Bruce N. Ames
Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
University of California at Berkeley
Terry L. Anderson
Senior Associate
Political Economy Research Center
Larry P. Arnn
President
Claremont Institute
Barry Asmus
Senior Fellow
National Center for Policy Analysis
John A. Baden
Chairman
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment
C. Edwin Baker
Senior Fellow for Environmental Policy
Independence Institute
Golden, Colorado
Joseph L. Bast
President
Heartland Institute
Chicago, Illinois
Mikhail S. Bernstam
Senior Research Fellow
Hoover Institute
Walter Block
Senior Research Fellow
Fraser Institute
Clint Bolick
Director
Landmark Center for Civil Rights
Washington, D.C.
James Bovard
Associate Policy Analyst
Cato Institute
Sam Brunelli
Executive Director
American Legislative Exchange Council
Eamonn Butler
Director
Adam Smith Institute
London, England
John Carlson
President
Washington Institute for Policy Studies
Bellevue, Washington
Alston Chase
Author: Playing God in Yellowstone
Lucy Clark
Associate Director of the Judicial Studies Program
Manhattan Institute
Kenneth Clarkson
Director
Law and Economics Center
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
Robert Allan Cooke
Director
Institute for Business Ethics
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
John W. Cooper
Executive Director
James Madison Institute
Tallahassee, Florida
D. Allen Dalton
Director
Center for the Study of Market Alternatives
Caldwell, Idaho
William J. Dennis, Jr.
Senior Research Fellow
The NFIB Foundation
Tom DiLorenzo
Director
Center for Economic Education
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Becky Norton Dunlop
Former Assistant Secretary of the Interior
Stephen Gold
Executive Director
Citizens for the Environment
John C. Goodman
President
National Center for Policy Analysis
Robert E. Gordon, Jr.
Director
National Wilderness Institute
Mark Greenfield
Executive Director
Heartland Institute
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Michael S. Greve
Executive Director
Center for Individual Rights
Washington, D.C.
William M. H. Hammett
President
Manhattan Institute
Stephen H. Hanke
Professor of Applied Economics
The Johns Hopkins University
Robert Hawkins
President
Institute for Contemporary Studies
Steve Hayward
Director
Golden State Center for Policy Studies
Claremont Institute
Sacramento, California
John M. Hood
Publications and Research Director
John Locke Foundation
Raleigh, North Carolina
Edward L. Hudgins
Deputy Director Economic Policy Studies
Heritage Foundation
Sherwood Idso
Adjunct Professor of Botany & Geography
Arizona State University
Kent Jeffreys
Environmental Policy Analyst
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Bruce Johnson
Research Director
The Independent Institute
Barbara Keating-Edh
President
Consumer Alert
Modesto, California
Jo Kwong
Director of Public Affairs
Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Kathy Kushner
Research Fellow
Hudson Institute
Donald Leal
Research Associate
Political Economy Research Center
Dwight Lee
Adjunct Professor
Center for the Study of American Business
Tex Lezar
President
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Dallas, Texas
Greg Lindsay
Executive Director
Centre for Independent Studies
St. Leonards, Australia
James H. Miller
President
Wisconsin Policy Research Institute
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Joseph A. Morris
President & General Counsel
Lincoln Legal Foundation
Chicago, Illinois
William C. Myers
Executive Vice President
South Carolina Policy Council
Columbia, South Carolina
Madsen Pirie
President
Adam Smith Institute
London, England
Virginia Postrel
Editor of Reason
Reason Foundation
Lawrence W. Reed
President
Mackinac Center
Midland, Michigan
Scott J. Relan
President
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
Oxford, Mississippi
Michael Sanera
President
Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy Research
Flagstaff, Arizona
Thomas R. Saving
Director
Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise
College Station, Texas
Lynn Scarlett
Vice President of Research
Reason Foundation
William C. Schilling
Executive Director
Wyoming Heritage Society
Casper, Wyoming
Timothy Seibel
Director for Land Use and Environmental Studies
Claremont Institute
Montclair, California
Jane S. Shaw
Senior Associate
Political Economy Research Center
Randy T. Simmons
Director
Institute of Political Economy
Utah State University
Julian L. Simon
Professor of Business Administration
University of Maryland
S. Fred Singer
Director
Project on Science and Environmental Policy
Joe M. Sloan, Jr.
President
California Conservation Coalition
Whittier, California
Fred L. Smith
President
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Robert J. Smith
Director of Environmental Studies
Cato Institute
Fritz S. Steiger
Executive Vice President & CEO
Texas Public Policy Foundation
San Antonio, Texas
Richard L. Stroup
Senior Associate
Political Economy Research Center
Martin J. Summers
Research Associate
Institute of Economic Affairs
London, England
Judy Swafford
Director
Southwest Policy Institute
Edmond, Oklahoma
Jerry Taylor
Legislative Director
American Legislative Exchange Council
Robert Taylor
Fellow
Institute for Humane Studies
Fairfax, Virginia
David J. Theroux
President
The Independent Institute
Oakland, California
Norman Ture
President
Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation
Ronald Utt
Vice President
National Chamber Foundation
Michael Warder
Executive Vice President
Rockford Institute
Rockford, Illinois
William W. Weston
President
Foundation Francisco Marroquin
Stuart, Florida
Elizabeth Whelan
President
American Council of Science and Health
Aaron Wildavsky
Professor of Political Science & Public Policy
University of California at Berkeley
Not all task force members agreed with every recommendation. In some cases, the authors have made other recommendations in other publications. The consensus was that the proposals made here would be a vast improvement over the current system, however. Task force members served as individuals, not as representatives of institutions.
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This task force report has taken a fundamentally different approach to solving environmental problems. Rather than focusing on government, we chose to focus on the world's five billion people. In doing so, we sought to understand how and why individual entrepreneurs have been successful in preserving and maintaining ecologically sensitive natural resources even in opposition to government policy. We discovered that individuals are most likely to succeed when there are institutions that make the achievement of environmental goals consistent with the pursuit of self-interest.
Unfortunately, under current institutional arrangements, too many people find that environmental destruction rather than conservation is in their self-interest. Most of our environmental problems arise because resources such as air, .water, forests and many species of birds, fish and other wildlife are owned in common. Because these resources have no owners, they have few protectors and defenders. Because there is no market for these resources, people have poor incentives to maintain their value.
Whether driving a car or working in a factory that contributes to air or water pollution, in most places people realize no economic gain from the reduction of pollutants and bear no economic cost if they cause an increase in pollutants. To make matters worse, people increasingly discover that if they make their property attractive to endangered species, they can be subjected to extreme economic hardship from government rules and regulations.
The institutions that have worked well for us in other areas of economic life include private property, free markets, a price system and methods for punishing people who violate the rights of others. Until recently, most people believed these institutions could not be used to achieve environmental goals. But careful study reveals many of them already are being used to help conserve ecologically sensitive resources by different people in diverse places.
In England and Scotland, private property rights give owners economic incentives to protect rivers and streams from depletion by overfishing and from unwelcome trespassing by polluters.
In Zimbabwe, where people have a right to the proceeds from elephant hunting and ivory sales, elephant herds have increased by one-third over the past five years — under the vigilant protection of local villagers.
Moreover, new technological developments hold the promise of allowing us to extend market-based institutions to new frontiers – to the air, to the ocean, to ground water and to endangered fish and other wildlife.
Progressive environmentalism believes we should use science, technology and our knowledge of social institutions to empower people and make the achievement of environmental goals in their individual self-interest. Government is needed to create the legal framework. Within that framework, people should be free to experiment and innovate to solve problems which large bureaucracies are unlikely to solve.