Much of human history reflects choices between whether to organize activities privately or through government. When I travel, I often come across the visible remnants of such choices. That happened recently at Thermopolis, Wyoming, a small resort community built around the “World’s Largest Hot Spring.” Water from the nearby Owl Creek Mountains filters throughContinue reading “Lessons of the Springs”
Author Archives: admin
DDT: An Issue of Property Rights
Rachel Carson didn’t start it; the U.S. government did.
Managing Africa’s Wildlife
What Zimbabwe did right.
Common Law and Environmental Protection
According to Friedrich Hayek, the English common law system reflects a conscious decision in favor of a limited role for government; the French civil law system is much more comfortable with a centralized and activist government. Many nations, including the United States, base their legal systems on the English common law tradition. Under this tradition,Continue reading “Common Law and Environmental Protection”
Free Market Environmentalism
PERC has created a syllabus to aid the inclusion of free market environmental ideas in to traditional environmental economics and policy curricula.
Block 12: Practical Applications of Free Market Environmentalism
Objective: Explore incremental ways of bringing current institutions closer to free market institutions. Survey pragmatic uses of free market environmentalism that do not require massive institutional changes.
The Bottom Line
For corporations, profits are the name of the game. One way to increase those profits is to reduce waste and improve efficiency. AT&T, one of the world’s largest companies, has implemented an array of new policies with both profits and environmental protection in mind, and, in so doing, has earned the Vision of America AwardContinue reading “The Bottom Line”
Hog Hygiene
After years of bitter wrangles over the stench coming from large hog farms, a Tulsa inventor says he has found a cost-effective method to stem the odor of animal waste. Not only does it reduce the odor to a virtual trace, but it also eliminates water pollution and lowers the disease rate for the animals.Continue reading “Hog Hygiene”
Going to Seed
Last year, one Utah rancher sold off his cattle and spent the summer watching the grass grow. At summer’s end, he harvested the grass for seed and made more money selling the seed than he could have made selling his cattle. Throughout the West, farmers and ranchers who are struggling to stay afloat as theyContinue reading “Going to Seed”
Let It Shine
Ranching along the Musselshell River in central Montana has never been an easy way to make a living, but rising power prices, tougher environmental laws, and dropping surface water supplies have made a tough job even tougher. Fortunately, the sun has not stopped shining on this remote western valley, giving rise to hopes for aContinue reading “Let It Shine”