Environment Debate Topic
2009-2010 NCFCA Team Policy Debate
Resolved: That the United States Federal Government should significantly reform its environmental policy.
Learning about the environment: Research, discussion and debate....or indoctrination?
From The Australian: SCHOOLCHILDREN are being brainwashed with an environmental message in the classroom. Children are not just being pinned down in the classroom and force-fed what to think: it's worse than that. The next generation - from primary schoolchildren through to college students - is being taught not to think, merely encouraged to accept the official line. It ought to be a national scandal but no one seems to think that there is anything controversial about environmental indoctrination in schools. ... [Link to full article.]
Water page: Ending the Water Policy Drought
Michael Crichton on why federal government policy on DDT matters.
Recommended Articles and Books on Environmental Policy
- Ten Principles of Economics. Chapter One from a book by Richard Stroup.
- Cutting Green Tape: Toxic Pollutants, Environmental Regulations and the Law, Richard Stroup is co-editor.
- You Have to Admit It's Getting Better: From Economic Prosperity to Environmental Quality, edited by Terry Anderson. All chapters seem to be online at Hoover Inst. here.
- PERC and PERC Reports. Highly recommended market-analysis of environmental issues.
- Heartland Institute overview of environmental issues.
- Environment & Climate News monthly.
- Heartland's Global Warming Facts page.
- Climate Change Reconsidered page with the NIPCC information (alternative review andanalysis of climate change studies).
- The Improving State of the World by Indur Goklany. (You can read some on Google books here) Subtitle: "Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet." The planet is getting cleaner and safer, and people healthier, because of increasing prosperty. But don't take my word for it, review the data collected in this book. 450 pages and from Amazon for under $14.--Greg Rehmke
- New York Times article Environmental policy with the union label on unions abusing "environmental" lawsuits to support pro-union solar power plants in California (and to block non-union solar plants) is instructive. U.S. environmental programs have been largely highjacked to support a wide variety of special interests. The Endangered Species Act has long been used by those who wish to block development. Hikers and backpackers sue to block new highways in places they enjoy vacationing.
- Much the same story of special interests bending environmental policy to suit their goals is described in this Bjorn Lomborg article in the Wall Street Journal The Climate-Industrial Complex: Some businesses see nothing but profits in the green movement . Here's the pdf.
- Scared silly over climate change: We are frightening children with exaggerations – they believe they don't have a future and that the world is going to end
- Lomborg is author of the excellent (but now 10 years old) book, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Paperback). You can "Look inside" on Amazon.
- Rethinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Policy, an Independent Institute anthology, provides an excellent overview of major areas of environmental policy. Highly recommended.
- In a Dark Wood: The Fight Over Forests and the Myths of Nature by Alson Chase (author of Playing God at Yellowstone). Chase outlines the philosophy of environmentism in a sympathetic yet critical way. Chase's critique of modern environmentalists views on ecosystems is key. Mainstream environmentalist's faith in stable ecosystems whose "true nature" is to maintain balance and equilibrium, seems similar to misconceptions in mainstream economic models that offer equilibrium as something desirable (and that governments are called upon to return to via regulation). Market-process economic analysis sees naturalentrepreneurial improvements disrupting economies and forcing adaptation. My sense is that similar "entrepreneurial" or at least opportunistic processes in nature keep ecosystems changing, forcing adaption or exit. - Greg Rehmke
- Federalist Society page on environmental law: notes on books and journal articles. (See also other Federalist Society resources, including this Const. and Libert. "Pre-Law Reading List."
- Thoreau Institute and the TI blog The Antiplanner. Pages with links to articles on Public Lands, Fire, Endangered Species and Environmental movement.
- Free-market Environmentalism reading list on The Commons Blog. New site for The Commons.
- Heritage Foundation Energy And Environment page.
- National Center for Policy Analysis posts and links on environmental topics.
- Private Conservation and Property Rights: Past Successes and Future Opportunities (Heritage Event)
- Judeo-Christian Tradition Best Basis for Environmentalism Interview with Robert H. Nelson in Acton Institute publication, Religion & Liberty.
Posts from 2004 or earlier:
- Trade, Labor and the Environment: How Blue and Green Sanctions Threaten Higher Standards by Daniel T. Griswold (Cato Trade Policy Analysis No. 15 August 2, 2001)
- Economic Growth and the State of Humanity (PERC Policy Series)
- Essays on the ethics of environmental stewardship from the Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty
Books on Environment, Development, Business
Global Greens: Inside the International Environmental Establishment by James M. Sheehan.
Chapter Summary, Earth Report 2000, Chapter 1, "The Progress Explosion: Permanently Escaping the Malthusian Trap." Excerpt: "Recent developments in economic theory, called New Growth Theory, have shed considerable light on how humanity has avoided the Malthusian trap. The wellsprings of economic growth are new ideas. People actually improve their lives not through simply using more physical resources, like land, timber, or oil, but by discovering better ways of doing things and novel inventions. Humanity cannot deplete the supply of new ideas, designs, and recipes."
Who Is Destroying the World's Forests? (an article I wrote many years ago).
Texas World! Click for link to Texasworld article on technology and population issues.
Economist Julian Simon is a great resource for high school speech and debate students interested in environmental issues. Simon is optimistic about most environmental issues (though pessimistic about the ability of the media to communicate fairly the scientific issues that surround environmental controversies. Click here for a link to Julian Simon pages that are available online.