“The Toxicity of Environmentalism” is a major critique of environmentalism that was featured as the concluding, summary essay in Jay Lehr, ed., Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns. It is now available to the general public for 99¢ as a Kindle Book on Amazon.com.
It shows, among other things, how the “green” movement of the environmentalists is merely the old “red” movement of the communists and socialists shorn of its veneer of science. The only difference between the greens and the reds, it explains, is the superficial one of the specific reasons for which they want to violate individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The reds claimed that the individual could not be left free because the result would be such things as “exploitation,” “monopoly,” and depressions. The greens claim that the individual cannot be left free because the result will be such things as destruction of the ozone layer, acid rain, and global warming. Both claim that centralized government control over economic activity is essential. The reds wanted it for the alleged sake of achieving human prosperity. The greens want it for the alleged sake of maintaining the existence of wildlife, jungles, deserts, and rock formations, which environmentalism holds to be intrinsically valuable.
This essay is a thoroughgoing refutation of environmentalism. Its content is shown by the following list of topics:
• The Degree of Environmentalism’s Toxicity
• The Alleged “Intrinsic Value” of Nature
• Environmentalism’s Hatred of Man and His Nature as the Rational Being
• Environmentalism’s False Claims and Resulting Panics
• Environmentalism’s Pseudo-Science and Dishonesty
• Productive Activity Improves MAN’S Environment
• The Need to Disassociate from Environmentalism
• Environmentalism: The Anti-Industrial Revolution
• A Free-Market Solution for Global Warming
• Industrial Civilization the Prerequisite for Achieving Practically all Worthy Goals
• The Need for Private Ownership of Land and Natural Resources
• Socialism and Environmentalism
• Environmentalism and Irrationalism
• The Role of the New Intellectuals
• Cleaning Up the Philosophical, Intellectual, and Cultural Environment
George Reisman, Ph.D.
The Capitalist Professor
Author: Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics and other titles
Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics
Website: www.capitalism.net
Blog: http://georgereismansblog.blog...
On Twitter @GGReisman