stricken by a ghoulish preference for money over ecological integrity. The perceived focus of economics – money, business and mathematics – is distasteful to people motivated by environmental concerns. But greens’ conventional […]
Read More
LAST week, the Mont Pelerin Society met in Cannes, France, to celebrate the work of its founder, Nobel Prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek. The Mont Pelerin Society is the world’s foremost group of classical liberal academic, business and governmental leaders. Six of its 500 members, including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker and George Stigler, a Seattle […]
Read More
EACH summer I’m reminded why John Steinbeck thought that Montana would be heaven if it only had an ocean. This summer, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) again hosted conferences for federal judges, seminars for environmental writers, bike trips, and research on environmental economics and policy. But I see changes in […]
Read More
MANY people share my deep concern with improving and protecting the wildlife, watersheds, and recreation values of forests. Good policy links these goods with sound economic practices. All require landowners’ confidence in the future. The proposed export ban on raw logs from private lands subverts this confidence and undermines the management required to reach these […]
Read More
IT is easy to understand why some people find banning private log exports an attractive idea. Superficially, it appears to save jobs, reduce domestic timber prices and slow environmental degradation caused by logging. But there are good, ethical reasons why a ban makes little sense. In later columns, I will discuss the likely economic and […]
Read More
TWICE I’ve cried in a movie. The first time I was 4 years old and saw Bambi. The second was in 1970, when I saw a tear-provoking “documentary” of a polar bear hunt. The few polar bears I’ve seen in the wild inspired awe and admiration. But during this film, a faux-sportsman was flown onto […]
Read More
HARVARD University Press recently published a book on risk regulation written by Stephen Breyer, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Breyer argued that “the resources available to combat health risks are not limitless.” He is exactly right. We maximize health and environmental quality by investing our money and efforts where the […]
Read More
1995 will be the silver anniversary of Earth Day. This will be a significant event, for it marks a full generation since we formally recognized our environment’s fragility and value. To celebrate the anniversary, I suggest that we begin a campaign to buy Siberia. This would be America’s Earth Day present to the world. Buying […]
Read More
I OFTEN defend the habitat of species I care for deeply: grizzly bears, wild trout and birds of all kinds. But, like most people, I care even more about preserving the quality of my own habitat, my neighborhood and community. Within that habitat, we not only worry about pollution and disease, we are concerned with […]
Read More
Some of the questions raised in this column are addressed in FREE’s forthcoming book, “Environmental Gore: A Constructive Response to Earth in the Balance.” THE global warming debate, like many environmental issues, is scientifically complex and highly emotional. Its complexity hinders informed debate and its emotionalism makes consensus elusive. Part of the problem is that […]
Read More