In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was great concern that America would run out of trees. Predictions of a timber famine were common among forestry “experts” of the time, especially from Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the Forest Service Pinchot and others correctly noted that timber harvests were far exceeding reforestation, but incorrectly […]
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“THE Tragedy of the Commons” is the best known article on ecology. It was printed in Science magazine in 1968 and has been reprinted hundreds of times in dozens of fields ranging from anthropology to zoology. Its essential message is profound yet simple: If a valuable resource is open to all, if it is common […]
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DATELINE: ENTERPRISE RANCH, GALLATIN VALLEY, MONTANA Our ranch lies in the northern reaches of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Calving has started, lambing will shortly follow, and soon we’ll put the livestock out to range. And wolves have just arrived in Yellowstone Park. In Montana, and in Idaho as well, few issues are more complex and […]
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THE 104th Congress convenes today. Many environmentalists see the new Republican majority as America’s repudiation of an environmentally friendly administration. Because the Clinton administration had a green facade, they fear that this change portends environmental doom The Clinton administration has a green posture. Vice President Gore wrote an impassioned green book, “Earth in the Balance.” […]
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I’M home at the ranch for the holidays, recalling Christmas traditions. Both my family and my wife feed our animals special rations on Christmas morning. My grandmother would bake oatmeal biscuits with lots of meat trimmings for their dog and a warm corn mash for her chickens. Granddad would give the cows and sheep leafy, […]
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HOW HAS Forbes magazine, the self-described capitalist tool, become a green advocate? The influential people at Forbes see markets as the most ethical and efficient means to coordinate much of society. In contrast, political management implies economic inefficiencies and ecological destruction. These are logical consequences of political incentives. A recent Forbes feature by Ellie Winninghoff […]
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IN addition to their disappointment with the elections, major environmental groups are learning the pain of limits to growth. From 1990 to 1993, membership fell 33 percent for Greenpeace and 35 percent for the Wilderness Society. The Sierra Club has lost 130,000 members and has accumulated deficits of nearly $3 million. Although groups such as […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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