This Christmas I got a great gift from my mom. “Longitudes and Attitudes,” by Thomas Friedman. This is a collection of his foreign affairs columns in the New York Times. He debunks the argument that Arab-Muslim hatred of America is the result of our wealth, power, and material success. He sees anti-Americanism overtaking soccer as […]
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For a generation Republican Party leaders have been alienating a constituency they long took for granted. Characterized as “Range Rover Republicans”, they are well educated, well-off folks who care about wilderness and wildlife habitat. These people are deserting the Republican Party in droves. Since neither of the Bush presidents seem to understand the causes of […]
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One of the first lessons responsible parents teach their children is both simple and valid: if you make a mess, clean it up. Many mining companies used their political influence to escape this admonition. This is true through out the West, even on the borders of Yellowstone National Park. Their economic calculus is simple. Benefits […]
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I wish President Bush well, but environmentally, his administration remains astonishingly shortsighted. They inexplicably ignore an increasingly important political fact: as individuals’ wealth and education increase, so does their sensitivity to environmental quality. Economist Don Coursey of the University of Chicago recently demonstrated that the demand for environmental quality resembles that for BMWs and foreign […]
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Ed Marston, editor of High Country News, a regional paper published in Paonia, Colorado proclaims in the April 10, 2000 issue: “The war between extractive interests and the environmental movement for control of the Interior West’s public lands is drawing to a close. The timber era, the cattle era, the mainstem big-dam era, the wise […]
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I have lectured at Hillsdale College, the once great conservative college success story. The school was a striking anomaly, a self proclaimed exemplar of traditional values and independence from government. Hillsdale refused to accept federal aid. Nearly bankrupt in the late 60s, in 1971 it hired a 35 year old president, historian George Roche III. […]
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The Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” report of 1970 stated: “We can thus say with some confidence that… population and industrial growth will certainly stop within the next century, at the latest”. The cause of this projected arrest was a projected scarcity of natural resources. The report’s authors did not understand why scarcity has […]
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We greens are gearing up to celebrate Earth Day on April 22. I’m afraid the celebration may miss a key to environmental improvement. Let’s first consider the assumptions of Earth Day’s leaders and then an important omission, the role of environmental entrepreneurship. It’s a full generation since the first celebration, 1970. This event, like the […]
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Each year the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado grants the Wallace Stegner Award to a writer who has contributed to “the cultural identity of the American West”. Stegner would no doubt be pleased by this year’s recipient, Paul Schullery, a long term Park Service contractor and defender, and husband of […]
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It’s time to consider the causes which lead to Clinton’s temporary victories and ultimate failures. These causes are clear and have one compelling implication. If we are to have honorable politicians we must sharply limit the role of government. There is a highly constructive role for government but it is constrained by financial and behavioral […]
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