Tractor parts made from soybeans and picnic tables made from the kenaf plant are just a few of the products that use natural fibers to replace more conventional materials. They are proving to be more durable, lighter in weight, and priced right. For example, both Ford Cougars and Mustangs are being outfitted with door panelsContinue reading “Soybeans In The Trunk”
Author Archives: admin
Federal Land Exchanges: Let’s End the Barter
It's time to let federal agencies buy and sell land, says Tim Fitzgerald in a new PERC Policy Series paper. Federal Land Exchanges: Let's End the Barter offers a practical way to reform the costly and time-wasting federal land exchange process.
Is Bigger Better?
“If we are to protect America’s most valued lands, federal land management policies must be reformed and private conservation efforts encouraged,” says PERC researcher Holly Lippke Fretwell.
Political Environmentalism
Terry L. Anderson, Editor Political Environmentalism documents a range of examples of how politics and environmentalism mix to produce strange bedfellows and equally strange results. The books details how environmental special interests have provided the high moral ground for economic special interests who stand to gain from legislation that hampers competition. Terry Anderson and hisContinue reading “Political Environmentalism”
Environmental Examiner
This newsletter for students is designed to help them think clearly as they form their opinions about environmental issues.
A Debate over Conservation:
Peter Huber’s new book, Hard Green, both supports and challenges free market environmentalism.
Loss of Nonrenewable Resources is not the End of the World
Weitzman says that current income need be adjusted downward by 1 percent at most to account for the loss of exhaustible resources. In a finite world, the conventional wisdom tells us that we shall eventually run out of nonrenewable resources, such as crude oil, iron ore, and bauxite. And long before exhaustion actually takes place,Continue reading “Loss of Nonrenewable Resources is not the End of the World”
Going With The Flow
Nestled between a national park and a proposed wilderness area and cut through by the beautiful Virgin River, Utah’s Horse Valley Ranch is probably one of the West’s most coveted pieces of real estate. Despite its potential value on the open market, the owners had no desire to create a landscape of ranchettes or endangerContinue reading “Going With The Flow”
Corn Can Do
Plastics made from plants is an idea that scientists have touted for years, but no one was able to bring it to the marketplace. That has changed with an announcement from Cargill Incorporated and Dow Chemical Company. In a joint venture, the firms plan to build a $300 million facility in Blair, Neb., to manufactureContinue reading “Corn Can Do”
Harvesting Toxic Waste
Bananas are growing in a mine drainage tunnel in Leadville, Colo. Along with carrots, spinach, beets, and broccoli, these crops may provide the solution to cleaning up one of the nation’s most polluted Superfund sites. Entrepreneur Frank Burcik, president of Water Treatment and Decontamination International, created the underground greenhouse to remove toxic heavy metals fromContinue reading “Harvesting Toxic Waste”