Introduction

"While it might surprise many ecologists to hear, capitalism is itself the ultimate form of conservationism. Capitalists seek to conserve resources, not because of sentimental feelings about nature or the earth or whales or worry about the well-being of future generations, but simply because every drop of oil, every ton of ore, every shipment of wood saved is a cost reduction and money in the pocket." - Steven E Plaut, "The Joy Of Capitalism" Do you enjoy using your computer? Do you know that creating plastic, metal and electricity requires some amount of "pollution" to enter the environment? Has human progress increased your standard of living? Are you better off without electricity, plastics, gasoline, rayon, glass or paper? What is your incentive to not leave trash lying around your house or to dump used oil on your lawn? Topics Statist Problems Legislation destroys wealth, liberty and lowers the overall standard of living Government intervention actually destroys the environment by promoting short-term solutions Libertarian Solutions Private ownership promotes long-run investment and conservation

Statist Problems The land, its minerals, waters, and forests are the exclusive property of the state. - Soviet Constitution (October 7, 1977), Article 11, Section 2

Legislation destroys wealth, liberty and lowers the overall standard of living [top] "The sky is falling!" So-called "Global Warming." Do you believe the myth? “Growing Redder Too” - Grant R. Gulibon, May 16, 2005 [The Commonwealth Foundation] Protecting Your Property From Stupid "Smart Growth" Socialists - Edwin Feulner, May 8, 2005 [Capitalism Magazine] Green Bigots International What makes someone a bigot is that he wishes to deny other people the same rights he has. That is the hallmark of the environmental zealot. - Thomas Sowell, December 16, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] The Myth of the Tree Shortage Remember the nineties? The radical environmental movement screaming that the world as we knew it was destined to doom because of the nasty chip mills, the clear cut destruction of the forests, the pollution of our waters caused by cutting trees, and all of the other "chicken little" mantras? - Charles E. Tomlinson, September 24, 2004 [Mises] Wasting Billions on the Green Agenda The waste of tax dollars in the name of the environment is beyond comprehension, but it illustrates just how totally infiltrated the federal government is with both legislators and civil servants who feel free to ignore the best interests of Americans. - Alan Caruba, April 27, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] On Earth Day Remember: If Environmentalists Succeed, They Will Make Human Life Impossible - Michael Berliner, April 20, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine] Save the Trees I have grown out of my 6-year-old idealism, but the anti-human environmentalists never will. - Jeff Langr, March 31, 2004 [Strike the Root] High-gas-price blues? Blame the greens - Henry Lamb, March 27, 2004 [WorldNetDaily] What Evangelical Environmentalists Do Not Know About Economics In the writings of modern evangelical environmentalists runs a disturbing theme: the idea that it is possible for a small group of individuals to improve upon our use of the environment through coercion. - Timothy Terrell, April 21, 2003 [Mises] Environmentalist Nonsense The environmentalist movement has gone into overdrive over the newest trend in Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). - Scott McPherson, December 1, 2003 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] When Your Home Is Not Your Castle - Yaron Brook, September 24, 2002 [Capitalism Magazine] From the "New Segregation" to Higher Costs: Environmental Policies Cost Minorities the Most - February 26, 2002 [CEJ Press Release] Behind the Environmental Working Group The group has also declared war on nail polish, hairspray, playgrounds, portable classrooms and ABC News correspondent John Stossel. - Michelle Malkin, February 25, 2002 [Capitalism Magazine] Patience or Panic? - The EPA Seems to Let Demographics Decide - Syd Gernstein, December 2001 [NCPA] WTC collapse due to environmentalism? Fire, heat weakened asbestos-free steel columns of towers. - Jon Dougherty, November 20, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] NGOs: Leading the parade Agencies of the federal government gave $137 million last year to 20 major environmental organizations, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Tom Knudson. - Henry Lamb, November 3, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] The Most Dangerous Substance of All People ought to use their common sense and not give in to the latest environmental hysteria. - Sheldon Richman, September 2001 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Green religion as science - Doug Casey, August 23, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] Environmentalism's growing body count Four young firefighters, ages 18-30, recently burned to death fighting a fire in a Washington state national forest. - Geoff Metcalf, August 6, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] We Have a Small Problem & It’s Green The mean spirited 'greens' will try to make us feel inferior and guilty, of course. They’re big on feeling superior and dealing guilt. - Ed Cobb, August 2, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] Green Bigots vs. Human Beings Nature worship is fine for those who want it. I have nothing against faith-based organizations. A theocracy imposing its will on others is something else, even when it is a theocracy of nature-worshippers. - Thomas Sowell, June 16, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Green On The Outside and Red On The Inside The fact that the Green Party of New Zealand has long-time communists in key positions in their parliamentary line-up appears to give little cause for concern. - Colin Robertson, June 2, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] Electric Go-Karts "Sacramento regulators have insisted for more than a decade that the improvements necessary to attain federal clean air standards can be achieved only by forcing automakers to produce battery-powered vehicles." - Diane Katz and Henry Payne, June 2001 [REASON] Power problems in California - Jane Chastain, February 5, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] Earth Day Celebrates Hatred of Man [Ayn Rand Institute] - "To save mankind from environmentalism, what’s needed is not the appeasing, compromising approach of those who urge a 'balance' between the needs of man and the “needs” of the environment. To save mankind requires the wholesale rejection of environmentalism as hatred of science, technology, progress, and human life. To save mankind requires the return to a philosophy of reason and individualism, a philosophy which makes life on earth possible." Government intervention actually destroys the environment by promoting short-term solutions [top] "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." - Thomas Sowell Milwaukee's Mess Perhaps you have heard that the bureaucrats running the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District recently dumped 4.6 billion gallons of raw sewage into Lake Michigan along the Wisconsin coast. - Christopher Westley, June 14, 2004 [Mises] Overcoming Government Obstacles - Tanzanian Communities Manage Wildlife Tanzania's conservation system, a legacy of the colonial period's centralized command-and-control, does not provide incentives for rural landowners to protect wildlife on their land. - Elizabeth Singleton, June 2004 [PERC] Congress vs. Responsibility The origin of this squabble can be found in the (genuflect now) Clean Air Act of 1970, which set one standard for post-1970 facilities (so-called "new sources" under the act) while leaving the regulation of pre-1970 facilities ("old sources") to the states — as long, that is, as the owners of old plants did not substantially modify their facilities, upon which they would be deemed "new sources" for regulatory purposes. - Peter Van Doren & Jerry Taylor, December 8, 2003 [CATO] When the Government Owns the Environment The government gave itself permission to dump massive amounts of pollution into one of its own rivers, for decades no less, and it did this, literally, under its own nose. - Scott McPherson, December 19, 2002 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] A Different Standard for the Powerful Means No Environmental Justice From Washington Laws are supposed to make our society orderly and protect the public interest. But red tape can overwhelm and actually cause more harm than good. The process can also be corrupted. - Syd Gernstein, January 2002 [NCPA] Johnny Appleseed Is Dead The government killed him. I just interviewed an apple grower, and the news is not good. The single greatest threat to the American apple industry, and by extension our ability to feed ourselves at all, comes from our own national government. - Brad Edmonds, June 11, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] The Great Pickup Stick-Up "...what seems obvious after nearly a decade of government intervention on behalf of alternative fuels is that -- as has long been understood with regard to lunches -- there's no such thing as a 'free' alternative-fuel vehicle." - Sean Paige, June 2001 [REASON] Suing for Relief "In the late 1980s, utilities and environmentalists pushed for laws forcing the introduction of zero-emission vehicles to California's car lots." - Marc B. Haefele, June 2001 [REASON] New Gasoline May Force Blacks to Run on Empty - Syd Gernstein, June 2001 [Project 21] The American Dream: Why Environmentalists Attack the SUV Cars are such a symbol of Americanism that the Soviets in the 1930s had to cancel propaganda showings of John Steinbeck’s 'Grapes of Wrath' because Soviet audiences were furious to find that even destitute Americans had pickups to migrate in. Contrary to the environmentalists, cars are a powerful symbol of what makes America the greatest, and the freest, country in the world. - John Bragg, May 31, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Terrorism in Green "Environmental terrorism is becoming a serious threat to progress. Scientists are increasingly shying away from this research for fear of being murdered or having their laboratories (and hence their research) burned to the ground. At one time, it was considered sufficient protection to be at a major university. But now the terrorists have shown themselves willing to go anywhere to destroy property and risk lives." - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., May 25, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] California's Green Profiteers The key to understanding the disaster in California is to realize that it is not a disaster -- not for everyone. The state's environmentalists like it just fine. - Robert Tracinski, May 14, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Do you hate those monster SUVs? You should still oppose anti-SUV law "Even if you hate gas-guzzling, road-hogging, parking lot-jamming SUVs, you should still reject a proposed federal law that would shrink the popular motorized behemoths down to size..." - May 4, 2001 [LP Press Release] Green Thumbs Vs. "Green" Politics What is important, Environmentalists say, is that nature is preserved, not for human use, but for the sake of leaving it alone. - Robert W. Tracinski, April 23, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Who Cares For A Green Latte at Starbucks? - David Holcberg, April 9, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Green Lies "I have been subjected to the propaganda of the environmentalist left, and it is informative." - Brad Edmonds, March 22, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] Vacationing at Taxpayer Expense "Places like Seattle, San Francisco, and Boulder, Colorado are the places where modern environmentalism flourishes. Populated by people who are highly educated and highly paid, these places support a population keen on travel, leisure, and pristine wilderness. Thanks to the tax supports paid by all Americans, these people can engage in their leisure activities at a reduced price. It’s a pretty sweet deal." - Ryan McMaken, February 14, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] Environmentalism: It's not about the pretty little animals It's time that we stop calling such people 'environmentalists.' This is too benign a term, and they clearly do not deserve it. - Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D., January 7, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] The Real Grinches are Environmentalist Luddites Who Stand In the Way of a Free-Market For Electricity "Windmills and candles and warm woolen mittens. Staticky sparks from the fur of small kittens. Campfires and solar panels and thermal paddings. These are a few of the favorite things that radical environmentalists would rather rely on for warmth, light, and electricity than the modern power plant." - December 13, 2000 [Capitalism Magazine] Politicians Can Pollute Too - Sheldon Richman, November 2000 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Greens Cause Floods The fault lies squarely on the enviro-freaks who have been campaigning to save the Everglades. - Jeremy Sapienza, October 6, 2000 [LewRockwell.com] Governments Sacrifice Humans for Bears Instead of protecting the rights of individuals to life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness, it now actively sacrifices these rights to the anti-human goal of returning the mountain parks to a pre-human state. - Glen Woiceshyn, September 1, 2000 [Capitalism Magazine] Clinton's Forest Disaster You've heard that government policies can cause unanticipated bad effects? My own opinion is that government is the source of just about everything wrong with the world. This view is confirmed many times over when you consider the current forest-fire fiasco. Government is the cause of the fires now raging out of control across the West, just as surely as if Clinton himself had spread the fuel and lit the match. - August 25, 2000 [LewRockwell.com] Environmentalism: The New National Religion? Once the entire spectrum of environmental laws and regulations enacted since 1969 become reassessed through the corrective lens of a New National Religion in operation, we have reason to hope that the fruits of false worship will at last become revealed, repealed, and the genius of our Founding Fathers once again vindicated. - Margaret Maxey, Ph.D., January 27, 2000 [LewRockwell.com] Government Land Grab "Private landowners, like the owners of any other resource, perform a valuable service in the allocation of that resource in the market economy. Government owners are unable to do this, as Murray Rothbard succinctly observed, 'due to the inherent defects of government operation; the absence of a profit and loss test, the conscription of initial capital, the coercion of revenue—the calculational chaos that government ownership and invasion of the free market create.'" - Christopher Mayer, November 1999 [Mises] In the Absence of Private Property Rights Legislation such as the Endangered Species Act attempts to protect species by undermining private property rights, thereby reducing the motivation of land owners to provide suitable habitat for wildlife, endangered or not. - Dwight R. Lee, July 1999 [FEE] Backed up toilets "A man's home may still be his castle. But in late 20th century America, neither the king nor queen are free to choose their thrones." - September 17, 1998 [Reason] EPA’s Sham Science Reveals Political Agenda - Michael Gough, Winter 1997 [CATO] President Clinton Violates His Own Executive Order on "Environmental Justice" - November 4, 1997 [NCPA Press Release] Pull the Plug "So long as the market has anything to say about it, the electric car will be permanently on blocks. It could prove to be the environmental movement's worst public-relations disaster since it tried to outlaw Pampers." Also includes interesting facts about the "electric car" that the national media didn't tell us. - Eric Peters, July 1995 [Mises] Gross Domestic Bunk "The Commerce Department, which costs $3 billion a year, is touting one of the most brainless economic ideas of our generation. What ought to be called the Anti-Commerce Department announced the concept on Earth Day, which appropriately enough is also Lenin's birthday." - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., June 1994 [LewRockwell.com] Why Socialism Causes Pollution - Thomas J. DiLorenzo, March 1992 [The Freeman] EPA Hides behind Myths of Love Canal "Like so much of what the EPA does, it was nothing but makework for a bloated and arrogant agency." - Michael Fumento [Consumer Alert] TAKING FROM THE TAXPAYER: Public Subsidies for Natural Resource Development (from the Democratic Staff Report, Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, Committee on Natural Resources) - "This report describes the complex web of overlapping and sometimes contradictory benefits given in each of the principal resource areas, including mineral extraction, irrigation water, hydropower, timber, grazing and recreation."

Libertarian Solutions

Private ownership promotes long-run investment and conservation [top] Deal means Wal-Mart helps to save fisheries - Will Martin, March 19, 2006 [Tennessean] The World Is A Great Place and Improving - George Crispin, April 19, 2005 [LewRockwell.com] Bamboo Sprouts in Mexico - December 2004 [PERC] The Greening of Home Depot Fearing a consumer backlash that could lead to sliding sales, executives agreed to stop using products from endangered forests and to speed the transition to more environmentally friendly practices. - September 2004 [PERC] Property and Order - Butler Shaffer, October 24, 2003 [LewRockwell.com] The Lake of the Woods was able to sit on a private lake instead of a public square, fish for privately owned fish instead of publicly owned fish, and watch a privately funded Independence Day celebration instead of a fireworks show obtained by the thieving state. - Bart Frazier, July 16, 2003 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Saving the Environment for a Profit, Victorian-Style - Pierre Desrochers, May 2003 [FEE] Happy Earth Day? Thank Capitalism - Jerry Taylor, April 23, 2003 [CATO] Free-Market Environmentalism - Bart Frazier, March 7, 2003 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Preservation and Private Property If you still don't believe it, look again at a picture of Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. - James E. McClure and T. Norman Van Cott, October 4, 2002 [Mises] Value and the Environment - Jacob Halbrooks, March 29, 2002 [Mises] Feds blasted in Klamath Thousands gather to welcome convoys, protest treatment of farming community. - Ron Strom, August 22, 2001 [WorldNetDaily] And Now for the Good News About the Environment - Brad Edmonds, May 10, 2001 [LewRockwell.com] Technology vs. Humanity I'm not at all appalled by technology. Quite the contrary. I love technology. And I understand that without humanity, properly defined, there is no technology in the first place. - Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D., January 19, 2001 [Capitalism Magazine] Economic Opportunity and Social Issues Trump Environment as Top Concern for Poor and Minorities - John Carlisle, December 2000 [Project 21] Africa Cries Out for Genetically-Modified Foods African leaders are appealing to the United States government to ignore the misguided political protests against genetically-modified foods so that those afflicted with diseases and starvation on the African continent might have hope for the future. - October 20, 2000 [Project 21 Press Release] Private Conservation Of Endangered Species - Cynthia Stanfield, August 31, 2000 [NCPA] Bio-Foods Can Improve Nutrition in America, Cut Starvation and Disease in Africa - John Meredith, July 2000 [Project 21] Property Rights May Save Elephants - Michael A. McPherson and Michael L. Nieswiadomy, January 2000 [NCPA] Private Conservation Saves Rare Eagles - May 13, 1998 [Self-gov.org] Environmental protection through private property and private action - Jonathan Adler, December 1997 [LP] Overcoming "Green Guilt" "In 'Environmental Progress: What Every Executive Should Know,' RPPI Executive Director Lynn Scarlett and Jane S. Shaw, Senior Associate for the Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman, MT, contend that this simply isn't true. In fact, Scarlett and Shaw reveal that business innovation is central to environmental progress and demonstrates the inherent relationship between market incentives and a healthy environment, offering a fresh cure for 'Green Guilt.'" - Lynn Scarlett & Jane S. Shaw, [Reason Public Policy Institute] Prosperity Without Pollution "Human creativity is the key to a more livable future in both economic and environmental terms. To foster creativity we must have freedom to think and act." - John Semmens, March 1996 [The Freeman] Don't Recycle: Throw It Away! "...If all the solid waste for the next thousand years were put into a single space, it would take up 44 miles of landfill, a mere .01% of the U.S. landspace." - December 1995 [Mises] Private Ownership and the Environment - Lawrence W. Reed, November 1994 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] Environment and Free Trade "Moreover, free market environmentalism provides a means for advancing both economic and ecological ends. It uses rather than suppresses the powerful incentives embodied in property rights and voluntary trade to better protect environmental and natural resources." - Jo Kwong, February 1994 [The Freeman] Freedom, Private Property, and the Environment The only honorable solution is to resist these little storm troopers at every possible opportunity — and ultimately to privatize them by abolishing, not reforming, the EPA and its volumes of regulations. - Jacob G. Hornberger, May 1993 [The Future of Freedom Foundation] FAQs about Free-Market Environmentalism From The Thoreau Institute Polluters in a Libertarian Society Question: In a libertarian society, wouldn't polluters get away with destroying the environment? - Mary Ruwart [Self-gov.org]