A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The first question that has to be asked about sustainable development is, What exactly does it mean?..." (more)
Key Phrases: intergenerational equality, capita welfare, reducing carbon emissions, United States, Third World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Advocates of ‘sustainable development’ are unlikely to be convinced by all these claims; but they will learn a great deal." -- Cass R. Sunstein, Distinguished Service Professor, law school and department of political science, University of Chicago

"Anyone who believes that ‘sustainable development’ is a meaningful intellectual construct needs to read this clear and concise book." -- Robert Nelson, professor of public affairs, University of Maryland

"Sustainable development has become a shield for special-interest arguments. Beckerman’s careful critique points out [its] crucial ethical and economic shortcomings." -- P.J. Hill, chair of economics, Wheaton College

"We now have an excellent book which carefully examines [the philosophical and scientific underpinnings of ‘sustainable development.’]" -- Donald H. Stedman, professor of chemistry, University of Denver

"Wilfred Beckerman brings wisdom and wit to his examination of major themes found in today’s environmental policy." -- Bruce Yandle, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics, Clemson University

Product Description

In this detailed economic investigation of sustainable development, a noted professor of economics argues that many of the alarms commonly sounded by environmentalists are, in fact, unfounded, and that current sustainable development policies should be reconsidered in light of their effects on the earth's human population, such as increased poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries. In a rare balanced counterpoint to popular sustainable development rhetoric, Professor Beckerman forces policy makers to consider whether future generations have rights that morally constrain and trump the claims of those alive today, particularly the masses of people living in dire poverty, arguing that the current sustainable development program is a menace to the prosperity and freedom of both current and future generations.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Independent Institute (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945999852
• ISBN-13: 978-0945999850
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #582,292 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Misunderstanding Beckerman's Purpose -- Response to Balfour, November 19, 2003

By	Mr. Thomas A. Firey (Alexandria, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews

Though it is unorthodox to do so, I believe I need to respond to Mr. Balfour's review because he appears to misunderstand the purpose of Prof. Beckerman's book as well as the substance of the environmental idea that Beckerman is challenging.

Beckerman is criticizing the notion of "sustainability" -- that the planet's development rate cannot be sustained in the future because resources will not be extractable at a rate that would keep up with future demand. Hence, sustainability isn't an aesthetic argument, but an economic one. Balfour's criticism that Beckerman does not consider the aesthetic arguments for environmentalism is misplaced because that is not Beckerman's project. Balfour's comments thus are akin to criticizing a military history book on Napoleonic tactics for not discussing the romance between Napoleon and Josephine.

For people intrigued with the arguments concerning sustainability, Beckerman's book is a must-read. It offers short but very thoughtful examinations of several apparently problematic assumptions that lie at the heart of the sustainability philosophy. The sustainability notion emerged about two decades ago when environmentalists were forced to retreat from their "finite resources" argument (i.e., the world will run out of resource X) because, as highlighted by the famous Julian Simon-Paul Weyrich bet, the idea that the planet would simply "run out" became too untenable for all but the most radical environmentalists to hold. The more thoughtful environmentalists shifted to the Malthusian/Ricardoian notion that extraction rates will one day be unable to keep pace with consumption -- in part because resource extractors in the future will constrict supply to further drive up prices.

Unlike the finite resources argument, the sustainability has good thought behind it. But does that theory hold up? Beckerman offers some pretty good arguments that it does not, and he also points out some very worrisome side-effects of the sustainability philosophy -- side-effects that could produce serious near-future ecological and human disasters.

Balfour is correct that we must give serious thought to future generations when we set current resource policies. Unfortunately, he does not appear to realize that his philosophy puts those children at risk, nor does he seem to appreciate that the environmental catastrophes that he laments -- overpopulation, subsistence farming -- occur in the Third World whose ecological ethic he cherishes instead of the First World whose ethic he derides. Fortunately, Beckerman -- as well as his future challengers and their respondents -- will promote a better world for the generations to come.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Poverty of Reason; Sustainable Development and Economic Growth, November 21, 2005

By	Kenneth F. Anderson "kfander" (Millinocket, ME) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Will economic growth deplete the natural resources on which it depends? Are we in danger of running out of energy sources? Will global warming bring widespread devastation on the planet? Does unbridled economic growth threaten the balance of nature?

Looking at the evidence on these questions, Oxford University economist Wildred Beckerman finds that many of these fears are unfounded. While billions of people around the world suffer under appalling environmental conditions, such as a lack of clean water and sanitation, these problems are primarily caused by poverty, not unsustainable development.

Despite the fact that so many are touting the wisdom of "sustainable development" as though its meaning and desirability were an established fact, there is no widespread agreement over its meaning, and its desirability is too often not subjected to scientific, economic, and philosophical scrutiny.

The author points out in his introduction to the book that support for sustainable development is based on a confusion about its ethical implications and on a flagrant disregard of the relevant factual evidence.

The popularity of sustainable development is founded on two indefensible propositions, according to the author:

Economic growth will soon come up against the limits of resource availability.
Sustainable development represents the moral high ground.
It is argued that action is required in order to reduce to "sustainable" levels the rate at which resources are used, which, Beckerman argues, is an impossible task unless we were to stop using some resources completely. Also, he asserts, the risk to the human race from climate change is greatly exaggerated.

Sustainable development's place in the moral high ground is questioned, as there are few coherent reasons to believe that sustainable development is an ethically superior goal.

Chapter one focuses on two questions:

What exactly does sustainable development mean?
What is so good about it?
The World Commission on Environment and Development defines the term as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Beckerman contends that this criterios is not very helpful, and for a number of reasons.

First, since not every need of the current generation is being met, why should future generations be any different? Furthermore, he reasons that people at different points in time or at different income levels or with different cultural or national backgrounds differ about the importance they attach to different needs.

Also, this injunction leaves no room for trade-offs. If it is true that future generations will face serious environmental problems, how many of the needs and wants of the current generation are to be sacrificed in order to help future generations meet their needs? Do we eve know what these needs might be?

Another concept of sustainable development relates to the conservation of plant and animal species. What price must we pay to conserve all plant and animal species for posterity? Is this even the natural order of things? Given that approximately 98% of all the species that have ever existed are believed to have become extinct already, how many of us can truly say that we have suffered as a result?

As for the moral high ground, the idea that we have a responsibility to maintain the environment exactly as it is today is morally repugnant. Given the large numbers of people who are living in poverty and environmental degradation, we cannot ignore these real human needs in order to save every single one of the several million species of beetle that exist.

Chapter two concentrates on finite resources and the prospects for economic growth. Resources are either finite or they are not. If they are, then the only way to ensure that they last forever is to stop using them. But of course, even the most fanatical proponents of sustainability don't go that far, and would reasonably have to admit that the human race will eventually find ways of coping with the changes that take place in he balance between demand and supply of resources.

In other words, you can't have it both ways. Either resources are finite in some relevant sense, in which case even zero growth will fail to save us in the long run, or resources are not really finite in any relevant sense, in which case the argument for slowing growth collapses.

Actually, the author contends, not only are resources not finite in any relevant sense, but the evidence of all past history, including even the recent past, shows that there have been no trends toward the exhaustion of any resources that matter. History is littered with predictions of imminent resources scarcity that have subsequently been proven false.

In 1929, a study concluded that the world's resources of lead cannot meet the anticipated demand. Yet for the rest of the twentieth century, no one worried about a lead shortage. In fact, people have been more worried that there is too much of it around.

The same 1929 study concluded that the known resources of tin do not satisfy the increasing demand of the industrial nations, predicting that the supply of tin would be exhausted within ten years. More than forty years later, a 1972 report stated that tin reserves would last us for only another fifteen years. Yet here we are in 2004, still using up that ten year supply that we were believed to have back in 1929.

There are two chief reasons why predictions of imminent exhaustion of resources have proven false. First, they are invariably based on comparisons between existing known reserves and the rate at which they are being used up. Second, they ignore the economic mechanisms that are set in motion when any resource becomes scarce.

Even in the postwar world, with unprecedented rates of economic growth, resources have more than increased to meet demand. In 1945, estimated known copper reserves were 100 million metric tons. During the following twenty-five years of economic growth, 93 million metric tons were mined, yet the reserves were estimated at more than 300 million metric tons - three times what they were at the outset.

Whenever demand for any particular resource begins to run up against supply limitations, a wide variety of forces are set in motion to remedy the situation. These forces begin with a rise in price, which in turn leads to all sorts of secondary favorable feedbacks, including a shift to substitutes, an increase in exploration, and technical progress that brings down the cost of exploration, refining, and processing, as well as the costs of the substitutes.

Sustainable development schemes do not account for the probability that, without unnecessary economic intervention, future generations may be much wealthier than is the current generation. That is the trend. Before asking the present generation, including its poorest members, to make sacrifices in the interests of future generations, shouldn't we take account of the strong likelihood that the latter will be far richer than the former? Where is the high ground in taking from the poor to give to the rich?

Chapter 3 further explores the fallacy of basing predictions on current demands. Will future generations have the same reliance on oil and fossil fuels that we have today?

In addition to the constraints on materials such as food and energy, it is argued that economic growth is leading to mass destruction of biodiversity. This destruction, the proponents of sustainable development allege, has two types of harmful effects:

It deprives the human race of an essential input into our welfare, notably a source of future medicinal remedies;
We are depriving future generations of the environmental inheritance that is their due.
Most of the world's biodiversity is found in tropical or semitropical regions, which happen to be mainly in developing countries. In the past, any loss of biodiversity caused by humans was the result of hunting, but today it is caused almost entirely by the damage done to the habitat of millions of species that live in forests, particularly in tropical and semitropical regions.

These are difficult to measure because we don't know how many species are becoming extinct each year, or even how many there are to begin with. The recorded fact that 641 species have been certified as having become extinct since the year 1600 does not exclude the possibility that many others have become extinct without anyone knowing it, particularly given that the vast majority of all species, including plants and animals, are insects, and about 40% of these are beetles.

Beckerman argues that the most alarming features of the whole debate is the unscientific attitude of some distinguished biologists. There is no empirical basis for the fear that continued economic growth is unsustainable, he says. Even with respect to food or energy supplies, two types of resources that have been most frequently the subject of pessimistic predictions, there is no cause for alarm. The destruction of biodiversity also appears to be exaggerated, although the author concedes that there are some real problems in some countries.

Yet, he argues, slower growth is more likely to perpetuate market failures than to promote their elimination, as faster economic growth makes it easier to compensate those who may lose out from an elimination of market imperfections.

In Chapter 4, Beckerman takes on climate change. While environmental groups claim that unchecked climate change will lead to catastrophic declines in world income, requiring drastic international action... Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing book, February 24, 2009

By	Sambit Behera (grinnell, IA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

this book uses fundamental economic principles and strong logic to make its arguments against the so-called "sustainable development". It highlights why human greed is our ultimate saviour. hey, this is why economics works... It comes to terms with the imperfections of life.