Public policy failures can take their toll on economic efficiency, ecological integrity, and even human lives. These failures are endemic to fisheries commons the world over. Recent issues of Field and Stream, Scientific American, and National Geographic all featured stories about the dire straits of our fisheries. Now the Bering Sea brings tragic news of […]
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The epicenter of Ecotopia lies somewhere in the area encircled by Bellingham, Eugene, and Bozeman. Four colleges of forestry, dozens of environmental groups, and busloads of environmental writers are based there. Hence, the federal land management agencies are under intense scrutiny. But even here, the institutional arrangements are so perverse that often management is grossly […]
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The feuding between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Hooters chain of restaurants results from government overstepping its bounds. Government has made “Hooters” a household name by stimulating confrontations between market forces and those who abhor sexism and their allies in the Nanny State. People become hot and bothered over Hooters simply because […]
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Here’s a benchmark to evaluate environmental policy: economic security and environmental protection go together. Conversely, when environmental policies thwart material wants, green goals languish. Only when environmental policies foster economic security and productivity can we reasonably expect long term protection. This understanding helps us protect environmental values. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Garrett Hardins’ “Tragedy […]
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If you aren’t a good boy, you’ll find a lump of coal in your stocking Christmas morning. This is an unhappy prospect for most American children. However, we can imagine situations in which a large lump of coal would be a blessing, for example in a city under siege. Coal would be a wonderful gift […]
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Ocean fisheries exemplify “common-pool resources”. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fence in or brand marine fish. Their freedom is bound by the forces of nature. These fish are fugitive resources. Their migration ignores political, social, and legal boundaries. This often leads to great tragedy. Fisheries demonstrate the classic “tragedy of the commons”. They are […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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