Must Free-Marketers Reject Global Warming?

[dblack]

I don't think free market advocates can afford to ignore global warming. The real question is what we should do about it. What I find frustrating is that the statists can't resist their instinctual urge to use every problem as an excuse to expand their power.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I don't think free market advocates can afford to ignore global warming. The real question is what we should do about it. What I find frustrating is that the statists can't resist their instinctual urge to use every problem as an excuse to expand their power.

Which is the real point of this thread.

 

[Crick]

Are the regulations of the EPA and the FDA concerning toxins in our environment an unwarranted expansion of the powers of the state? I trust the answer is no. Given the evidence and the near unanimous opinions of the experts, restrictions on CO2 emissions have the same logical basis. Further increases in CO2 are a threat to human society. It is well within the bounds of the the established role of government to seek to means to reduce it.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Are the regulations of the EPA and the FDA concerning toxins in our environment an unwarranted expansion of the powers of the state? I trust the answer is no. Given the evidence and the near unanimous opinions of the experts, restrictions on CO2 emissions have the same logical basis. Further increases in CO2 are a threat to human society. It is well within the bounds of the the established role of government to seek to means to reduce it.

Yes, they are, because they violate private property rights. However, if the state were to actually enforce property rights then pollution would be much less than it is now as it would violate people's property rights. All the EPA does is give people licenses to pollute.