It will be the usual suspects:
eco-statists calling for worldwide socialist policies to control everyone
(and his/her reproduction) in order to "Save Mother Earth." They will never
call for less government and more capitalism, despite the irrational childbirths
and economic underproduction fostered by welfare, entitlements, subsidies,
and other freebies of socialism. http://rexcurry.net/ecotags.html
Cuba, eastern Europe,
the former Soviet Union, China and other socialist messes have demonstrated
that the Malthusian theory is manifested only in socialist economies. The
problem is not overuse of resources; rather it is the underproduction for
which socialism is notorious. "Dwindling resources" and "overpopulation"
are the buzz-words statists use to excuse socialism's failure, to justify
yet more socialism, and to blame the entire population with the ominous whine,
"there's too many of you -- that's the problem." http://rexcurry.net/socialismmalthus.html
Eco-freaks adore statists
like Paul Erlich. That socialist has-been and author has inadvertently demonstrated
the environmental superiority of capitalism over socialism through decades
of humiliatingly inaccurate predictions of the Earth's impending demise.
The United States would be like eastern Europe, the former Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, Cuba and China if Erlich, the eco-freaks and their supporters
had been followed.
http://rexcurry.net/greens.html
The only overpopulation that
exists is an overpopulation of socialists and other eco-freaks. There are
too many people in the world who think there are too many people in the
world.
Statist policies confiscate,
redistribute and exhaust more wealth than they produce. A collectivist approach
to natural resources leads to the "tragedy of the commons": overuse of
resources held in common. The libertarian environmentalist Dr. Rex Curry
summed up the real problem: "The world needs zero socialism growth, not zero
population growth."
Capitalism, to increase profits,
always seeks to increase efficiency in the use of resources to maximize
productive results. Capitalism always seeks to increase profits by lowering
costs through reduced wastes or byproducts (meaningful conservation). Capitalism
also seeks increased profits by producing more resources and new, substitute
materials. The highest standards of living and the cleanest air, water and
resources are in the more capitalistic countries that recognize and protect
private property rights. http://rexcurry.net/ecoart.html
from http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2001-09-27/notebook.html
http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A956
A web search reveals that rexcurry.net was the first website to use the
phrase "overpopulation of socialists" on newgroups, and the second to use
that phrase on the web. rexcurry.net also joins many others in popularizing
the phrase "too many socialists."
Rex Curry is a member of
the Libertarian Party and a lawyer. for more ideas on liberty visit http://rexcurry.net
As a contender for the honorific title of "Top Libertarian
Environmentalist," I spend a lot of time writing about libertarian
environmentalism and how to speak to environmentalists. http://rexcurry.net/comindex.html
There is a lot of material available on the internet about
eco-capitalism, and many books provide a lot of help, too.
If you hear that all libertarians want to "sail the seas,"
listen again because you probably heard the maxim that all libertarians
want to "sell the seas."
Libertarian environmentalists use the following phrases in
a sincere positive manner: sell the oceans, sell the seas, sell the
gulf, sell the lakes, sell the rivers, sell the parks, sell the Everglades
http://rexcurry.net/commentary/everglades.html
"We love manatee!" Eco-capitalists quip, "They taste just
like chicken." http://rexcurry.net/manateefarm.html
But the reasoning of free market environmentalism shines.
Cuba, eastern Europe, the former Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, The Peoples' Republic of China and other socialist
messes have demonstrated that the Malthusian theory is manifested
only in socialist economies. http://rexcurry.net/socialismmalthus.html
Any eco-capitalist can explain why.
Socialism is an environmental disaster. Enviro-capitalism
rocks!
Enviro-capitalists explain why the best environment is a
capitalist environment. The color of a healthy environment and
the color of money are the same. Mother Nature is a capitalist.
Capitalists are the true greens.
************************
Environmental socialists want to anthropologize for being
human.
NYC's Central Park was a swamp, er, wetland, and no one
is trying to restore IT.
Venice Italy was a swamp, er, marshland, and no one is
trying to restore IT to it's natural state.
By 2020, the four most popular seafoods - shrimp,
salmon, tilapia and catfish - will likely come from the aquaculture
industry, and not from socialized saltwater , but from farms that are
privately built and owned, according to industry analysts.
A Libertarian
environmentalist once said "I am a team player - but I play
for the other team!"
On this Earth Day, Bjorn Lomborg scrubs with facts the noxious notions and
emotions that pollute public discourse about the environment ("Earth Day:
Smile, don't shudder," April 21). Especially useful is his point that
the world's number one environmental killer remains the indoor air pollution
suffered by persons in poor countries who burn wood, waste, and dung to cook
their meals and to heat their homes.
As the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay reminded us, it wasn't until Europeans
industrialized - or, as we say today, enlarged their 'carbon footprint' -
that they were saved from that same filthy fate. Here's his description
of the dwelling of a typical 17th-century Scottish highlander:
"His lodging would sometimes have been in a hut of which every nook would
have swarmed with vermin. He would have inhaled an atmosphere thick
with peat smoke, and foul with a hundred noisome exhalations.... His
couch would have been the bare earth, dry or wet as the weather might be;
and from that couch he would have risen half poisoned with stench, half blind
with the reek of turf, and half mad with the itch."*
We in today's developed economies are indeed lucky to be able to worry about
dangers as distant and as nebulous as global warming.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax,
VA 22030 http://www.cafehayek.com/
21 April 2010
(The height of being one with mother nature is to be rotting in an early
grave)
* Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England, Vol. 3 (Philadelphia:
John C. Winston Co., n.d.), p. 279.