The Environment

We are going to have world central planning in order to control the climate and protect the holy earth from the effects of industrialization. Oh, and tax us good and hard in the process.

Ah, the greens. They’re not just treehuggers anymore.

"A lesson in basic economics should suffice to defend against the sustainists' attack."

"Mandated recycling exists mainly because there is plenty of money to be made by labeling products as "green" or "recycled" to get municipal and federal grants."

"The computer models that incorporate the greenhouse-gas theory are being massively contradicted by current readings."

Social institutions matter most, and they are very wrong now: a huge improvement is possible, and freedom is the answer.

Recycling happens naturally when there is market demand for waste items like plastic, paper, metal or glass, but mandated recycling does more harm than good. When do you know that recycling is worthy? You know when some person or business asks to buy your particular waste from you, not when some authority forces you to recycle.

"I just want to caution Austrian and libertarian readers not to assume that anyone who 'thinks global warming is a big hoax' is automatically a great scholar.

As for the old conservative claim that libertarians are insufficiently worried about the Soviet threat and too much about garbage collection, note that the Soviet Union is gone and the garbage problem is still with us.

Gray embraces an extreme version of environmentalism, under the guidance of James Lovelock. According to this bizarre view, human beings are in danger of upsetting the Earth, which is viewed not as a mere planet but as a living organism. At times, Gray despairs of human beings altogether and appears a veritable misanthrope.