The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

16 Chapter 3 • A Commons Tragedy
No man ever ruled
other men for their
own good.
George D. Herron
? What do you do
when you see an
endangered animal
eating an endangered
plant?
responsibility. Some avenues to this end could
be achieved by:
• recognising genuine indigenous peoples’
rights to property and the homesteading
or privatisation of other government
properties;
• holding people personally accountable for
injuring the lives and property of others
through all forms of trespass, including
pollution;
• removing subsidies and governmental
privileges to favoured companies or
groups; allowing people to negotiate
mutually agreed upon compensation for
potential injury.
References
In the “Destroying the Environment” chapter
of her book, Healing Our World, Mary Ruwart
shows how, in practical terms, we are more
likely to protect the environment when we
own a piece of it or profi t by nurturing it.
You may browse this entire book online at:
http://www.ruwart.com/Pages/Healing.
Alan Burris in A Liberty Primer is another
good source.
The Market for Liberty by Linda and Morris
Tannehill is a source in very practical alternative
thinking.
The Cato Institute has more on environmental
regulation: http://www.cato.org/research.
A good website that shows how the free
market and property rights are harmonious
with the environment can be found at
http://www.newenvironmentalism.org. This is
run by the Reason Foundation. An intriguing
book on the overall state of the world
environment is The Sceptical Environmentalist
by Bjørn Lomborg.