CHAPTER 24 WHY I AM NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology - The Armchair Economist (revised and updated May 2012): Economics & Everyday Life by Steven E. Landsburg - #ildoveredideprogrammare #preferenzecattive? #profittoepreferenze #religioneomercatomancante? #conservaretuttotranneiltempo #ritoosostanza? #cosedanondire:mancasempreunmercato #inquinareipoveri #spreconinelladoccia #insegnareiltradeoff #cosavoglionolegenerazionifuture? #inquinare=peccare
CHAPTER 24 WHY I AM NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of EcologyRead more at location 3474
Note: Il miglior modo x combattere la religione oggi consiste nel combattere l'ambientalismo: è lì che si concentrano i dogmi più irrazionali. Una regolare deprogrammazione dei figli sembra necessaria... L'antidoto alle superstizioni è la scienza. L'antidoto all'ambientalismo è l'economia... IMHO: perchè se colpiamo un collega con un bastone diciamo che un gesto del genere è inammissibile anzichè dire che "bisogna portare rispetto x il bastone". Xché? Eppure qs ultima è la formula che utilizziamo quando danneggiamo il prossimo attraverso l'ambiente. Una forzatura tutt'altro che innocente. Un modo x dare la precedenza all'abiente sull'uomo. Perchè esiste l'anno della terra e nn l'anno del bastone?… L'errore dell'ambientalismo: anteporre la morale alle preferenze. Costruiamo un parcheggio o un parco? È un dilemma e la scienza propone alcuni metodi x risolverlo. L'ambientalismo, per contro, pensa di avere la Ragione dalla sua. Si obbietta che il profitto nn è una preferenza. E xchè mai? Oltretutto il profitto trasmette le preferenze dei consumatori... La retorica delle generazioni future: ma le g.f. preferiscono ereditare un bosco o i profitti accumulati negli anni da un parcheggio?... Senza l'assunto della "superiorità morale" nn si spiega la leggerezza dei verdi nell'argomentare... I verdi impugnano sempre qualche statistica ma dopo averla declamata saltano a conclusioni arbitrarie: le foreste stanno decrescento, quindi ricicliamo. È + attendibile la conclusione contraria: vuoi più foreste? spreca + carta e i produttori creeranno + foreste. Ma l'ambientalista nn vuole + alberi, a lui interessa il rituale del riciclaggio, del sacrificio. Al fondo è un religioso... Pesticidi: sono cancerogeni ma abolirli fa collassare il consumo di frutta con effetti sulle malattie legate al cancro. Xché il verde guarda solo al primo effetto? Perchè è un sacerdote... Estinzione delle specie. Nn sappiamo bene cosa succede quando si estingue una specie, sperimentare sarebbe utile. In fondo ieri una nuova scimmia è stata scoperta in Amazzonia e la mia vita nn ne ha risentito molto. Ma i verdi si oppongono a priori... Xchè nn ricollocare le industrie + inquinanti nei paesi poveri? Staremmo tutti meglio. Eppure la proposta ha sollevato un coro d'indignazione e l'atteggiamento religioso ha prevalso: inquinare è peccato.... Il verde mira a convertire il tuo stile di vita. Le soluzioni che nn implicano qs conseguenza, x quanto efficaci, sono escluse a priori dal suo catechismo..… Quando il padre dice al figlio:"chiudi il rubinetto" la cosa ha un senso. Se a dirlo è il tuo amico verde -magari x mezzo di un politico- la cosa è assurda visto che tu paghi x l'acqua che consumi di conseguenza nn esiste spreco ma preferenza.... Ai bimbi viene insegnato a nn sprecare le risorse ma nn viene insegnato che anche il tempo è una risorsa... Xchè nn scambiare un pò di natura selvaggia in cambio di più confort. Con il trasporto pubblico risparmiamo ma l'auto privata è più comoda... L'economia - mettendo al centro la diversità umana- insegna la tolleranza... Come c'è l'esonero dall'ora di religione, dovrebbe esserci l'esonero dalle lezioni di ambientalismo Edit
I was lectured by four-and five-year-olds on the importance of safe energy sources, mass transportation, and recycling. The recurring mantra was “With privilege comes responsibility”Read more at location 3480
I’d heard some of this from my daughter before and had gotten used to the idea that she needed a little deprogramming from time to time.Read more at location 3483
much in common with the least reputable varieties of religious Fundamentalism.Read more at location 3488
Environmentalism goes beyond science when it elevates matters of preference to matters of morality.Read more at location 3490
But in the 25 years since the first Earth Day, a new and ugly element has emerged in the form of one side’s conviction that its preferences are Right and the other side’s are Wrong. The science of economics shuns such moral posturing; the religion of environmentalism embraces it.Read more at location 3494
future generations will prefer inheriting the wilderness to inheriting the profits from the parking lot?Read more at location 3504
Another variation is that the parking lot’s developer is motivated by profits, not preferences. To this there are two replies. First, the developer’s profits are generated by his customers’ preferences;Read more at location 3506
Second, the implication of the argument is that a preference for a profit is somehow morally inferiorRead more at location 3508
In many cases, they begin with the postulate that they hold the moral high ground, and conclude that they are thereby licensed to disseminate intellectually dishonest propagandaRead more at location 3512
Environmentalists can quote reams of statistics on the importance of trees and then jump to the conclusion that recycling paper is a good idea. But the opposite conclusion makes equal sense.Read more at location 3517
Recycling paper eliminates the incentive for paper companies to plant more trees and can cause forests to shrink.Read more at location 3519
If you want large forests, your best strategy might be to use paper as wastefully as possible—orRead more at location 3520
This suggests that environmentalists—at least the ones I have met—have no real interest in maintaining the tree population.Read more at location 3523
I suspect that they don’t want to do that because their real concern is with the ritual of recycling itself, not with its consequences. The underlying need to sacrifice,Read more at location 3524
Environmentalists call on us to ban carcinogenic pesticides. They choose to overlook the consequence that when pesticides are banned, fruits and vegetables become more expensive,Read more at location 3526
people eat fewer of them, and cancer rates consequently rise.* If they really wanted to reduce cancer rates, they would weigh this effect in the balance.Read more at location 3527
Species extinctions, we are told, have consequences that are entirely unpredictable, making them too dangerous to risk. But unpredictability cuts both ways. One lesson of economics is that the less we know, the more useful it is to experiment. If we are completely ignorant about the effects of extinction, we can pick up a lot of valuable knowledge by wiping out a few species to see what happens.Read more at location 3529
I lived a long time without knowing about this monkey and never missed it.Read more at location 3536
I would be sorry to see lions disappear, to the point where I might be willing to pay up to about $50 a yearRead more at location 3538
You might, then, have expected a general chorus of approval when the chief economist of the World Bank suggested that it might be a good thing to relocate high-pollution industries to Third World countries.Read more at location 3543
To them, pollution is a form of sin. They seek not to improve our welfare, but to save our souls. There is a pattern here. Suggesting an actual solution to an environmental problem is a poor way to impress an environmentalist,Read more at location 3547
It is true that your luxuriant shower hurts other buyers by driving up the price of water but equally true that your shower helps sellers by exactly the same amount that it hurts buyers.Read more at location 3565
environmentalism targets children specifically. After my daughter progressed from preschool to kindergarten, her teachers taught her to conserve resources by rinsing out her paper cup instead of discarding it. I explained to her that time is also a valuable resource,Read more at location 3568
it might be worth sacrificing some energy in exchange for the comfortRead more at location 3571
it might be worth sacrificing some wilderness in exchange for the luxury of not having to sort your trash.Read more at location 3573
In their assault on the minds of children, the most reprehensible tactic of environmental extremists is to recast every challenge to their orthodoxy as a battle between Good and Evil. The Saturday morning cartoon shows depict wicked pollutersRead more at location 3575
With the diversity of human interests as its subject matter, the discipline of economics is fertile ground for the growth of values like tolerance and pluralism.Read more at location 3581
we face no current threat of having Christianity imposed on us by petty tyrants; the same can not be said of environmentalism. My county government never tried to send me a New Testament, but it did send me a recycling bin.Read more at location 3615
Note: ALTRO CHE CRISTIANESIMO...
