LIBERTY, ECOLOGY, AND PROSPERITY
A Big Factor in Australian Fires
The Australian fires bring back sad reminders of the California experience. As with American wildfires, an ounce of prevention could have gone a long way to decrease the destruction.
As explained by Kat Dwyer of PERC, in a recent article in The Hill, an Australian law is making matters worse.
Controlled burns, once routinely used by farmers to reduce fuel around their properties, can now result in fines exceeding $500 per tree removed. Indeed, Liam Sheahan, a resident of Strath Creek in central Victoria, was fined $50,000 for clearing trees and shrubs around the perimeter of his home. He spent an additional $50,000 on legal fees defending his decision. After the Black Saturday bushfires devastated his community, Sheahan’s decision was vindicated as his home was the only one to remain standing.
Recent Links
World’s largest asset manager says sustainability will be ‘at the center of our investment approach.’
Aldo Leopold in retrospect: Environmentalists’ hero wanted private conservation as well as public.
California’s last nuclear plant to be shut down; will cost PG&E ratepayers $3.9 billion.
‘I cheered when the bushfire came.’
Compensating property owners has environmental benefits (and it’s in the Constitution).
A new ‘energy bonanza’ from the ocean?
Washington Post: Faint praise for Trump’s latest environmental deregulation.
Glaciers at Glacier National Park were predicted to disappear by 2020. The Park Service is taking down the signs saying so.
The War against Poachers
The International Ranger Federation reports that 269 rangers were killed across Africa between 2012 and 2018, the majority of them by poachers….
[R]esearch on organized crime estimates that between 150 and 200 poachers were killed in the Kruger National Park alone [between 2010 and 2015]. In neighboring Botswana, anti-poaching action has reportedly resulted in dozens of deaths, and the country’s controversial “shoot to kill” policy—which gives rangers powers to shoot poachers dead on sight—has drawn allegations of abuse.
What Do California and Australia Have in Common?
Periodic fires. Environmental regulations that make things worse. Climate change alarmists who want to blame anyone who doesn’t think like they think.
How to Ravage Indonesia: Demand Biofuels
The outcome was ecological devastation. The U.S. Congress mandated alternative fuels, and the forests of Borneo were cleared for palm oil plantations.
We’ve Just Had the Best Decade in History
Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 percent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.
And here is the environmental good news: We are using less stuff:
The quantity of all resources consumed per person in Britain (domestic extraction of biomass, metals, minerals and fossil fuels, plus imports minus exports) fell by a third between 2000 and 2017, from 13.7 tons to 9.4 tons. That’s a faster decline than the increase in the number of people, so it means fewer resources consumed overall.
About this blog
This blog is about appreciating the environment and protecting it using the tools of economics. Your blog manager is Jane Shaw Stroup, a former senior fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC).
We are grateful to the Goodman Institute for providing this opportunity.
Older Posts…
Please note: We are affiliated with the Goodman Institute, a virtual think tank founded and operated by John Goodman. The institute’s mission is to find private alternatives to government programs that aren’t working. These areas include health care, taxation, entitlement, and environmental protection. John Goodman is one of the leading experts in health care, and the Goodman Institute works with many prominent thinkers.
Recent comments