Nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from sheep and cattle. To reduce them, the government is negotiating a plan to tax farmers for methane emissions, beginning in 2025. The tax is part of an effort to reduce agricultural emissions by 24 to 27 percent by 2050. “The proposal includes incentives for farmers…
Tag: Agriculture
Why Is the Economist Magazine Pessimistic about Agriculture when the Climate News Is Good?
According to the Economist, some investors are betting that, as the climate warms, agriculture will become more profitable in high-latitude regions such as Canada’s Manitoba. Russia is already leasing uncultivated acreage on its eastern edge to Asian investors to produce soybeans. Furthermore, more carbon dioxide (the supposed cause of warming) helps vegetation grow. “The buildup…
The Coming War against Meat
“A small but highly influential contingent of liberal extremists in our media has fired the opening salvos” in a war against meat, says Gary Taustine in the New York Post. (Hat tip to John Baden). The first salvo was a New York Times article saying that the meat-packing industry was racist because its workers workers…
The Surprising Spread of Free Market Environmentalism
This is the second post by Shawn Regan of PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, on “what free market environmentalists support.” Those who support the role of property rights and markets in environmental protection may not realize how many organizations agree with them. Here are a few examples (for others see Part I of…
How Do We Save the Monarch Butterfly?
Monarch butterflies hit a record low in California this winter, reports Business Insider, citing an annual count by the Xerces Society. The western Monarchs migrate as much as 3000 miles a year, arriving in California from the Pacific Northwest, usually staying in the state until March and then moving to other parts of the country….
What Do Free Market Environmentalists Support?
This is a guest post by Shawn Regan, vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana. He is also the executive editor of PERC Reports. By Shawn Regan Free market environmentalism used to involve academic study showing ways that private property rights can protect the environment, often when the government…