The Fraser Institute Urges Us to Celebrate a "Resourceful" Earth Day
Contact:
Laura Jones, Director of Environmental Studies
The Fraser Institute, (604) 714-4549 Email lauraj@fraserinstitute.caRelease Date: 21 April 1999
Vancouver, BC>>> The Fraser Institute, and a coalition of thirty other grassroots organizations, think tanks, and civic organizations across North America, urge the public to inject a spirit of environmental optimism and recognition of progress into the annual Earth Day festivities and a celebrate "Resourceful" Earth Day this April 22.
"There are good reasons for Canadians to celebrate Resourceful Earth Day," said Laura Jones, Director of Environmental Studies at The Fraser Institute. "Environmental quality has been improving, the air is cleaner, the world is not running out of natural resources, and free trade and economic growth have made the planet a better place in which to live." Unfortunately, this spirit of optimism and recognition of progress is often overshadowed by those environmentalists who continue to use gloomy predictions to attract attention to their causes. "Scaring people into supporting your cause on the basis of bogus assumptions and half-truths may be effective in the short term but is unlikely to be a long term winning strategy," said Jones. "The most effective way to protect the environment is to challenge the myths that pervade environmental debates in order to focus resources on public policies that are based on sound science and an understanding of economics."
Myth #1: Overall, Environmental Quality in Canada is Declining
Fact: A recent report from The Fraser Institute, published in conjunction with the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy of San Francisco and the Institute for Economic Affairs in London, shows that, contrary to public opinion, objectives for protecting human health and the environment are being met, pollution and wastes are being controlled, and resources and land are being managed effectively. Overall, environmental quality in Canada improved 10.8 percent relative to conditions in 1980. Similar results were found for the United Kingdom and the United States where environmental quality relative to 1980 levels improved 10.4 percent and 18.6 percent respectively.
Myth #2: Air quality in Canada is continuing to deteriorate.
Fact: Air quality has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. Overall air quality in Canada has improved 39% since 1980. The most dramatic improvement has been the decrease in pollution from lead (94%), carbon monoxide (57%), sulphur dioxide (44%), and particulates (46%). Cleaner technology has been responsible for much of the decline in air pollution. For example, North American cars today emit 90% less nitrogen dioxide, 97% less hydrocarbon, and 96% less carbon monoxide than cars built two decades ago. Reductions in emissions from automobiles are expected to continue as more old cars are retired.
Myth #3: There is An Overpopulation Crisis
Fact: For decades, environmentalists have predicted that the planet is doomed to run out of food, energy, and space as a result of an overpopulation crisis. Instead, food production has increased considerably faster than population since the 1950s, and reserves of oil are higher today than ten years ago. Lack of space is an imagined crisis. If the world's entire population moved to the state of Texas, the population density per square mile would be 20,705-almost the same as Paris (20,185) or Toronto (20,420).
Myth #4: Economic Growth and Environmental Quality are Incompatible
Fact: Economic growth and environmental quality are natural allies. As per capita incomes rise, many indicators of environmental quality improve. According to a World Bank analysis, sulphur dioxide emissions decline when per capita incomes reach US$3,670; fecal coliform bacteria declines at per capita incomes of US$1,375; and smoke and particulate matter decline when per capita incomes reach US$3,280. Another study done by economists Gene Grossman and Alan Krueger finds that most indicators of pollution start to fall before a country reaches a per capita income of $8,000 (1985 $US).
Myth #5: Resources are Running Out
Fact: Resources are becoming less scarce as techniques for discovering them improve and substitutes proliferate. Due to more efficient technologies, proven reserves of bauxite, chromium, copper, iron ore, nickel, oil and gas, and zinc have increased by over 100 percent between 1950 and 1990.
Myth #6: Scientists Agree that there is a Global Warming Crisis
Fact: The scientific community has not reached a consensus on global warming. In fact, the only real consensus in the global warming debate is that there is a great deal of uncertainty about predicting future climate changes, and that it is difficult to determine why these changes occur. A survey of state climatologists in the U.S. found that by a 44 percent to 17 percent margin, climatologists agreed that "recent global warming is a largely natural phenomenon."
According to the results of the same survey, 9 out of 10 climatologists agreed that "scientific evidence indicates variations in global temperature are likely to be naturally occurring and cyclical over very long periods of time," and 89 percent agreed that "current science is unable to isolate and measure variations in global temperatures caused only by man-made factors." Resourceful Earth Day takes its name from The Resourceful Earth, a book written and edited by Julian L. Simon and Herman Kahn (New York, NY: Basil Blackwell, 1984). Julian Simon, who died in 1998, was an economist and author of many books challenging conventional thinking on such issues as resource depletion, population growth, and man's impact on the natural environment.
Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization based in Vancouver.
For further information, contact:
Suzanne Walters, Director of Communications,
The Fraser Institute, (604) 714-4582, Email suzannew@fraserinstitute.ca
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