Let’s celebrate our most creative laborers — the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have been neglected by economists and ignored or derided by environmentalists. Environmentalist Al Gore sees entrepreneurial innovation as “alchemy of a very dangerous form”. Economist Mark Casson notes that economic modelling “leaves no role for the entrepreneur.” The economics discipline has become ever more abstract […]
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The Gallatin Institute links writers of the West with environmental economists. Last weekend poets, novelists, historians and essayists spent three days exploring ideas and ideals with policy analysts at the Gallatin Gateway Inn, a beautifully restored railroad hotel between Bozeman and West Yellowstone, Montana. Such communication is something new because the participants come from disparate […]
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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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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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On April 22 we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Earth Day. This is also the last time I will teach the environmental policy course I began teaching in 1970 at Indiana University. When I began teaching environmental courses, many of my colleagues looked toward two reforms for ecological salvation: an environmental ethic to regulate […]
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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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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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