Yet oddly enough, we seem even more keenly interested in it here, where Washington D.C., undeterred by the current Republican administration, has rediscovered the joy of regulating. This is a Washington, mind you, that cannot balance a budget, but wants desperately to regulate the institutions in which you have your checking and savings accounts. What with the hole in the ozone and all that, claimed these professors, we simply cannot allow people facing imminent starvation to benefit from refrigeration. As editorial and commentary director of the Register, I could not in good conscience accept such an article, but I was tempted to do so in order to publicize a stark confession of an attitude that has been commonly concealed by anti-development intellectuals. It ought to be pointed out that these intellectuals might have a point if their apocalyptic scenarios were realistic.
Many respectable scientists do disagree and are eager to debunk such theories.
But more and more Christians, Jews and other religious believers are jumping uncritically on the environmentalist bandwagon. One individual, a professed Christian, recently wrote me with the admonition that neither Godless environmentalism nor Godless economics could save our world. It happens that I agree with that formulation. But my admonisher betrayed a willingness to suspend the natural, God-created laws of economics in order to save creation. So much for Christian humility, which is reflected by the millions of volitional decisions and voluntary transactions that ordinary, talented people engage in every day in hopes of improving their own and their families' lives.