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 […]

THIS is my last column until I return from Montana next autumn. While there, I’ll continue working on the three E’s of environmental policy: ecology, economics and ethics. Only systems that link freedom to act with responsibility for the results of the action work well in dealing with them. Others fail. Linking action with accountability […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

GOLD mining on federal lands, raising sugar cane near the Everglades, and irrigating Western deserts all illustrate the critical differences between being pro-free market and pro-business. It is easy to see why many people confuse the two. Wise Use groups and others, out of duplicity or ignorance, posture as defenders of the free market. But […]