Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Thanks, Dr. Reisman; or, How I Learned to Hate Enviros and Love Tantrums

TT`s Lost in Tokyo — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:23:38 GMT

In my recent post, " Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment

Nick Kristof on politics: why we conclude that I'm right, and you're evil

TT's Samurai Stumblings — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:11:11 GMT

Here's a very interesting piece by Kristof at the New York Times about the reactions of Obama and

Nick Kristof on politics: why we conclude that I'm right, and you're evil

TT's Samurai Stumblings — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:05:47 GMT

Here's a very interesting piece by Kristof at the New York Times about the reactions of Obama and

Thanks, Dr. Reisman; or, How I Learned to Hate Enviros and Love Tantrums

TT's Samurai Stumblings — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:18:57 GMT

In my recent post, " Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

TokyoTom — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:25:51 GMT

Geoffrey, thanks for the comment. Thanks for pointing out that Sean Corrigan has two threads, but they were already both up - maybe I'll add an "and" to make it clearer.

As for Corrigan's points, I hardly believe that they are in good faith. India is large, and like in the US, climate change is expected to increase the likelihood both of regional droughts and extreme weather events like heavy downfalls and flooding. (In fact, it seems we are already seeing this in the US.) It is neither meaningless nor fearmongering to note this - though of course politicians and others can be expected to fearmonger.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Kevin Carson — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:17:53 GMT

I'm glad to find you have a blog, Tokyo Tom--I've enjoyed seeing you repeatedly mop the floor with Reisman in comment threads at Mises Blog over the last couple of years. In all that time, I don't think I've once seen him directly address any of your counter-arguments. The only time I'm aware of that he even acknowledged their existence was in a purely facetious post with absolutely no substantive argument in it.

That seems to be a common pattern with him, though. He devoted a string of posts to denouncing me, and never even acknowledged my counter-arguments (with the exception of an oblique "some argue that..." reference that probably indicated his having read one of my counter-posts).

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Geoffrey Allan Plauche — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:18:22 GMT

There appear to be two listings for posts by Sean Corrigan. You only link to one. Here's the other:

blog.mises.org/.../Corrigan2

This, for example, from his latest blogpost is a good point:

"The article ends with this: "It is estimated by the year 2050, another seven million persons are expected to take refuge in Mumbai after global warming leads to either a drought or deluge in their village or city elsewhere in the country," D'Silva said.

I especially like this last "prediction" - sometime in the next four decades, somewhere in India, it will either rain too much or too little! A clarion example of rational scientific falsifiability!"

blog.mises.org/.../007775.asp

Predictions like that from climate scientists are meaningless as prediction and amount to mere fearmongering.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

PCLP — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:41:39 GMT

You've saved me from having to make any more comments on the latest Reisman article. Thanks very much.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

TokyoTom — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:09:34 GMT

Geoffrey, I appreciate your comments. Not sure what Corrigan has right, though.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

TokyoTom — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:35:59 GMT

Donny, thanks for your comments. Actually, Dr. Reisman has vigourously posted on environmental topics on LvMI over the past two years. I encourage you to look for these prior posts and at some of the discussion. The two pieces you link to were posted and commented on here: blog.mises.org/.../006691.asp

blog.mises.org/.../006700.asp.

The authors' archive for Dr. Reisman now looks like it only goes to last April, but he has many earlier pieces - which apparently you need to run a search on the blog to find.

Also, I saw your comments on the deus ex machina "act of nature" device that Dr. Reisman uses to absolve each of us from the results of our collective activities. I agree with you, and I and others disagreed with the good Dr. when he first floated the idea, here: ttp://blog.mises.org/archives/004842.asp.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Geoffrey Allan Plauche — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:41:47 GMT

I would also add, as I've noted before, that Reisman is self-professedly not a strict Austrian. He is as much a classical economist as he is an Austrian, if not more so. And on some issues, like environmentalism, he can channel Rand in her worst moments.

We should also be careful not to conflate Austrian economics with libertarianism just because most people here happen to adhere to both.

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Geoffrey Allan Plauche — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:04:27 GMT

With regard to Corrigan, I think he has made some legitimate points. Not every post an Austro-libertarian makes need be one that ignores the extremists and the mistaken arguments among the environmentalists. That said, this shouldn't be the sole focus of every Austro-libertarian. A division of labor in dealing with environmental issues is acceptable.

As you know, I agree that Reisman's posts are particularly unconstructive. You might like my comments on his more recent post: "<a href="A' target=_new rel=nofollow mce_href='http://blog.mises.org/archives/007800.asp">A'>blog.mises.org/.../007800.asp">A Word to Environmentalists</a>."

re: Escape from Reason: are Austrians conservatives, or neocons, on the environment?

Donny with an A — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:11:59 GMT

If you're going to talk about Reisman, you should probably start from the beginning. He actually represents one of the more fascinating viewpoints in the climate change debate, because he holds positions that you wouldn't think anyone would hold. You might check out:

www.mises.org/.../qjae5_2_1.pdf

www.lewrockwell.com/.../reisman34.html

You might also be interested in my reaction to the first piece:

libertarian-left.blogspot.com/.../emergent-problems.html