Hard Green : Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (A Conservative Manifesto) [Hardcover]

Peter Huber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

This book sets out the case for Hard Green, a conservative environmental agenda. Modern environmentalism, Peter Huber argues, destroys the environment. Captured as it has been by the Soft Green oligarchy of scientists, regulators, and lawyers, modern environmentalism does not conserve forests, oceans, lakes, and streams - it hastens their destruction. For all its scientific pretension, Soft Green is not green at all. Its effects are the opposites of green.This book lays out the alternative: a return to Yellowstone and the National Forests, the original environmentalism of Theodore Roosevelt and the conservation movement. Chapter by chapter, Hard Green takes on the big issues of environmental discourse from scarcity and pollution to efficiency and waste disposal. This is the Hard Green manifesto: Rediscover T.R. Reaffirm the conservationist ethic. Expose the Soft Green fallacy. Reverse the Soft Green agenda. Save the environment from the environmentalists.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hard Green, by conservative engineer-attorney Peter Huber, pulls off a neat trick: redefining the terms of discussion to win by default. Environmentalists will be surprised to learn that green rightfully refers only to conservation of wilderness lands--certainly a noble cause, and just about the only green issue likely to fire up traditional conservatives. Well worth reading by those of all political perspectives, Huber's writing is as clear and thorough as you'd expect from someone with his training. His assertions that shortages of fuel, food, and space for waste will be solved by ingenuity seem dazzlingly hopeful, but ultimately his arguments come down to faith. Much stronger are his discussions of privatizing pollution and wilderness protection, which should open eyes across the board. Moreover, his analysis of recycling programs and their ilk gives a much-needed kick in the pants to complacent types who think their garbage sorting is helping anything but their consciences. While it's unlikely to change the political Green movement, much less supplant it, Hard Green will certainly encourage thinking among the thoughtful--and that might be all we need. --Rob Lightner

From Library Journal

Huber, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has written an ultraconservative manifesto aimed at exposing the fallacies of soft green environmental policy and reinvigorating the conservationalist ethic of Theodore Roosevelt. In his introduction, he outlines the difference in thought between Hard and Soft Greens in four important areas; Part 1 surveys the present and future of environmental issues from a capitalist green perspective, and the final section sets forth a conservative environmental platform, with regard to scarcity, pollution, politics, and ethics. A strong believer in free markets, Huber argues throughout that Soft Green modeling results in prescriptions akin to alchemy. His choice of language in differentiating between the advocates of a liberal philosophy vs. a conservative viewpoint is often abrupt and some what offensive, e.g., "rough riders" vs. "wonks," and he tends to generalize from a few examples and a limited bibliography. But this book promises to encourage further debate among environmental policy makers. The paucity of conservative environmental writing prevents comparison of this book to similar titles. Recommended for larger academic libraries.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465031129
• ISBN-13: 978-0465031122
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,343,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

145 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why We Disagree About Hard Green, March 10, 2000

By 

Joseph L. Bast (Illinois, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard Green : Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (A Conservative Manifesto) (Hardcover)

I'm not surprised that the reviewers appearing in Amazon.com disagree profoundly on the whether this is a "good" book. I've read "Hard Green" closely several times, discussed my likes and dislikes with its author, and have written three published reviews, and I'm still torn over whether I like or dislike this book.

Huber is simply magnificent at debunking the myths of radical environmentalism. If you are a "true believer" or a fan of Brown, Carson, Capra, Colburn, etc. etc. this book is a must read. It will challenge you to go beyond the fundraising letters and newsletters that often constitute "research" for most environmentalists.

Huber's achievement, though, is compromised by two things. The first is noted by several other reviewers: a writing style that is often "flippant" and "strident," and the absence of source citations or other evidence of careful research and fact checking. Most of us would have preferred more footnotes and a more nuanced writing style.

The second shortcoming, not mentioned yet by other reviewers, is Huber's unexplained dismissal of free-market environmentalism (FME), an important new movement inside the environmental movement that calls for greater attention to sound science and market-based, rather than government-based, solutions to environmental problems.

Huber doesn't mention a single scholar who has been active in this field -- Terry Anderson, Richard Stroup, Jane Shaw, Fred Smith, Bruce Yandle, etc. Worse, he makes sweeping concessions to anti-market environmentalists on issues such as public goods that reflect little awareness of the current state of the debate. And while he is careful to avoid explicitly advocating public ownership of open space and wilderness areas on a massive scale, many readers will come away from this book believing that is part of his agenda.

For advocates of a new kind of environmentalism based on sound science and private, voluntary action, Huber's book is both a blessing and a curse. Recognizing its limits, I still urge everyone to read it and make up their own minds.

110 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Equal to his Orwell's Revenge or Posner's Affair of State, December 27, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hard Green : Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (A Conservative Manifesto) (Hardcover)

There are only two or three people who can think and write on new subjects like Peter Huber. Richard Posner and Andrew Ferguson, maybe. In the mid 1980s Huber rethought and led a quiet revolution in the law of suing people. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Huber rethought and led a quiet revolution in telecom law. Huber's newest book will be an affront to V.P. Gore supporters but should have a much larger and positive effect than Gore on environmentalism: people who love the outdoors and the environment will worry in a new way how best to protect it.

I don't have time to read everything that looks interesting. This I read and recommend to others.

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force, December 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hard Green : Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (A Conservative Manifesto) (Hardcover)

Logical and consistent, Peter Huber does not suffer fools on either side of the political spectrum. This is a remarkably balanced account of what's wrong with standard left environmentalism and what we should do about it.