A Free-Market Energy Blog

Joanna Szurmak Interview: Extending the Julian Simon Worldview (Part I: Worldview)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 23, 2020

“Only a relatively large population able to engage in a complex division of labour in the context of trade, industrialization and urbanization can reap the benefits of the feedback loop between technological innovation, increased economic prosperity, and population growth.”

“The most resilient solution for a cleaner earth and better climate, even with the spectre of anthropogenic climate change, is that of intensive growth thanks to, and not in spite of, a large population.”

– Joanna Szurmak (below)

Q. Joanna, you are a new name in the sustainable development field as co-author (with Pierre Desrochers) of Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change (2018). How did you get to that point?

A. I am new in most areas of scholarship familiar to MasterResource readers. If they happen to have an interest in how amorphous hydrogenated carbon can be made to behave like a semiconductor, they will find my publications from the late 1990s.

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“Seven Principles of Sound Environmental Policy” (Hayes and Myers on free-market environmentalism)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 22, 2020

Two leading free-market environmental scholars are Jason Hayes, Director of Environmental Policy at Mackinac Center for Public Policy (Midland, Michigan) and Todd Myers, Director of the Center for the Environment at Washington Policy Center (Seattle, Washington). The post below excerpts from their recent joint study, Sound Environmental Policy.

“… enlisting the power of free markets, property rights and rapid technological advances strengthens and improves environmental management at all levels.”

We recognize and embrace our responsibility to care for environmentally beautiful and productive lands. Proper stewardship of our forests, rivers, rangelands and open spaces is an essential part of our everyday life. We care for the environment and believe that individuals and organizations possess the local knowledge needed to make effective stewardship decisions. Moving land use and management decisions from state bureaucracies to individuals in the field will incentivize the best decisions and promote long-term benefits for our natural resources.…

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Asphalt Paves the Way

By American Oil & Gas Historical Society -- June 18, 2020

A major theme of political economy is the undesigned order of the market under private ownership, voluntary exchange, and the rule of law. By permission from the American Oil & Gas Historical Society, MasterResource will publish articles documenting the progress of the market-driven U.S. energy industry. (This article was originally published by AOGS in 2014.)

American mobility would soon depend on a petroleum product from the bottom of the distillation process.

asphalt

[Pennsylvania Avenue was first paved bitumen imported from Trinidad bitumen in 1876. Thirty-one years later, a better asphalt derived from petroleum distillation was used to repave the famed pathway to the Capitol, above.]

President Ulysses S. Grant directed that Pennsylvania Avenue be paved with Trinidad asphalt. By 1876, the president’s paving project covered about 54,000 square yards, according to A Century of Progress: The History of Hot Mix Asphalt, published in 1992 by National Asphalt Pavement Association.…

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Petroleum Trash to Treasure: Market Incentives Spark Human Ingenuity

By -- June 17, 2020
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Julian Simon: High School Debaters Hear His Message

By Greg Rehmke -- June 16, 2020
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GE: Contra-Capitalism’s Toll (lightbulb unit sold)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 15, 2020
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UK Not Really Buying Into Climate Activism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 11, 2020
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Heart of Hawaii: Oil Powers Oahu’s Sustainable Energy Program

By David Shormann -- June 10, 2020
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LEEDCO Update: Offshore Lake Erie (Ohio) Project In Trouble in Year 11

By Sherri Lange and Suzanne Albright -- June 9, 2020
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Gov. Abbott: Ignore Professor Dessler (angry Andrew a climate catastrophist)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 8, 2020
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