The following resources are excellent for research and background information on Environmental Policy!
Books
- Ten Principles of Economics by Richard Stroup
Free copy of chapter one on scarcity of resources. - You Have to Admit It’s Getting Better: From Economic Prosperity to Environmental Quality, edited by Terry Anderson.
All chapters seem to be online. - The Improving State of the World by Indur Goklany. (You can read some on Google books here) Subtitle: “Why We’re Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet.” The planet is getting cleaner and safer, and people healthier, because of increasing prosperty. But don’t take my word for it, review the data collected in this book. 450 pages and from Amazon for under $14.
- The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Paperback) by Bjorn Lomborg
Book is 10 years old but still excellent! - In a Dark Wood: The Fight Over Forests and the Myths of Nature by Alson Chase (author of Playing God at Yellowstone). Chase outlines the philosophy of environmentism in a sympathetic yet critical way. Chase’s critique of modern environmentalists views on ecosystems is key. Mainstream environmentalist’s faith in stable ecosystems whose “true nature” is to maintain balance and equilibrium, seems similar to misconceptions in mainstream economic models that offer equilibrium as something desirable (and that governments are called upon to return to via regulation). Market-process economic analysis sees naturalentrepreneurial improvements disrupting economies and forcing adaptation. My sense is that similar “entrepreneurial” or at least opportunistic processes in nature keep ecosystems changing, forcing adaption or exit. – Greg Rehmke
Websites & Articles
- Heartland Institute overview of environmental issues and the Environment & Climate News monthly.
- Property and Environment Research Center and PERC Reports.
Highly recommended market-analysis of environmental issues. - National Center for Policy Analysis posts and links on environmental topics.
- Federalist Society page on environmental law: notes on books and journal articles. (See also other Federalist Society resources, including this Const. and Libert. “Pre-Law Reading List.”
- Thoreau Institute and the TI blog The Antiplanner. Pages with links to articles on Public Lands, Fire, Endangered Species and Environmental movement.
- Free-market Environmentalism reading list on The Commons Blog. New site for The Commons.
- Heritage Foundation Energy And Environment page.
- Cutting Green Tape: Toxic Pollutants, Environmental Regulations and the Law, Richard Stroup is co-editor.
- New York Times article Environmental policy with the union label on unions abusing “environmental” lawsuits to support pro-union solar power plants in California (and to block non-union solar plants) is instructive. U.S. environmental programs have been largely highjacked to support a wide variety of special interests. The Endangered Species Act has long been used by those who wish to block development. Hikers and backpackers sue to block new highways in places they enjoy vacationing.
- Judeo-Christian Tradition Best Basis for Environmentalism Interview with Robert H. Nelson in Acton Institute publication, Religion & Liberty.
- Rethinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Policy, an Independent Institute anthology, provides an excellent overview of major areas of environmental policy. Highly recommended.
Climate Change
- Heartland’s Global Warming Facts page.
- Scared silly over climate change by Björn Lomborg
We are frightening children with exaggerations – they believe they don’t have a future and that the world is going to end - Climate Change Reconsidered page with the NIPCC information (alternative review andanalysis of climate change studies).
- Much the same story of special interests bending environmental policy to suit their goals is described in this Bjorn Lomborg article in the Wall Street Journal The Climate-Industrial Complex: Some businesses see nothing but profits in the green movement . Here’s the pdf.
Audio
- Private Conservation and Property Rights: Past Successes and Future Opportunities (Heritage Event Audio)
