[513] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: NO TURNING BACK
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Fri Dec 16 17:23:17 1994
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 17:16:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
Devout nature lover condemns statist environmentalism--
and passionately defends private property rights
NO TURNING BACK
Dismantling the Fantasies of Environmental Thinking
by Wallace Kaufman
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
Wallace Kaufman has spent 30 years in the environmental
movement, leading groups around his native North Carolina and
lobbying for the Wilderness Society. Now he denounces irrational,
authoritarian environmentalists who dominate the headlines, and
he explains why private property is one of our most important
natural resources.
Kaufman tells how environmentalists peddle ignorance and
lies. He traces the sorry story from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary
Shelley and Robert Malthus to David Brower, Paul Ehrlich, Barry
Commoner and Al Gore. He offers first-hand reports about some of
the world's most environmentally-devastated regions, all on
government property. Kaufman ridicules the widely-touted
environmentalist vision which exalts primitive agriculture,
primitive medicine, primitive people--and an all-powerful
government.
Civilization and technology, Kaufman shows, are the keys to
improving the environment as well as human life. He makes clear
improvement occurs only when private property is secure.
He cites case after case of private individuals expanding
forested acreage, maintaining ecologically important wetlands and
using technology to fight pollution and develop environmentally-
friendly products. He hails recent court cases which uphold the
takings clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Worthwhile contribution to free market environmentalism.
Kaufman's love of nature & love of liberty,
A few provocative excerpts:
World's biggest environmental problems? "They are in the
commons: air pollution, water pollution, depleted ocean
fisheries, and overcrowded parks, national forests, and
rangelands."
* * *
"The Endangered Species Act has not saved any species, but
the costs for trying have run into the billions."
* * *
"The Industrial Revolution was a mixed blessing, but name a
blessing that isn't mixed. In the span of history, the
revolution's worst abuses were short-lived outside the Communist
world... "
* * *
"If we were to honor only those land titles that were
claimed peacefully, the Iroquois would lose their New York lands,
and the Sioux, their lands in the Black Hills and plains. The
Kayapo would lose their vast holdings in Brazil."
* * *
"Private property rights sustain us all."
Book No. EN6226 (hardcover) 202p. $25.00
LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $19.95
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Happy Holidays,
Chris
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Chris Whitten LFB@panix.com
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