UCL Conservative Society

The Institute of Liberal Studies hosted a libertarian-oriented day of presentations at the University of Toronto last Saturday. The topic of “Free-Market Environmentalism” couldn’t be chosen at a better time, for the environment is playing an important role in the political debate in the Great White North with the Liberal and Green parties jumping on any bandwagon they see. Leaving aside the scaremongering, the relationship between free market capitalism and environmental conservation is frequently perceived as one of mutual exclusion. Saturday witnessed yet another step toward the fall of this stereotype, showing how intervention rather than freedom contributes to making this world dirtier.

Presenting were Jim Harris (former leader of the Green Party), Pierre Desrochers (University of Toronto - Mississauga) and Glenn Fox (University of Guelph, ON), while in attendance were several UoT students, Tories and libertarians from Ontario, Quebec and Michigan, members of the Blogging Tories network, yours truly and others.

Mr Harris’ presentation focused on the creation of “green-collar” jobs through the exploitation of environmentally-friendly technology, but his talk left me puzzled as to how his fiscal conservatism in abolishing carmaker subsidies can help the environment and economic growth if combined with increased “green” regulation.

Dr Desrochers introduced the apt catchphrase “The road to hell is paved with CSR initiatives” in his presentation on how companies have the sole environmental duty to make a profit and how this can be beneficial for the environment if the market is left to function freely.

Dr Fox’s more scholarly presentation outlined the basis for free-market environmentalism, underlining the fact that we are just at the beginning of a possible paradigm shift. He also showed how capitalism and property rights can be the best friends of the environment, while walking over property rights and fair compensation allows for the environment to be destroyed, citing the Sudbury (ON) smelters. A very interesting talk that challenges the notion of profits being incompatible with care for the environment.

Icing on the cake - a surprise visit by the vice-president of the CATO institute, Tom Palmer. Being in town for another series of talks (with a three-hour break) and, in the words of insiders, “able to smell freedom” he decided to pop in and give us a talk he gave in China on the origins of property and John Locke’s theories. He presented us with an apt example from Iceland, where over-fishing was solved by making the fishermen shareholders of the fish stock. I am surprised he was allowed to give such a talk in China of all countries, since it is a simple yet powerful indictment of any ideology denying the importance of property and freedom. Palmer recalled the uneasiness in his Chinese audience when he showed night satellite photos of the Korean peninsula, with communist North Korea plunged into darkness except for a few lights here and there and a strikingly bright area on the border with China. Incidentally, that’s the area in which the NK government allows free trade with the neighbour. Palmer’s concluding words were that capitalism and free trade bring prosperity while socialism plunges society into darkness. Classic!

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