Michael βt Sas-Rolfes is an environmental economist with a focus on the role of markets for biodiversity conservation. He has been actively involved in various private conservation initiatives for 25 years, starting as a financial manager of a private game reserve in South Africa and later conducting research on the role of private markets […]
Conservation of animals like rhinos and elephants may eventually be conducted most successfully by markets where these animals have monetary value rather than just emotional value. It may sound cold, but it could well keep them from becoming extinct
by Paul Schwennesen According to Eric Schlosser, of Food Inc. fame, βThe American people are becoming really, really unhealthy and this is an issue we canβt just leave to individuals deciding to bicycle instead of drive their car. We need governments worldwide to be taking action to reverse the problem.β We need government action […]
Free market environmentalism has a lot to offer, but Kolstad says the case for FME is weaker when dealing with environmental goods such as clean air.
Matching the size of government to the size of the problem
Banzhaf argues that free market environmentalists should applaud the cap-and-trade approach over more government regulation.
[…] be a useful supplement. Others argue that common law litigation is a poor fit for the particular nature of modern environmental injuries and that regulatory measures sup planted common law remedies because the latter proved incapable of solving modern environmental woes. The conventional wisdom, as articulated by noted environmental law professor Joseph Sax, is […]
This classic of conservation literature is still illuminating important lessons today.
[…] Professor Sagoff emphasizes that βecological knowledgeβ¦ is too spread out among people to be captured by any one individual or by any group of individualsβeven given careful planning and sufficient resources.β Hence, both nature and markets are inherently decentralized. Ronald Coaseβs seminal article on βThe Problem of Social Costβ provides the second important link […]
[…] dozen Canadian transplants, 1,700 individuals in 250 packs now roam our Rocky Mountain wilds. So, victory for the Endangered Species Act? Not exactly. The biological beast runs free. But the symbolic wolf remains caged in purgatory between science and emotion; state and federal officials; activists and ranchers; tourists and hunters. Now, in an unprecedented […]