Buried in the continuing resolution funding the federal government for the remainder of 2011 is a rider that delists the gray wolf as an endangered species in Montana and Idaho. The rider had bipartisan sponsorship from Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, and Rep. Michael K. Simpson, Idaho Republican, but the public reaction is anything butContinue reading “Politics of Endangered Species”
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A Free Market Earth Day
As has become the tradition, Laura Huggins injects some free market environmentalism wisdom into the national conversation on Earth Day. This year she’s at it again in the Daily Caller: “Green activism is often a threat to the very environment that activists are trying to save.” Instead, she writes, “a better long-term strategy for MotherContinue reading “A Free Market Earth Day”
Beware the Siren Song of Green Political Activism
Green activism is often a threat to the very environment that activists are trying to save.
Talking “L’environnementalisme de marché”
Today my colleague Laura Huggins and I spent an hour or so with Sandrine Bélie, a member of the European Parliament representing the group, Europe Ecologie. It was a fascinating conversation and I learned a lot. Here are some of the points I made: (1) Protecting the environment requires real resources, which have competing opportunity costs.Continue reading “Talking “L’environnementalisme de marché””
It’s OK to Print this Post for Earth Day
So says PERC’s Laura Huggins today over at Advancing a Free Society. Laura’s piece emphasizes one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Science or Political Science?
It never ceases to amaze that two adamantly opposing views can both argue that science proves their claim. That is because science is knowledge about what is and what can be. Opinions and values, however, both political and private, establish what should be. Science can be used to defend a value judgment, but without theContinue reading “Science or Political Science?”
2011 PERC Fellows
Each summer, PERC awards fellowships to scholars, journalists, business people and environmentalists from around the world who are engaged with the same ideas and approaches to conservation as PERC. Their particular interests vary widely, including forestry, fisheries, ecosystem services, climate change, conservation easements, energy development as well as many other topics. Fellows are expected to spendContinue reading “2011 PERC Fellows”
Top Five Environmental Disasters That Didn’t Happen
In honor of Earth Day, Reason.tv offers this video featuring Ron Bailey (a 2010 PERC Julian Simon fellow):
Basic economics can preserve the environment
The industrial revolution that began about 200 years ago has changed humanity’s relation to, and attitudes about, nature completely—and sometimes it has generated new views about God and nature, such as from the Transcendentalists of the 19th century. In the first half of the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville reflected that in America, civilization endedContinue reading “Basic economics can preserve the environment”
Climate change is back in court
Today the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, about which Jonathan Adler wrote in the latest edition of PERC Reports. At issue is whether greenhouse gas emissions constitute a “public nuisance” and require judicially devised emission controls. Adler offers more thoughts on today’s hearings here.