The Bozeman Citizens Climate Protection Task Force was formed to help the city reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 15 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. It has proposed some dozen recommendations, ranging from adopting green building codes to buying energy from alternative sources. The task force believes many of their recommendations will be “cost neutral.” As a […]
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This is the season when every environmental group to whom we’ve contributed, the NWF, WS, Sierra Club, and others, send appeals for more funds. If you have ever contributed to these groups, you’ve no doubt been approached to join the Global Warming Crusade. Will this crusade become America’s Fourth Great Awakening? The First Awakening fostered […]
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For over a decade, FREE’s weekly columns, usually on environmental policy, have strived for consistency. We work and write to harmonize ecology, ethics, and economics, while respecting the right of free and responsible individuals to make choices. FREE approaches environmental policy from a political economy perspective. This means we are alert to the reality of […]
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In accepting an Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore said, “People all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue. It’s a moral issue.” Gore is not the only one defining climate change and other environmental issues in moral terms, and, as more and more environmentalists focus […]
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Climate change is a huge problem on multiple dimensions. It is also a problem shrouded in uncertainty. What causes global warming? What proportion is anthropogenic? With what speed, and to what degree will the effects be felt? Will the worldwide benefits to agriculture be greater or less than the losses? Can anything be done to […]
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In 1966, on a rainy summer day in the French Alps, Yvon Chouinard tested over a dozen ice axes to see if he could improve on the traditional design. He did, and with this innovation and dozens of others he transformed the outdoor recreation industry. If you own a pile coat, thank Yvon: he brought […]
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In a few days, my mother celebrates her 95th birthday. She was born in the Midwest, went to a small Lutheran college near her parents’ farm, and began teaching in a Lutheran elementary school in 1934. She taught fourth grade for over 40 years before retiring to Holland, Michigan, where she still lives today. Throughout […]
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Those of us committed to Green causes often respond more strongly to symbolic values than to careful analysis. Recycling offers a clear example. The environmental value of recycling depends on time- and place-specific circumstances. It almost always makes both ecological and economic sense to recycle aluminum and other metals. Often this holds for paper, only […]
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While a graduate student, I had the great good fortune to know professor Marion J. Levy, of Princeton University. He heavily influenced my thinking on society and economy. In particular, he sensitized me to the pitfalls of relying upon good intentions and idealistic proclamations. I was working with Professor Levy at the time of the […]
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Here’s my proposed New Year’s resolution for well-fed Greens in wealthy countries: Quit starving or condemning people to malnutrition. Let me explain. I don’t fault those who choose to die for their religion…provided they harm no one else in the process. Thomas Moore, Joan of Arc, and others who preferred death to deviation from their […]
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