X-Message-Number: 10520
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 11:00:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Ecodoom

On Sat, 3 Oct 1998 Peter Merel wrote:

> As to our grandchildren blaming us for ozone/greenhouse, Thomas, that's 
> the very least of their environmental troubles. Species extinctions are
> presently proceeding at 10,000 times the rate of 100 years ago. The World
> Wildlife Fund just published a study suggesting that roughly 1/3rd of our 
> accessible natural resources have been rendered barren in the last 25
> years, and that our rate of destruction has been increasing by 5% each
> year for some time. Much, much more in this line can be had from Jay 
> Hanson's gloom collection at http://www.dieoff.org/. 

Sigh. Peter, ANY special interest group (including our own!) has an 
agenda to pursue. Most such groups (excluding our own) stay in business 
by scaring people. That's how you get contributions. The typical fund 
raising letter, whether it's from the World Wildlife Fund or the 
Christian Coalition, will state a Dire Warning, usually based on recent 
actions by some enemy group (industrial polluters, moral relativists, 
whatever) and will then beg for money to fight these enemies of correct 
thought. Environmentalists (and I speak as a former environmental 
activist) are totally uncrupulous at concocting these dire warnings. I 
abandoned the environmental movement when I determined that most of its 
figures were flat-out wrong, sometimes with full knowledge of those 
circulating the statistics. 

As I'm sure you are aware, almost all resources are cheaper today in real 
terms, and even in dollar terms in many cases (despite inflation), than 
they were 30 years ago. This is how Julian Simon won his famous bet 
against Paul Ehrlich. Moreover, known oil reserves have actually 
INCREASED over this period.

I don't believe any future generation will berate us for global warming 
or resource depletion. Rather, they may note that with amusement that we 
achieved substantial gains in areas such as air quality, via the most 
inefficient means: government regulation as opposed to market forces.

Incidentally, recent temperature measurements via satellite indicate that 
global warming is still a controversial concept at best. If the 
phenomenon is real, however, I have a fairly careful study from the CATO 
Institute showing that it will benefit almost everyone, worldwide (within 
reasonable limits, of course).

I agree that other forums are preferable for these issues, but could not 
refrain from a quick response to your statement, which includes many 
assumptions which I simply cannot find convincing.

--CP

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