The Ultimate Resource 2

Simon's argument in general is that the full range of environmental/ecology issues and the advocates they rode in on are pretty much a sham. His position is that the world is not overpopulated, that it is not in danger from pollution, and that there is not a finite supply of consumable natural resources, including energy resources. Simon gives expression to the view that economics should be separated from the political arena wherever possible. More exactly, he appears to believe that the less governmental interference in what ought to be purely economic affairs, the better. He develops the thesis that by relying primarily on voluntary cooperation and private enterprise, the private sector will check the tendency of government to impede economic and technological progress of modern society (Simon 525 et passim). Government intervention and social-policy advocacy harm political and economic freedom. More than this, Simon argues, advocates who claim or predict that the world is or will be soon in crisis on account of overpopulation, pollution, and resource scarcity have been persistently proven wrong. An unfe

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ead by 1979 as exemplary of the fact that the fears of water and air pollution are overblown. Indeed, in the rich countries, air pollution is declining, even in such venues as Los Angeles and New York; Simon presents a host of tables that show "dramatic trends" toward progress against pollution (245 et passim). The availability of good-quality drinking water "rose from 42 percent in 1961 to 61 percent in 1974," the last year for which EPA figures appear to be available (Simon 252). It has been a different story in the Soviet-bloc countries and in the developing, though Simon says that the picture in poor countries is improving as well. On the other hand, environmental scares about water and air degradation have "without important exception . . . turned out to be without merit, and many of them have been revealed as not simply a function of ignorance but of fraud" (257). Simon cites year-by-year headline issues that warn of dangers to humans from lead, oil spills, radon, pesticides, alcohol, cellular telephones, acid rain, and so on, noting that many of these have later been debunked or disproved by such entities as the EPA or scientific sources. Simon specifically rejects out of hand any notion that the so-called greenhouse effect
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Approximate Word count = 3359
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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