September 04, 2007... Individuals who value private property make better environmentalists.

Environmentalists such as the mob demanding that Heathrow's proposed third runway must be abandoned, and the private jets at Biggin Hill airfield should be grounded, tend to believe that the best way to achieve their ends is to empower governments to command us all to act as they would want us to act. Stop using SUVs, take as few flights as possible, save endangered species, preserve wetlands, recycle, etc., and so forth.

But this is not a reliable way to deal with environmental problems. Yes, at some particular time a government may make just the laws and issue the regulations environmentalist want (although even at their most conscientious this may fail since environmentalists are not exactly sure what policies will do the environment the most good, what standards should be deployed, how to prioritize, etc.). But governments, be they mostly democratic or more dictatorial, tend to follow fashion. This year it may be environmentalism but next it will be traffic gridlocks, the following some health concern, and after that who knows what will take center stage. And all along, of course, there are the innumerable special interest projects that drive the politicians' agenda.

If, however, individuals have something to gain from acting prudently in their lives, from conserving, preserving, saving, being frugal, having restraint and so forth, there could well be environmentalism afoot without folks even knowing they are falling in line with the movement. Some of us travel a lot, for example, and stay at hotels or motels where efforts are being made to cut back on the use of amenities. Instead of replacing towels each day, they are now often reused, with the establishment's urgings and with full consent of the guests who don't mind very much using the same sheets and pillow cases for several days, so long as in case of special need they can be accommodated. I have noticed that hot water is sometimes shut off in the wee hours of the morning, something that can actually inconvenience certain guests-but then they can go elsewhere, should it matter to them a lot.

When private property rights are strictly identified and protected, there is actual economic value in being environmentally prudent. Just as one may not dump one's trash on the property of one's neighbor, other kinds of pollution, once clearly identified, can also be curtailed and the overall affect is to make the environment more pristine, user friendly.

Of course such unintended environmentalism rests in large measure on the belief that people are not intentionally reckless, at least not when the cost has to be borne by them and if they try to escape it they will be held accountable. This goes for small estates to massive industrial firms. Yet, sadly, too many avid environmentalists work toward undermining the system of private property rights, a system that could be their best friend. One need but recall the conditions in the Soviet bloc countries-and, indeed, notice those in some of the states that still haven't recovered from their Soviet era mismanagement-to learn how the tragedy of the commons ruins the environment in many places around the globe. What happened in most of these places is that some grand, national plan to promote industrialization overshadowed even the slightest efforts by citizens to care for their environment. They had no say over the matter-it was all dealt with from above.

In the approximately free world, in contrast, two things have contributed to relatively sound environmental policies: the greater respect and protection afforded to private property rights and the greater wealth, by far, of the citizenry that can afford to be picky about the environment. Poor countries, the ones suffering from central government mismanagement, fail to be heedful of this and their environment is, thus, in pretty lousy shape.

One thing too many environmentalists don't welcome about this lesson is that it leaves matters to local control, all the way down to individual citizens being free to decide how to deal with the environment. Like all utopian dreamers, these environmentalists trust some superior agency. And that is how they tend to defeat their very own professed objectives.