Good News! America's in fine shape...but the rest of the world? Well...

A new report from the United Nations says the world is going to hell in a handbasket as far as its natural resources are concerned. But don't be so glum. According Johah Goldberg, the United States is doing just fine.

Goldberg highlights why in his piece today, "It's the end of the world, and I feel fine". For example:

• the nation is more heavily forested than it was a hundred years ago
• the bald eagle is thriving - as are black bear and buffalo (the most in history)
• the U.S. uses less land for agricultural purposes than in the past
• air pollution is lower
• drinking water is cleaner

How does a nation of wasteful capitalist pigs accomplish this?

America's environmental revival is a rich and complicated story with many specific exceptions, caveats and, of course, setbacks. But the overarching theme is pretty simple: The richer you get, the healthier your environment gets. This is because rich societies can afford to indulge their environmental interests and movements. Poor countries cannot.

Unsurprisingly, rich countries tend to have a better grasp of economics and the role of markets, private stewardship and property rights, reasonable regulations, and so forth. With the exception of some oil-rich states, they're also almost always democratic and hence have systems that can successfully assign blame to, and demand restitution from, polluters. In socialized economies, a "tragedy of the commons" almost always arises. As Harvard president Lawrence Summers says, nobody's ever washed a rented car.

Cool. So why is the U.S. always the #1 target of environmentalist nutjobs? Simple: Capitalism = triving, Socialism = sucking wind. Since most of these pukes also think Fidel Castro is a hero, it's not hard to see why they'll try to do anything they can to hamper the economic growth of the U.S. Nice try losers. Who was it that once said, "the best revenge is living well"?

Posted by: Gary at 04:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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