I’m in the middle of rereading my favorite book, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Every time I read the book, I am amazed by how much it illuminates today’s controversies, even though Atlas Shrugged is a) over 50 years old and b) a novel. Consider the following passage, where industrialist-philosopher Francisco d’Anconia remarks to steel magnate Hank Rearden how dangerous the climate …
The Story of DDT
Think for a moment about the last time you had a bad case of the flu: the headaches, the chills, the vomiting, the congestion, the depressed mood, the inability to function normally for days. But imagine it felt 10 times worse, and lasted for months or years, robbing you of anything resembling a truly human life. That is life for …
The Industrial Manifesto
By Alex Epstein [This essay was originally published in two parts as “Go Industrial, Not ‘Green,’” at MasterResource.]In the wake of two recessions following two fleeting, largely service-sector bubbles—the dot-com bubble and the housing/financial bubble—America’s intellectual and political leaders are championing the need for industrial progress.The ubiquitous Thomas L. Friedman takes on the subject of industrial progress in his latest …
“Natural Resources and the Environment” by George Reisman
This is one of the best essays ever written on the true nature of resources. Dr. Reisman explains why it is possible and desirable for humans to produce an ever-greater quantity of resources. Here is one of my favorite excerpts. “The fact that the earth is made of chemical elements that man neither creates nor destroys implies that from the …
The CIP Approach to Energy in 4 Essays and 1 Interview
I have written a lot on energy, but these four essays are my favorites. Energy at the Speed of Thought: The Original Alternative Energy Market The 6 Myths About Oil Four Dirty Secrets about Clean Energy Nuclear Power Is Extremely Safe — That’s the Truth About What We Learned From Japan This interview on “Rational Public Radio” covers how to …
Ayn Rand on Environmental Issues
If you want to understand today’s “green” movement, there is no better resource than Ayn Rand’s farsighted analysis of the movement and its philosophy in the 1970s. The dinosaur and its fellow-creatures vanished from this earth long before there were any industrialists or any men . . . . But this did not end life on earth. Contrary to the …