Nature Boys and Girls
21 April 2007
Editor, New York Post
To the Editor:
Max Schulz reveals how their adulation of nature often impels environmentalists to disregard facts and reason ("Green Myths: Enviro 'Facts' that Aren't," April 21). I'm reminded of historian Will Durant who, when describing 18th-century opponents of European industrialization, observed that "Word peddlers tend to idealize the countryside, if they are exempt from its harassments, boredom, insects, and toil."*
Ironically, environmentalists' deep affection for nature is made possible by the very commerce and industry that they so mindlessly disdain.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Will & Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire (New York: MJF Books, 1965), p. 45.
Editor, New York Post
To the Editor:
Max Schulz reveals how their adulation of nature often impels environmentalists to disregard facts and reason ("Green Myths: Enviro 'Facts' that Aren't," April 21). I'm reminded of historian Will Durant who, when describing 18th-century opponents of European industrialization, observed that "Word peddlers tend to idealize the countryside, if they are exempt from its harassments, boredom, insects, and toil."*
Ironically, environmentalists' deep affection for nature is made possible by the very commerce and industry that they so mindlessly disdain.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Will & Ariel Durant, The Age of Voltaire (New York: MJF Books, 1965), p. 45.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Wednesday November 28, 2007 at 11:56am