UN Environmental Report: It Might Surprise Ya.

Fire of Liberty

Jonah Goldberg has a great column over at Townhall.com on the recent UN report on the future of this planet's resources and environment. Golberg notes that while the UN has produced an alarming Chicken Little report that "the sky is falling" when it comes to the planet's survival, the US environment is getting better. I think Jonah puts it best in the following paragraphs:

America's environmental revival is a rich and complicated story with many specific exceptions, caveats and, of course, setbacks. But the overarching theme is pretty simple: The richer you get, the healthier your environment gets. This is because rich societies can afford to indulge their environmental interests and movements. Poor countries cannot.

Unsurprisingly, rich countries tend to have a better grasp of economics and the role of markets, private stewardship and property rights, reasonable regulations, and so forth. With the exception of some oil-rich states, they're also almost always democratic and hence have systems that can successfully assign blame to, and demand restitution from, polluters. In socialized economies, a "tragedy of the commons" almost always arises. As Harvard president Lawrence Summers says, nobody's ever washed a rented car.

The most interesting thing that Jonah points out about the report is the solutions that the UN is pushing. Instead of the usual UN clap-trap about the rich countries causing an environmental scourge in the world, the UN has actually noted how the free market mechanisms offers far better solutions to environmental disasters and decline rather than dictates on high. I'm just amazed that the UN is coming around to this way of thinking, lets hope this lasts in Turtle Bay but I believe the pro-Environmental lobby might ruin the rue like burnt garlic. Also check out this piece that Tim Worstall wrote in Tech Central Station on the UN report and its solutions.