All Posts Tagged With: "resource depletion"

Economists and Scarcity

In a world where concerns about the environment and resources dominate political discussion and, for people like Al Gore, are a “generational mission [that gives] moral purpose” to our lives, thinking clearly about these issues is crucial. Economics can contribute to this discussion by providing its perspective on words such as “scarcity” and “resources,” which [...]

1Jun2008 | Steven Horwitz | 1 comment | Continued

Remembering Julian Simon

Paul A. Cleveland is a professor of economics at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. Erin Hagert is studying economics at The King’s College in New York. The late Julian Simon was not a household name, but he left an indelible mark nonetheless by demanding that environmentalists produce evidence for their doomsday predictions. Meanwhile, he produced his [...]

1Jan2007 | and and Paul A. Cleveland | 1 comment | Continued

Environmentalism as Though People and Facts Really Mattered

Christopher Lingle is a visiting professor of economics, ESEADE at Universidad Francisco Marroquín. One of the most compelling political issues of the new millennium is to discover ways to arrest and reverse the debilitation of our natural environment. To many observers, no less than a revolution is necessary to change public opinion and to implement [...]

1May2001 | Christopher Lingle | 0 comments | Continued

Running Out of Agricultural Land

Fear that we are running out of important resources is perpetual. Oil is a favorite thing to worry about; landfill space is another, and trees yet another. I could continue listing things (coal, copper, iron ore, even tin) that people have worried would soon be exhausted, and I plan to discuss the persistent fear of resource exhaustion in future columns. In most cases the fear is baseless—fueled by organized interests hoping to capture advantages by scaring the public, by sloppy journalism, and by a general lack of basic economic understanding.

1Jul2000 | Dwight R. Lee | 3 comments | Continued

The Commons: Tragedy or Triumph?

In the summer I watch ruby-throated hummingbirds fly and hover near a feeder that my wife, Dot, carefully fills with nectar and hangs in view of our kitchen window. The store-bought nectar is colored red, since people think that hummingbirds find that color attractive. Business around the feeder picks up following rains that wash away [...]

1Apr1999 | Bruce Yandle | 9 comments | Continued

Our Ultimate Resource Gone

On February 8 Julian Simon died. Difficult words to write, those. We have suffered a terrible loss on many levels. He was, first of all, a wonderful human being—ever positive, smiling, encouraging; a joy to be around. After that, he was one of freedom’s great crusaders. (When Don Boudreaux created FEE’s Council of Scholars last [...]

1Apr1998 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued

The Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Simon

Princeton University Press • 1996 • 734 pages • $35.00 E. C. Pasour is professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. In this powerful and unrestrained challenge to environmental doomsayers, Julian Simon has updated and further substantiated the conclusions of his 1981 book The Ultimate Resource. The standard of living [...]

1Apr1998 | E.C. Pasour Jr. | 0 comments | Continued

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