On the road to Liberty

My article titled In abundance, scarcity was published on International Policy Network on March 3, 2006. ONE fifth of Earth's inhabitants lack access to safe drinking water and two fifths lack adequate sewerage. But it is neither scarcity nor overpopulation that makes this abundant natural resource an increasingly scarce commodity: it is the heavy hand of government. Even India's north-eastern state of Assam - one of the wettest places on earth - suffers periodic bouts of government-induced water scarcity. Yet Australia, the driest place on Earth, exports agricultural produce. People are paying the price for this, and the poorest are paying with their lives. For the past week, thousands of officials, researchers, businesses and international agencies have been meeting at the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City. This year's slogan is "local action for global challenges" and it might contain the beginnings of a push for local initiative to replace government m...

My article titled "Market is environment friendly" was published in the newsletter of the Liberty Institute in May 1999. The market is not necessarily the enemy of the environment, as is generally made out to be. A competitive market is actually the best friend of the environment. That was the conclusion of the study the Liberty Institute carried out to find out about the lack of enthusiasm for a government scheme introduced in 1991to promote environment friendly products. The Ecomark scheme was initiated in 14 product categories. Standards were set for these products in terms of efficiency, biodegradability, recycle levels, etc. The idea was that if the products met these standards, then they could receive the Ecomark label, and thus, helping consumers to make better decisions. The underlying assumption for such a scheme was that though the consumer wanted products that had less impact on the environment, there was no mechanism to communicate that information to him, which...