Earth Day reconsidered

April 22 marks the 26th anniversary of Earth Day, an event that set the terms of the modern environmental debate.

There is a role for government in the environment. It should stop subsidizing the uneconomic cutting of trees, digging of dams and pork-barrel public works projects. However, governments should also privatize many areas, from trash collection to forestry and grazing lands. By creating and enforcing property rights in those neglected areas, environmental quality can be improved. Ultimately much of the issue comes down to stewardship.

Take the issue of endangered species. Some countries have taken a sensible approach. Canada, for instance, is now considering enacting a law for the protection of endangered species. Fortunately, it is likely to be far different from America's inflexible Endangered Species Act.

For years, conservatives have tried to calmly make a case for how markets can aid the environment. Liberal legislators and their allies have run roughshod over this notion. the result today is a predictable polarization. In the U.S., where conservatives are in the ascendancy, liberals and environmentalists run the risk of having the laws they passed rolled back because landowners and other aggrieved parties aren't in the mood for much else than giving as good as they've gotten.

Environmental policy is a matter on which a great deal of consensus is possible, as liberal writer Gregg Easterbrook has pointed out. The fads and follies of the environmental movement have trivialized the real issues and prevented sensible solutions. A rational approach to the environment would harness the same system -- democratic capitalism -- which has done so well at producing food, housing and rising standards of living, and apply it to environmental concerns. As America's example shows, rule-bound governmental control of the environment is simply not sustainable.

-- The Asian Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong