Reason and Capitalism, or Unreason and Environmentalism: Choose Wisely

Choosing Between Rational Prosperity and Irrational Dogma

In his book Extinction, Paul Ehrlich insists that “the notion of ‘rights’” applies to non-human creatures and “even to such inanimate components of ecosystems as rocks and landforms” (50). And, he says, human beings, in our “drive for wealth,” violate the rights of these creatures, rocks, and landforms (244). Only if human beings stop producing wealth—t…