I teach environmental technology or the application of science to eliminate or minimize our adverse impacts
on the natural environment. We are a part of nature. What impacts nature eventually impacts us.
Wastewater treatment and air pollution abatement are examples of environmental technology.
Environmental technologists differ from environmentalists. The latter advocate from their hearts on behalf of
the environment; the former use their heads to plan and implement solutions for a sustainable economy.
Periodically, I receive copies of textbooks to review. One such is "Free Market Environmentalism" by Terry
L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal. The authors work for the Political Economy Research Center (PERC) in
Montana. As westerners, they raise topics and perspectives not frequently discussed by easterners.
However, PERC is not a publicly funded institution embracing academic freedom whereby scholars study
and express their opinions free from censure.
PERC is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt, environmental think tank funded by donations from foundations,
corporations and private individuals. Organizations like this are typically married to an ideology. PERC
appears to be no exception. PERC promotes market approaches to environmental management and the
use of private property rights to advance stewardship of resources. PERC opposes government subsidies
which they allege often degrade the environment.
Chapter by chapter the authors fit fact to theory trying to sell the singular efficacy of "free market
environmentalism." They argue that all resources must be privately owned and the discipline of an
unfettered, or modestly regulated, market resolves environmental problems best. I agreed with their list of
environmental problems, but I wasn't sold on their solutions.
In 1969, the Cuyahoga River, which provides drinking water for Akron, Ohio and drains into Lake Erie at
Cleveland, was so polluted that it erupted in flames. There were few environmental regulations then. For
some, the burning Cuyahoga was the cost of business and employment. Others were less resigned.
Shortly thereafter, the US Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The Cuyahoga is cleaner today as a result of regulations limiting discharge of untreated waste. Arguably,
regulations even created wealth: property values along the river rose, and costs of pollution-related illness
fell. Businesses remained. The point is not that regulations were the only solution or even the best solution.
However, they cost-effectively restored the Cuyahoga thus proving their merit.
This book doesn't make that concession. The authors are unstintingly dogmatic. They state, "... the
environment's only value derives from human perceptions … People cannot manage natural resources for
the sake of animals, plants or other organisms because there is no Dr. Doolittle to talk to the animals and
find out what is best for them. As long as humans have the power to alter the environment, they will do so
based on human values ..."
This opposes ecologists who reject this infantile, human-centred perspective. They argue that nature has its
own intrinsic value distinct from human perceptions. This also opposes modern resource managers who
attempt to balance sustainably the environment's commercial values with social, cultural, aesthetic and
recreational values.
If the authors' goal is to jar our thinking, they've succeeded. If their goal is to offer a simple solution to
complex issues, their success is dubious. I favour a regulated market economy, but I admit that some
resources defy private ownership, are without substitute, have value beyond money or are intangible. What
substitute exists to drink when all the earth's water is polluted? What substitute exists to breath when all of
the earth's air is fouled? This book is of minimal use for environmental technologists who put science before
ideology to find sustainable solutions.