Nature Is Not Bountiful

A smack down of high-profile greenie Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the form of a letter to the New York Times, by prolific letter-to-the-editor author and economist Don Boudreaux:

Robert Kennedy, Jr., might be correct that electricity is best provided in Chile by means other than hydroelectric dams (Letters, April 8). His presumption, however, about the source of prosperity casts doubt on the quality of his argument.
Mr. Kennedy opposes dams because he wants to protect “nature’s bounty.” But nature is not bountiful. If it were, human history would be one of prosperity and long, healthy lives rather than one of oppressive poverty and short, miserable lives. Nature is miserly. The bounty that Mr. Kennedy presumes comes from nature is, in fact, the relatively recent product of human creativity and industry unleashed by free markets – and now threatened by the mindless worship of nature.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

I’m reminded of this quote from the Robert A. Heinlein character Lazarus Long (from the novel Time Enough for Love:

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled Nature.” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature”-but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and hatred of dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the “Naturist” reveals his hatred for his own race-i.e., his own self hatred.
In the case of “Naturists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most at any rate.

I think there certainly is an element of self-loathing which exists in the environmentalist movement – certainly you can’t say that the very air we exhale is a pollutant without hating yourself at least a little bit – but mostly I think environmentalists are just after power, and the fool’s crusade to “save the environment” is just the excuse they need to gain it.