PERC: Free Market Environmentalism

We thought it fitting on Earth Day to provide an entry in our collection of Rebellion Resources for the Property and Environmental Research Center in Bozeman, Montana (PERC).

We’ve noticed that the foot soldiers of the environmental movement often don’t know that there are a number of market-friendly proposals for helping to heal the earth. It’s a sad state of affairs when the environmental movement simply will not look at solutions that don’t involve coercion and government intrusion, even if there’s evidence to show cooperative and market-based solutions may work better.

You can find evidence indicating that free market solutions can and do work better than many of the policies left-wing environmentalist advocate by following the work of PERC. PERC is a think-tank that is home to Terry Anderson, author of the seminal text, Free Market Environmentalism.

The PERC website includes audio and video and assorted writings and newsletters from those who sincerely believe that the best way to protect the environment, in many cases, is through tools that enhance private property rights and local control. This should make sense as most people take better care of things they own.

P.S. – In further “celebration” of Earth Day, you may want to check out an op-ed piece written for the Los Angeles Times by Laura Huggins, a research fellow with PERC. Her editorial includes an excellent concise history of how environmental policy in the United States derailed with Teddy Roosevelt’s federal initiatives.